Samhain/ Hallowe'en 2014

Samhain/ Hallowe'en 2014

Are you preparing your ritual for 31 October?

How do you celebrate Samhain/ Hallowe'en/ All Hallows Eve/ November Eve?

I found this you tube collection of songs:

Dark Celtic Music - Spirit Rituals And Beautiful Spiritual Mix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ_gZ-h2X9Y

This is the track list with the approximate time on the clip

01. Faun - Lupercalia - 0:01:49

02. Loreena McKennitt - The old ways - 0:05:02

03. Elane - Abendruf - 0:10:33

04. Isabel Bayrakdarian - The Evenstar - 0:15:02

05. Stellamara - Kyrie Eleison (A Gaelic Blessing) - 0:18:17

06. Woodland - Blood of the Moon - 0:23:55

07. Annwn - Rosa Das Rosas - 0:27:36

08. Trobar de Morte - The Song of The Stones - 0:33:30

09. Trobar de Motre - Natural Dance - 0:37:48

10. The Moon And The Nightspirit - Alkonyvarazs - 0:42:27

11. Hagalaz Runedance - Frigga's Web - 0:48:02

12. Celtic Legend - Lyonesse - 0:52:36

13. Narsilion - A Night In FairyLand - 0:57:06

14. Arcana - Closure - 1:03:57

15. David Arkenstone - Celtic Sanctuary - 1:09:04

16. Sarah McLachlan - Angel - 1:13:38

17. Aythis - Last Ritual - 1:17:59

18. Nox Arcana - Scarborough Fair - 1:22:45

16. Celtic Legend - The Last Goodbye - 1:28:35

Autumn blessings,
Morgana

Thank you for giving us this playlist. [Very happy]

. I was looking for music for this celebration. I will try them and choose those I like best.

Oh heel erg bedankt Morgana!
Ik zat er al een poosje aan te denken om een playlist te maken per Sabbat... en kijk nou! [Very happy]

A blessed Hallowe'en to all of you!

The brightest of blessings,
Morgana

(The stone circle at Stanton Drew, UK - photo Morgana)

Halloween? It’s more than trick or treat
It is derided as a US import. But the European roots of the festival of dark and light go deep

Ronald Hutton
The Guardian, Tuesday 28 October 2014

(Three people dressed as ghostly nuns with black faces, rosary beads and crosses in Derry, Ireland. Photograph: Joe Fox/Alamy)

All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, is the modern name in English for the great north European festival which signalled the end of the light and warm half of the year, and ushered in the cold and dark one, and so divided the season of autumn from that of winter in these northern lands. It was known in Irish as Samhain, summer’s end; in Welsh as Nos Galan Gaeaf, “winter’s eve”; in Anglo-Saxon as Blodmonath, “blood month”; and in Norse as the “winter nights”. As such it was one of the greatest religious festivals of the ancient northern pagan year, and the obvious question is what rites were celebrated then.

The answer to that is that we have virtually no idea, because northern European pagans were illiterate, and no record remains of their ceremonies. The Anglo-Saxon name for the feast comes down to an agricultural reality, the need to slaughter the surplus livestock at this time and salt down their meat, because they could not be fed through the winter. A Christian monk, Bede, commented that the animals were dedicated to the gods when they were killed, but he did not appear to know how (and they would still have been eaten by people).

Nonetheless, we can reconstruct some of the associations of the ancient festival from those which continued to hang about it in the Middle Ages, and from folk customs attached to it, so widespread that they must refer to a generally shared set of ancient attitudes. As a festival positioned on a major boundary in the year, Halloween faced in two different directions.

In one sense it was a time of plenty and homecoming. People would have been well fed after the bountiful summer and autumn seasons, in most years, and be gathering in the home settlement after the time of work and travel. The warriors, traders, sailors and people with skills to offer had all come back, the harvest was in the barns and the flocks and herds had been driven in from the summer pastures and the outfields. It was a time for reunions, stories, celebrations, the settlement of disputes, the taking of stock and the learning of lessons to be applied in the next year, and for relaxation. In medieval Ireland local kings were said to hold a feast at their royal halls, for a week before and after Samhain, for all these purposes. Read on...

http://www.theguardian. ... reat-origins

Halloween 2014: The Origins of This Ancient Christian and Pagan Festival
Take a look at the origins of everyone's favourite spooky festival
Mary-Ann Russon By Mary-Ann Russon
October 30, 2014

It's Halloween again and grownups and children alike around the world will be excitedly dressing up in costumes, going to parties, trick-or-treating from door-to-door for candy and carving pumpkin lanterns.

But Halloween wasn't always all just about making merry and trying to create the prettiest, scariest or the most shocking costume – its roots are both Christian and Pagan.

Join us as we take a look back at the origins behind the jack-o'-lanterns, the ghosts and the ghouls behind All Hallows' Eve.

(Candy skulls are seen for sale as part of "Dia De Los Muertos" or "Day of the Dead" festivities in Los Angele.(Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

read on...
http://www.ibtimes.co.u ... ival-1472185

Samhain 2014: History and Significance; 10 Interesting Facts About Ancient Pagan Festival
By Gopi Chandra Kharel October 31, 2014

Many Pagans and Wiccans around the globe celebrate the festival of Samhain, which is believed to be an ancient Celtic festival that celebrates the beauty of autumn harvest and the arrival of winter.

Here are 10 important facts to know about the Pegan festival, including its history and significance:

1. Samhain, pronounced as saah-win or saa-ween, comes from the Gaelic word "Samhuin," meaning summer's end. It is typically celebrated from sunset on October 31 to sunset on November 1, which is almost halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.

2. However, depending on geographical locations, Pagans celebrate Samhain at different times and in different ways. While some celebrate it on the nearest weekend or the full Moon to hold ceremonies, others might choose to observe it a bit later, around November 6.

3. Rituals of Samhain festival include bonfires, dancing, feasting and ceremonies that honour the ancestors and those people who have died the previous year.

4. Samhain is one of eight annual festivals commonly celebrated by the Pagans of various traditions. Other festivals include Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Midsummer, Lughnassad, Mabon and Yule.

5. It is often considered to be a transitional period where the line between life and death grows thin, a Huffington Post article illustrates. Food is generally set aside for ancestors and protective spirits as rituals honouring the dead takes place during the time.

6. Samhain is thought to be one of the original festivals behind the modern holiday we know as Halloween. Samhain and Halloween take place on the same day and mark the end of the harvest season, although they have different focuses.

7. According to Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary, the Yellow Book of Lecan, a medieval book of tales says that people referred to Samhain as the "Feat of Mongfind," a legendary witch-queen who married the King of Tara in old Ireland. She was central to ancient Samhain celebrations, it is reported.

8. The harvest festival's roots of the Samhain bears striking resemblance to some of Halloween's most common rituals or traditions. Carving of pumpkins and bobbing of apples are an example of this ritual.

9. One unique ritual to celebrate Samhain includes the tradition of guiding the dead home by opening a western-facing door or window and placing a candle on the threshold.

10. Although, Samhain festivities involve grief and mourning, at some places there are celebrations too. At circle Sanctuary, a Wiccan church in Wisconsin, there is a witch ball where people dress up as witches and celebrate.

http://www.ibtimes.co.i ... tival-612701

Samhain- a Pagan Honoring of the Ancestors, and Death
From Angie Buchanan, who is a Pagan Minister with Earth Traditions, a Pagan church in the Northern suburbs of Chicago, and an emeritus of the Board of Trustees for the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions.
www.EarthTraditions.org

"Ancient faith was influenced by the natural world. Originating in ancient Europe as a Celtic Fire festival, the Pagan holiday of Samhain marks the end of the harvest season, heralds the beginning of winter-the dark half of the year, and honors death. Samhain, (pronounced SAH-win, or SOW-in) is also the Gaelic name for the month of November, the literal translation being‘summer’s end’.

Being largely a pastoral people, the Celts observed the season of Samhain as the time when the earth was dying. The crops had already been harvested and stored; the fields lay barren, and now cattle and sheep had to be moved from remote areas to closer pastures and secured for the winter months. Those who kept livestock would assess the stored bounty of the two prior harvests, of field and orchard in order to determine how many animals could be adequately fed through the winter. Those not able to be cared for were butchered, which would help to feed the family during the dark days ahead. It is partially due to this practice that Samhain is sometimes referred to as the ‘blood harvest. ’

Cultures across the world embrace holidays with themes of death; Los Dias de los Muertos, of Mexico; the Buddhist Festival of the Dead in Japan, which is called Obon, or just Bon, the Hindu festival of Gaijatra, and the Christian celebration of All Souls are but a few. Like them, Samhain’s celebrations also embrace a theme of death."

read on...

http://www.parliamentof ... d=f5e3defbc9

And another link... this time from the BBC:

Halloween: England's strange and ancient winter rituals
By Linda Serck
BBC News, England

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-29742774