SAMHAIN

SAMHAIN is this week.

WHAT IS SAMHAIN?

• Pronounced "sow-in"

• An ancient Gaelic Celtic holiday

• Fire 🔥 Festival (1 of 4 important fire 🔥 festivals held throughout the year)

To the Celts, Samhain was the beginning of winter. This was when the herdsmen brought the livestock down from their summer pastures, into the barns for winter.

Samhain is the end of harvest season. It’s the end of this year’s growth cycle. We are now moving into the season of Death.

Samhain is the time to honor the importance of Death in the cycle of Life. 

4 Things Celebrated at Samhain:

1. End of Harvest Season

2. Death

3. Ancestors

4. Darkness

🍁 End of Harvest Season

At Samhain most of the crops are dead or dying. The abundant harvests are done for the year, and the growing season is over.

This is the last, of three, meaningful harvest celebrations on the modern wheel of the year:

• first is Lughnasadh (August 1st)

• second is the Autumn Equinox

• third is Samhain

🍁 Death

This is when we celebrate the importance of Death in the cycle of Life.

It’s important the crops die away at the end of each growing season – this is what allows new life to flourish.

Western culture has a hard time celebrating Death. But our ancestors understood that Death is actually an important part of healthy Life.

Samhain is a celebration of Death. We don’t fear it, we welcome it.

Death allows the old things to die away, to make space for the new things that you want to come into your life.

🍁 Our Ancestors

This time of year is a celebration of the people we love, of our ancestors, those who died before us.

It’s important to remember, to honour, and to celebrate the lives of the people who’ve passed on.

Again, modern western culture has such a weird relationship with Death, we don’t really have rituals that celebrate our lost loved ones.

(I think we suffer because of that)

Samhain is a time to celebrate all the people we love who have passed into the other realm; a time when we can invite them in, and feel closer to them.

🍁 The Darkness

Samhain is also a celebration of the darkness this season brings.

Darkness brings many gifts with it; treasures hidden in the shadows. But just like Death, we’ve grown to fear the darkness.

Samhain reminds us to welcome the dark season, and celebrate this time for the wisdom it brings.