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Go Back   Spiritual Forums > Religions & Faiths > Paganism

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  #1  
Old 26-10-2010, 07:36 PM
Animus27
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Samhain

Samhain (pronounced "So'win" or "so-wain") is the ancient Gaelic festival that celebrates the end of summer and the onset of winter. It's the Celtic new year and the day that the dead of the past year are honored.

In pre-Christian Britain (and even for some time after the arrival of the religion) various Celtic peoples celebrated this holiday, lighting bonfires, making offerings and sacrifices to the gods and spirits for a good year.

Now the festival has underwent much cosmetic surgery and redressing and is now own as Halloween, many of the traditions we have during it are simply altered practices from by-gone days. The idea of dressing up evolved from young men painting their faces black and running about startling others as a way to appease the spirits of the dead.
The jack o' lantern came from the tradition of carving turnips into frightening faces to scare away lost spirits from the home, due to the belief that since Samhain is also the day of the dead, and the god of the dead is gathering all of the spirits to cross over into the otherworld, and the veil that separates ours with their world is thin around this time.

It's very interesting to read about how our various holidays have evolved from pagan practices, and how we can glean a deeper meaning of the celebrations by knowing WHY we do them. And considering that most of our holidays now are so watered down that they have almost no semblance of their predecessor, so for a neo-pagan, it is always good to know the history of their beliefs.

Happy Samhain!
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  #2  
Old 26-10-2010, 09:46 PM
Lynn Lynn is offline
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Hello

This is the very topic I have for Church on Sunday. October 31st is a Sunday. I am going to endevour to show the path from the old to the new....to the communications with Spirit.

I so feel that this was the opening to where we are today in many ways with out interest in communications with the Spirit World and in trying to understand how that place of the dead works.

I am in the great hopes of wining over some that feel Halloween is dark and maybe even evil and that its not part of where one's that walk in the Light are but there can be no Light (I so feel) without some Dark.


Lynn
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  #3  
Old 27-10-2010, 03:43 AM
Animus27
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Good luck with your talk sunday Lynn :)

I have to agree, it's silly to have light without dark. For too long has the darker aspects of spirit been demonized and denied. Without it light would hold no purpose. Which is why I am very interested with darker celebrations and beliefs, I feel that they help connect us with the earth, and our ancestors. They help guide us through the darker corners of ourselves so we may light them up.
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  #4  
Old 27-10-2010, 08:25 AM
norseman norseman is offline
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Samhain is the Day of the Dead when the veil stands at it's thinnest and the doorways to the Underworld stand open. It may be possible to commune with the ancestors at that time. Doorways - traditionally, caves and springs. Samhain Eve is the best time.
I did this last year at a sinkhole on the High Cross Fell in the Pennines and will be doing so again this year in another location, the Buttertubs Pass in the Dales. [ getting lazy - easier climb this year ! ]
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Last edited by norseman : 27-10-2010 at 08:29 AM.
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  #5  
Old 28-10-2010, 04:32 PM
7luminaries 7luminaries is offline
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I understand there is often drumming associated with this festival. I will probably go to hear the drumming on the water in my town :)

Is this an ancient tradition as well & if so, was it also just to ward off spirits? Or was it used to conjure energy etc for some other purpose? Sound, such as vibrations and mantras are powerful sources of energy...

Thanks!
7L
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  #6  
Old 29-10-2010, 02:43 PM
LightFilledHeart
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 7luminaries
I understand there is often drumming associated with this festival. I will probably go to hear the drumming on the water in my town :)

Is this an ancient tradition as well & if so, was it also just to ward off spirits? Or was it used to conjure energy etc for some other purpose? Sound, such as vibrations and mantras are powerful sources of energy...

Thanks!
7L

There's no way to know for sure, but I think you may be right on both scores... warding off unwanted spirits AND conjuring energy to project desired results. My soul memories of those ancient times tell me it was primarily the latter, but that the peasants and rustics not well versed in the ways of magic also needed reassurance in regards to attracting un-invited spirits
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  #7  
Old 30-10-2010, 03:36 PM
Kapitan_Prien
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I'd like to do something...but there isn't much to do.

It'd be fun to go to an adult halloween party or something...but...looks like I got my paws full with other things...more, mundane nonsense.

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  #8  
Old 30-10-2010, 04:02 PM
Kapitan_Prien
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Kekri - ancient celebration to mark end of harvest season


By Emma Vainio

Kekri, the ancient, almost forgotten, Finnish celebration of the end of the harvest season, was still commonly celebrated in rural Finland 100 years ago.

The Halloween tradition, which has come to Finland as an import from the American cultural sphere, with scary costumes and children begging for sweets, contains many elements in common with traditional Finnish late autumn festival.

Halloween has roots in the Celtic Samhain new year's celebrations, which Irish immigrants took with them to America. It was then that the summer was over and the souls of the dead joined the harvest celebrations.

In Finland the turn of the year occurred at around Kekri time, and at about the same time, Finns observed an interim period of about two weeks, when the months, calculated according to the phases of the moon, were adjusted to the solar year.

This phase between the new and old year was considered significant, and it involved many different kinds of beliefs.

People looked for omens in the weather for the next harvest season, and guidance was also sought on matters of love.

The spirits of the dead were said to wander in this world especially during the Kekri period.

The feast to celebrate Kekri was prepared already before bathing in the sauna, and the dead of the family were invited to come in and sample the offerings while the others bathed.

In different parts of the world the harvest celebrations have included a sacrificial meal. In Finland, the feast was crowned by a Kekri lamb. The blood was spilled for the protectors of the cattle, and a soup was made of the meat.

At harvest time, stores of food were bulging, and there was no stinginess when celebrating the autumn feast. Once the work of the year was done, it was time to eat, drink, and dance.

At least the man of the house was expected to get as intoxicated as possible so that the grain harvest for the next year would be as big as possible.

The "Köyri goats", dressed in a mask and fur (precursors of the present Finnish Father Christmas) went from house to house begging for drinks of the fermented drink sahti, and amusing the people in the house.

From the middle ages onward, the old Finnish customs started to blend in with the new Christian elements.

The Church sought to bring the Julian calendar into use in Finland, and the new year was moved to the beginning of January.
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  #9  
Old 31-10-2010, 01:54 AM
Spiritlite Spiritlite is offline
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I am working on halloween night shift interesting to see what I'll be "seeing" that night I always see things when I work halloween.
Spiritlite.
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  #10  
Old 03-10-2020, 01:06 PM
RuberPeach RuberPeach is offline
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it is the new celtic year in Ireland

The purgatory
Samhayn
The rider with a pumpkin in his hand
The weeping willow.
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