Halloween isn't just a consumerist holiday about wearing masks and passing out candy. Just beneath this veil of festivities is the true meaning of the season ~ harvests and gratitude!
Even though I currently reside in the southern hemisphere where we are planting pumpkins rather than harvesting them. I still associate Halloween and Samhain with pumpkins, spooky stories, and a celebration of everything witchy.
Not just the green faced, warty witch but the healer, the tender to the garden, the organizer of the natural apothecary. The overlapping celebrations of Samhain and Halloween are about celebrating the witch in her ancient as well as modern form. But, more on that subject in tomorrow's post!
During the month of September and the first few days of October I spent time in my homelands of Northern California. Among the different projects I am involved in there I was also really happy to get to take part in my family's yearly tradition of decorating the home for fall.
My mom is very much a Christian and is very involved in her neighborhood Catholic church. Even so, the pagan roots remain and she has always been one of the most exuberant in seasonal living, in her own way.
There is very often a divide between Christianity and Paganism, but it really isn't necessary to make such distinctions. Some Pagans worship nature based gods and goddess of old. But others simply find living in harmony with the seasons as the basis for their belief. I suppose I fall somewhere in between and even though I wasn't raised as a Pantheist, I am so grateful to my mom for passing down the living tradition of living seasonally. Even if it is as superficial as decorating the home each season.
And is it really superficial? Even if she isn't lighting a candle in honor of the green man or the holly king she* is* certainly lighting plenty of candles when fall comes around.
Here & Now
I am a continent away and celebrating spring rather than fall. Still, it is Halloween for me and I am celebrating the bounty of nature in my own way. Rather than harvesting pumpkins I am planting them. And am grateful for the seeds I am caring for and what they will become (both physically and metaphorically).
And as I wander the forest with a basket in hand, I am joyful at the abundance of spring and the special shade of green that is so unique to this season. I am surrounded by beauty!
As a pagan person who wants to be both connected with my local ecosystem as well as the worldwide pagan community, it can be hard to consolidate the mystical traditions surrounding Halloween that I grew up with and my new setting here in Argentina. Still, it seems important to maintain the traditions passed onto me and keep them alive, even if modified.