5 Easy Samhain Decorations

Samhain is the last of the three harvest holidays, following Lughnasadh and Mabon, so keep the harvest theme in mind when you’re decking your halls and walls. Consider decorating your home with symbols of the season. Like all holidays – whether spiritual or secular -- decorating your house is one of those things that are a matter of personal taste. Try some of these simple and inexpensive decorating ideas for Samhain.
 

    

1. Welcome the Dark Side

It’s the time of year when the world is dying; take advantage of it and get in touch with your darker side. While it may creep out some of the neighbors, Samhain is the perfect opportunity to take some grave rubbings, hang scythes and skulls on the walls, and put out other symbols of Death.
  

    

2. Bowls and Baskets Galore

Find some inexpensive bowls, cornucopias or baskets at thrift stores. Fill them with harvest foods, such as gourds, apples, corn and miniature pumpkins. Place them on tables throughout your home. If you've got florist's wire, you can hang Indian corn and other goodies in a bundle on your wall.
 

    

3. Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

Carve jack-o-lanterns! If you have very young children, they may have more fun painting their pumpkins than carving them. Painted pumpkins will last longer than carved ones anyway. Use acrylic paints for brighter colors. Make one for each member of your family, and place them at the front door to greet visitors. If you don't have time to decorate them, that's okay - a few well placed plain pumpkins look nice, and bring home the sense of the season.
  

                            

4. Outdoor Decor

It's the time of year when your neighbors might not even give you a second glance if you put up decorations outside. Consider making a group of ghosts for the yard or even your own cemeteries. Raid the Halloween stores for bargains and ideas!
                                                         

    

5. Honor the Ancestors

At Samhain, you can make a small shrine to honor your ancestors, or turn it into an entire ancestor altar. Set it up for the recently departed, or your entire extended family. If you know a bit of your family history, consider turning your family tree into an ancestor altar cloth. Hang photos of your deceased family members in a place of prominence - in some traditions, these photos are adorned with a black cloth as a symbol of honor.

Ritual to Honor the Ancestors at Samhain

For many modern Pagans, there has been a resurgence of interest in our family histories. We want to know where we came from and whose blood runs through our veins. Although ancestor worship has traditionally been found more in Africa and Asia, many Pagans with European heritage are beginning to feel the call of their ancestry. This rite can be performed either by itself, or on the third night of Samhain, following the End of Harvest celebration and the Honoring of the Animals.

First, decorate your altar table -- you may have already gotten it set up during the End of Harvest rite or for the Ritual for Animals. Decorate your altar with family photos and heirlooms. If you have a family tree chart, place that on there as well. Add postcards, flags, and other symbols of the country your ancestors came from. If you're lucky enough to live near where your family members are buried, make a grave rubbing and add that as well. In this case, a cluttered altar is perfectly acceptable -- after all, each of us is a blend of many different people and cultures.

 

Have a meal standing by to eat with the ritual. Include lots of dark bread, apples, fall vegetables, and a jug of cider or wine. Set your dinner table, with a place for each family member, and one extra plate for the ancestors. You may want to bake some Soul Cakes.
If your family has household guardians, include statues or masks of them on your altar. Finally, if a relative has died this year, place a candle for them on the altar. Light candles for other relatives, and as you do so, say the person's name aloud. It's a good idea to use tealights for this, particularly if you have a lot of relatives to honor.

Once all the candles have been lit, the entire family should circle the altar. The oldest adult present leads the ritual. Say:

 

This is the night when the gateway between
our world and the spirit world is thinnest.
Tonight is a night to call out those who came before us.
Tonight we honor our ancestors.
Spirits of our ancestors, we call to you,
and we welcome you to join us for this night.
We know you watch over us always,
protecting us and guiding us,
and tonight we thank you.
We invite you to join us and share our meal.

 

The oldest family member then serves everyone else a helping of whatever dishes have been prepared, except for the wine or cider. A serving of each food goes on the ancestors' plate before the other family members recieve it. During the meal, share stories of ancestors who are no longer among the living -- this is the time to remember Grandpa's war stories he told you as a child, tell about when Aunt Millie used salt instead of sugar in the cake, or reminisce about summers spent at the family homestead in the mountains.

When everyone has finished eating, clear away all the dishes, except for the ancestors' plate. Pour the cider or wine in a cup, and pass it around the circle (it should end at the ancestor's place). As each person receives the cup, they recite their genealogy, like so:

I am Susan, daughter of Joyce, the daughter of Malcolm, son of Jonathan...
and so forth. Feel free to add in place names if you like, but be sure to include at least one generation that is deceased. For younger family members, you may wish to have them only recite back to their grandparents, just because otherwise they can get confused.

Go back as many generations as you can, or (in the case of people who have done a lot of genealogy research) as many as you can remember. You may be able to trace your family back to William the Conqueror, but that doesn't mean you have it memorized. After each person recites their ancestry, they drink from the cider cup and pass it to the next person.

A quick note here -- many people are adopted. If you are one them, you are fortunate enough to be able to choose whether you wish to honor your adoptive family, your biological family, or a combination of the two. If you don't know the names of your birth parents or their ancestry, there's nothing wrong with saying, "Daughter of a family unknown." It's entirely up to you. The spirits of your ancestors know who you are, even if you don't know them yet.
After the cup has made its way around the table, place it in front of the ancestors' plate. This time, a younger person in the family takes over, saying:

 

This is the cup of remembrance.
We remember all of you.
You are dead but never forgotten,
and you live on within us.

Tips:

• If you didn't do a separate ritual for animals, you can add photos and candles for deceased pets to your family altar.
• If you like, you may wish to follow this ritual with a Seance.
• If your children are younger, and you'd like to include them in a short ritual, consider holding an Ancestor Ritual for Families With Children instead.

Samhain History

What is Samhain?:

Samhain is known by most folks as Halloween, but for many modern Pagans it's considered a Sabbat to honor the ancestors who came before us, marking the dark time of the year. It's a good time to contact the spirit world with a seance, because it's the time when the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest.

Myths and Misconceptions:

Contrary to a popular Internet-based (and Chick Tract-encouraged) rumor, Samhain was not the name of some ancient Celtic god of death, or of anything else, for that matter. Religious scholars agree that the word Samhain (pronounced "sow-en") comes from the Gaelic “Samhuin,” but they’re divided on whether it means the end or beginning of summer. After all, when summer is ending here on earth, it’s just beginning in the Underworld. Samhain actually refers to the daylight portion of the holiday, on November 1st.

 

All Hallow Mass:

Around the eighth century or so, the Catholic Church decided to use November 1st as All Saints Day. This was actually a pretty smart move on their part – the local pagans were already celebrating that day anyway, so it made sense to use it as a church holiday. All Saints’ became the festival to honor any saint who didn’t already have a day of his or her own. The mass which was said on All Saints’ was called Allhallowmas – the mass of all those who are hallowed. The night before naturally became known as All Hallows Eve, and eventually morphed into what we call Halloween.

The Witches' New Year:

Sunset on Samhain is the beginning of the Celtic New Year. The old year has passed, the harvest has been gathered, cattle and sheep have been brought in from the fields, and the leaves have fallen from the trees. The earth slowly begins to die around us.
This is a good time for us to look at wrapping up the old and preparing for the new in our lives. Think about the things you did in the last twelve months. Have you left anything unresolved? If so, now is the time to wrap things up. Once you’ve gotten all that unfinished stuff cleared away, and out of your life, then you can begin looking towards the next year.

 

Honoring the Ancestors:

For some of us, Samhain is when we honor our ancestors who came before us. If you’ve ever done genealogy research, or if you’ve had a loved one die in the past year, this is the perfect night to celebrate their memory. If we’re fortunate, they will return to communicate with us from beyond the veil, and offer advice, protection and guidance for the upcoming year.
If you want to celebrate Samhain in the Celtic tradition, spread the festivities out over three consecutive days. You can hold a ritual and feast each night. Be flexible, though, so you can work around trick-or-treating schedules!

All About Beltane

April's showers have given way to rich and fertile earth, and as the land greens, there are few celebrations as representative of fertility as Beltane. Observed on May 1st (or October 31 - November 1 for our Southern Hemisphere readers), festivities typically begin the evening before, on the last night of April. It's a time to welcome the abundance of the fertile earth, and a day that has a long (and sometimes scandalous) history. Depending on your tradition, there are a number of ways you can celebrate this Sabbat

Rituals and Ceremonies

Depending on your particular tradition, there are many different ways you can celebrate Beltane, but the focus is nearly always on fertility. It's the time when the earth mother opens up to the fertility god, and their union brings about healthy livestock, strong crops, and new life all around.
Here are a few rituals you may want to think about trying -- and remember, any of them can be adapted for either a solitary practitioner or a small group, with just a little planning ahead.

When Margaret Murray wrote her ground-breaking God of the Witches, in 1931, scholars quickly dismissed her theory of a universal, pre-Christian cult of witches who worshipped a singular mother goddess. However, Murray wasn't completely off-base; a number of individual cults existed in pre-Christian Europe which honored mother goddesses of their own. In Rome, the cult of Cybele was huge, and the mystery traditions of Isis soon took on a mother-goddess status. Take advantage of the blooming of spring, and use this time to celebrate the archetype of the mother goddess, and honor your own female ancestors and friends.

Here's How:

1. This simple ritual can be performed by both men and women, and is designed to honor the feminine aspects of the universe as well as our female ancestors. If you have a particular deity you call upon, feel free to change names or attributes around where needed. Otherwise, you can use the all-encompassing name of "Goddess" in the rite.
2. Decorate your altar with symbols of femininity: cups, chalices, flowers, lunar objects, fish, and doves or swans. You'll also need the following items for this ritual:
   
   • A white candle
   • An offering of something that is important to you
   • A bowl of water
   • A handful of small pebbles or stones
   
   
3. If your tradition calls for you to cast a circle, do so now. Begin by standing in the goddess position, and saying:
   I am (your name), and I stand before you,
   goddesses of the sky and earth and sea,
   I honor you, for your blood runs through my veins,
   one woman, standing on the edge of the universe.
   Tonight, I make an offering in Your names,
   As my thanks for all you have given me.
4. Light the candle, and place your offering before it on the altar. The offering may be something tangible, such as bread or wine or flowers. It can also be something symbolic, such as a gift of your time or dedication. Whatever it is, it should be something from your heart. You may want to read up on Offerings to the Gods for some ideas.
5. Once you have made your offering, it is time to call upon the goddesses by name. Say:
   I am (your name), and I stand before you,
   Isis, Ishtar, Tiamat, Inanna, Shakti, Cybele.
   Mothers of the ancient people,
   guardians of those who walked the earth thousands of years ago,
   I offer you this as a way of showing my gratitude.
   Your strength has flowed within me,
    your wisdom has given me knowledge,
   your inspiration has given birth to harmony in my soul.
6. Now it is time to honor the women who have touched your life. For each one, place a pebble into the bowl of water. As you do so, say her name and how she has impacted you. You might say something like this:
   I am (your name), and I stand before you,
   to honor the sacred feminine that has touched my heart.
   I honor Susan, who gave birth to me and raised me to be strong;
   I honor Maggie, my grandmother, whose strength took her to the hospitals of war-torn France;
   I honor Cathleen, my aunt, who lost her courageous battle with cancer;
   I honor Jennifer, my sister, who has raised three children alone…
7. Continue until you have placed a pebble in the water for each of these women. Reserve one pebble for yourself. Finish by saying:
   I am (your name), and I honor myself,
   for my strength, my creativity, my knowledge, my inspiration,
   and for all the other remarkable things that make me a woman.
8. Take a few minutes and reflect on the sacred feminine. What is it about being a woman that gives you joy? If you're a man performing this ritual, what is it about the women in your life that makes you love them? Meditate on the feminine energy of the universe for a while, and when you are ready, end the ritual.

Tips:

1. This ritual can be adapted for a group easily; with a little planning it can become a beautiful ceremony for a number of people. Consider doing it as part of a womens' circle, in which each member honors the others as part of the rite.

What You Need

• A white candle
• An offering
• A bowl of water
• A collection of pebbles or small stones

Octobers Blood Moon

"Although all Esbats are a sacred time, there are a few full moons out of the year that are especially important. One of these is the October moon, sometimes referred to as the Harvest Moon (which actually takes place in September) but most accurately the Blood Moon. Different traditions and cultures have a variety of names for each moon but the Blood Moon refers to the final harvest: not in fact, an agricultural harvest, but that of the last meat of the year before winter returns. Appropriate, of course, as Samhain is the final harvest festival."

Full moon -- Blood Moon at 7:38 pm -- 

In October, we see the Blood Moon travel through the sky. This moon is also called the Shedding Moon or the Falling Leaf Moon. Coming right before Samhain, it's a time when the nights are crisp and clear, and you can sense a change in the energy around you.



Correspondences:Colors: Dark blue, black, purples

Gemstones: Obsidian, amethyst, tourmaline

Trees: Apples and yew

Gods: Herne, Apollo, Cernuous, Mercury

Herbs: Apple blossom, pennyroyal, mint family, catnip, Sweet Annie

Element: Air

Also Known As: Shedding Moon, Falling Leaf Moon

This is the time when the veil between our world and the spirit world are at its thinnest. Use this time for spiritual growth -- if there's a deceased ancestor you wish to contact, this is a great month to do it. Hold a séance, work on your divination, and pay attention to messages you get in your dreams.

-The Crafty Witch