I Am Pagan - Notes From A Solitary Eclectic Neo-Pagan Witch

Halloween

October 31st

The more reading and research I do into Halloween, the more contradictions I find and the more lovely myths and stories are exploded. In fact, Halloween, perhaps even more than Christmas, is a mishmash of many different traditions and customs and stories that were similar or sort of related or occurred about the same time.

So I will leave it to you, if you are feeling very scholarly, to read books such as "Death Makes a Holiday" by David J. Skal (very informative) and "Halloween" by Nicholas Rogers (another good one) as well as looking into all of the many books devoted to the new version of Paganism, Wicca and otherwise, that speak of the holiday.

I'm going to stick to my old method of sharing with you what I feel is important about the holiday.

I chose to call it Halloween. This is because Samhain is mispronounced by about 90% of the people who use the word, and rather than get all huffy about semantics and history, I'll stick with a word I know I'm pronouncing right.

Most modern Pagans celebrate Halloween as the Witches New Year, with suitable festivities; costumes, parties, feasting, & ritual. Costumed festivities are especially enjoyed by pagans. I believe this is because so many of out cannot be "out" in our daily lives, depending on the amount of Christian suppression in our area (and yes, it definitely exists). So on Halloween, we get to dress in our witchy finest. We are less IN costume, than finally OUT of costume!

And just a note – the further back you look into illustrations of the early 1900s and late 1800s the more colorful witches outfits are. It was apparently the Wizard of Oz, with its version of the witch all in black with conical hat, that set the mold for the witches costumes from there on out.

Personally, I would like to reclaim colors in witch's costumery. After all, we know the importance of color in ritual, in meaning, in magic, in correspondences. The very "traditional" colors of Halloween – orange and black – have meaning. Orange is for the New Year – a color of hope and abundance and action, and Black for the old year that is leaving us – absorbing and taking with it the memories we've made.

Halloween is the third and last of the harvest feasts. Apples are in season now, and have long been symbols of love. They are also special to pagans because if you cut an apple in half through the center, you will find a pentagram shape. Pumpkins and gourds are also ripe now and have become part of the feast since it came to the shores of North America, where they are common garden produce.

The Jack O'Lantern

Just a word or two about the Jack-0-Lantern, because I have a warm spot for this legend. The origin seems to be with a story about a prankster by the name of Jack. He played so many tricks, even on Satan and God, that when he died neither of them would allow him to come to either heaven or hell. And so he was doomed to walk the earth as a spirit. He hollowed out a turnip (pumpkins not being available in Europe), and put a lit candle in it, to light his way. When the legend came to America, pumpkins were handier, and so replaced the turnip. Easier to hollow out and put a candle in, I'm sure! But to begin with – had nothing to do with Halloween. The story always reminds me fondly of my father-in-law. When he died the family was sitting and reminiscing when we started laughing at the mental picture of Dad shuffling back and forth between Heaven and Hell because the God wouldn't let him in and the Devil was afraid he'd take over. Maybe you know someone like that?

The year is turning now – nights are longer than the day and the harvesting is done. Now is the time to see what we have harvested. To evaluate and set aside seeds for next spring and decide how we will make what we have last through the winter.

Life and death are closely intertwined now. The fruit we harvest will sustain life through winter, and begin new life in spring – yet what we see around us is dead plants and trees dropping their leaves. Though there may still be life safely tucked beneath the ground. The wildlife migrates to friendlier climes, or is busy harvesting and stuffing themselves before a long winters hibernation – a sort of little death in itself.