Anyone doing anything for Samhain this year?

by Adrian 22nd October 2010, 10:42 am

The wheel has turned and another sabbat is rapidly approaching and I am once again unprepared and probably not going to get around to doing anything, again, (I just seem to keep missing the sabbats this year).

So has any of you been good pagans and got their celebrations sorted out?

by Hathorite 22nd October 2010, 10:54 am

Going over to pagan mate's house and bringing El Sproggo, first Halloween 'do I've done in ages.

I really missed them, in the States we went all out but here in the UK there's a lot of goings on about the "American Imported Holiday" and how it promotes anti-social behaviour (!!!). I seem to recall one reactive editorial saying instead we should focus on proper English holidays like Guy Fawkes Night which I was horrified about when I first came over here; I didn't think the celebration of drawing, quartering and burning in effigy was a real 'feel good' family holiday, but I guess compared to the evils of Halloween it's much better!

.

by polgara 22nd October 2010, 10:57 am

I just have a quiet day thinking of those who haved on.

by Compostwoman 22nd October 2010, 12:57 pm

I get up early and see in the dawn ( if well enough), we usually eat some nicer food, I make some sort of cake, we have a bonfire, we have candles lit in the evening and sit in the dark and I get out photos of those who have gone on and think about them.

And we have pumpkin related food as we will have carved one out.

No trick or treating here though.

by Mike 22nd October 2010, 1:47 pm

Our local group (covens/solitaries assoicated with the local council of CoG) will be hosting a Sanhain ritual at the "sunwheel"* on the UMass campus.

* This is a stone circle that was set up by the astronomy department. I used to consider these large stones but after having taken part in a stone raising at "Four Quarters" where they put up big stones (over 10,000#) I'll call these moderate size ones and they used modern machinery, not muscle power like at Four Quarters.

by Guest 22nd October 2010, 11:58 pm

Assuming shoulder good enough and weather OK, I hope to go up to Arthur's Stone.

Paul and I carve pumkins and have a fire, do our own death/rebirth rituals. Not up for any group celebration though. I have some sloe vodka from last samhain making to celebrate this year with too ... blackthorn figures largely for me at Samhain.

Mike, your stones sound wonderful, do you have any pix?

by Wilhelm Von Rhomboid 23rd October 2010, 8:19 am

Appropriately enough my mother-in-law is coming to visit and arriving on Halloween. And she is flying in from the West...

We usually go to the Chalice Well.

by AngelinaJellyBeana 23rd October 2010, 9:52 am

I'm going to see Robert Plant!

by Mike 24th October 2010, 3:18 pm

We didn't take any pictures last night

But to see the stone circles to which I was referring

Four Quarters www.4qf.org/
From their main page you should be able to find some pictures of the stone circle and a "Stones Rising" event (when they raise another stone or two).

Sunwheel at University of Massachusetts (Amherst campus)
And from this page you can probably find others with pictures http://www.umass.edu/sunwheel/pages/gatherings.html

Our event wasn't a UMass event though of course the campus "Spirals" kids were invited. We "rented" the sunwheel for the night (besides Professor Young's events, it can be used for things like weddings, etc.)

To give you an sense of scale, these cirles have about the same overall diameter and you could probably fit two of them on a football field (and maybe three by staggering but certainly not four).

by Bagpuss 1st November 2010, 9:09 pm

We (as always!) had cider and pumpkin soup and decorated the house with candles. Kids had loads of fun dressing up and we had visitors, so a busy night. I have to say that I've never really liked the commercialisation of Halloween but I do love the idea of Samhain and all that it entails.

by zigspider 3rd November 2010, 1:08 am

For the first time we decided to celebrate the festival.
Friday we celebrated the end of harvest
Saturday we celebrated the animals we had eaten and those pets that had passed on
Sunday we celebrated our ancestors and those who had passed on who meant something to us.

My father died this year, and Gemma's favourite Uncle died last week, so we had a lot to remember.

As an aside, Frodo, a cat we brought with us from France died this year, but has been speaking to us, both in the town house and in our new country house. After suggesting to him saturday that it was time for him to move on, we have not heard him since.

Already planning for Yule.

Jerry

by Hedgerider 3rd November 2010, 10:48 am

Samhain is running a little late this year in Glastonbury (after all, it is a season, not a day). We're re-enacting the Great Hunt with Gwyn-ap-Nudd and his hounds - or Cwn Annwn - if anyone wants to come along on Friday 5th Nov... if you're in the neighbourhood. There is a party afterwards in the White Spring (temple) below the Tor. People often bathe in the healing spring water, which is calcium rich, as opposed to the Red Spring of Chalic Well (practically next door) which is iron rich. If you don't mind a few naked bodies, I would thoroughly recommend it. Very Happy

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Anyone doing anything for Samhain this year?

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