Mumsnet Talk

I just wanted to wish a blessed Hallows to all the pagans and wiccans on the board.

I hope that we are all able to remember our lost loved ones with a smile and few gentle tears.

" to meet, to know, to remember and to love them again ... "

Thank you Samhain Blessings to you too! Bring on the darkness!

Samhain blessings to all of you

Hope everyone had a good one.

It was a hard one for me, as it is the first since my mum died. But I decided to meditate over midnight and in my meditations, completely without any intent on my part, a deer came and nuzzled up to me. It was unexpected, but beautiful.

Hello, I have no religion but I was sat wondering where Halloween started and saw this thread. I just wondered if anyone could tell me?

I would google but phone is playing up.

Hallowe'en is (I believe) a Christianised name for the Celtic/Pagan festival of Samhain.

Samhain is what the Pagans regard as the end of the year, and so a good time to reflect on the past. This makes more sense if you think of when the harvest is over and the fact that little grows after Samhain. As such, when the land is becoming barren it makes sense that it is traditionally known as a time to think of the dead, and it was believed that the veil between the land of the living and the dead was thinnest.

It was also believed that demons/ghouls would stalk the other, looking for people to steal away, and so people would disguise themselves as demons so they wouldn't be snatched.

So is that why we dress up? I saw a few houses with little candles lit on the doorstop too. Is that for any reason?

Hope you don't mind me asking!

As far as I know, I should point out I'm no expert

As for the candles, I presume that if it's to do with Paganism then it's either lighting the dark (Samhain being the year end), or a way of guiding the spirits of ancestors. I know there is a tradition to lay the table for those that cannot be there.

Just done some reading up, apparently Trick or Treating is probably based on a Christian tradition of All Souls Day parades!

"During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood [sic] and be given ale, food, and money."

I just found myself thinking why do we dress up and knock on doors

When I saw this thread I thought the answers will be here.

Are pagans and wiccans witches?

I think that one depends on who you ask

The way I've always heard it is that Pagan is the main group, Wicca is a sub group and Witch is usually reserved for those who practise magick. So you could be Pagan/Wiccan and not a Witch.

A good book on the origins of all the British Holidays is "Stations of the Sun" by Professor Ronald Hutton. It has chapters on the origins of Halloween and Yule.

Hutton's book is good, but it doesn't confirm the Samhain idea. The word samhain was very rarely used even in Gaelic areas of the British Isles ... there's not much evidence that even the Irish had the solar wheel calendar pagans now use.

Basically All Hallows Eve is a Xtian feast with a dark side. Not all dark sides are pagan. (If you want a seasonal turn-of-the-year feast linked with license you can go with Holyrood day, September 15, with much gathering of nuts and sex in the woods... mentioned in LOTS of witch trials).

Halloween is literally All Hallows Eve, the night before all Saints' Day. YY that trick or treating is probably souling, asking for a soul-cake (on 2 November) in exchange for a blessing on the house - implicitly, denial of same meant a curse (the trick). But it's got blended in with the previously independent feasts of Mischief Night, Punkie Night, and Bonfire Night.

In old border ballads, Hallows' Eve was a time when one could expect to meet the fairies (see Tam Lin) who were in any case mostly the restless dead.

What gets celebrated now in 2012 Britain is pretty much the commercial US feast as seen on TV. It doesn't retain many real medieval elements. Puts on dark elf hat - is that what this is?

Samhain blessings everyone,
Blessed be

~in the darkness come whisperings of new beginnings~
Blessed Be