Samhain

Other Names: Witch's New Year, Summer's End, All Hollow's Even 

Date: October 31 (Greater Sabbat/Cross Quarter) 

Celebration of: The Lord dies and awaits his rebirth at Yule

Related Holiday: Halloween

Colors: Orange & Brown

Symbols: Fall fruits

Notes: This is the day that the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is at its thinnest. This is a good time for divination. At dinner, remember to set a place for your loved ones that have past this year. Leave an offering of food and drink on your door step for those souls that may still wander.

 

SAMHAIN, (say Sow-een) or Halloween, the final harvest, is indeed our most holy and sacred Sabbat. The commencing of the season of darkness, it is the festival of Death, and as so it is the celebration of the of the Eternal Cycle for without death there can be no rebirth. This is the time that the new cycle truly begins. The spirit of the God has descended into the Underworld and the Sun Child is growing within the Goddess, waiting in the depths of the Earth to be reborn at Yule. It is the time when the Goddess is in Her aspect as Crone. She is Destroyer and Healer, Wise Woman and Midwife of Transformation. Her cauldron is the great womb in which all things are conceived, grow, and are born. Samhain is the time of introspection, it is the time to assess and re-tune ourselves to the beliefs in the oneness of all spirits, and in our firm resolution that physical death is not the final act of existence. The veil between the worlds is at its thinnest and the consciousness which separates the land of the living from the land of the dead. We remember and honor our loved ones and ancestors; we release the spirits of those we have lost. We mourn but we rejoice. We laugh, feast, tell stories, sing…for this is the triumph of Life! Symbols include the lighting and ritual extinguishing of candles, the cauldron, the web, black candles, the practice of all forms of divination.