Tonight is the night that the veil between the netherworlds is the thinnest.
According to Wikipedia:
The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family’s ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces.[4][5] Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.[6] Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.
The holiday itself is a combination of the Celtic Samhaim and the Christian All Saints Day. Today Halloween is a huge retail boon, and only Christmas surpasses it. Costumes and Candy are what bring in the money. Legend has it that vamps and other undead don’t mess with people on Halloween. Perhaps they just see it as amateur night.
Spooky message
I was in Bisbee, AZ today which is a former mining town turned into sort of an arts town with lots of unusual shops and so on. Lots of people dressed up for Halloween there.
Passed through Tombstone on the way back – lots of people dressed up there as it was getting close to the evening (3 – 5 PM). Big Nose Kate’s Saloon (she was Doc Holliday’s girlfriend) had a big Halloween thing going on later this evening and was already getting pretty crowded.
Back home my wife reported roughly 50 trick or treaters so things were pretty busy there in our neighborhood in Gainesville apparently.
Got 65-70 kids here in Bristow. Still some Tootsie Rolls left, though, if you need any.
We had three pieces of candy on hand in case any kiddos showed up. None did. Twenty-nine years at this addrtess and only two children in that time – and their parents called ahead to say they were on their way. Our neighborhood must be too spooky!
Happy Samhain, Moon 🙂
My son overheard some kids saying out house was haunted a few years ago. We had no decorations. I think that is the rep in the hood. Works for me.
Firedancer, Happy Samhain to you also.
I know a guy who lives in Haymarket. When the kids came to his door, he brought out a plate of veggies and asked them if they would like carrots or broccoli or celery. He said the perplexed looks on the faces of those kids was a sight to behold…until he put down the plate of veggies and brought out the candy bowl, assuring them that he was only pulling their little legs.
Now that was a good gag the guy in Haymarket played, Wolverine!
Careful with the Samhain talk….you could be accused of dabbling in witchcraft!
She only has to worry about it if she weighs the same as a duck…..
The rites of Samhain are pagan, not witchcraft. Herds were walked between bonfires so that they would be cleansed as they were brought in from far pastures to nearer ones in preparation for winter. This was also the time that the herds were culled to provide winter food stores, and their bones/none edible parts were burned in the fires, because that was the ancient way of disposing of refuse. Samhain was a very solemn ritual, because during the winter families would be isolated from contact with one another, the only heat they would have was from the fires that burned in their hearths, and they knew that the starving times were upon them. This makes me soooo very glad that I live in a time of central heat, four wheel drives, and grocery stores open 24 hours. And has anyone noticed that in the past several weeks, more stars, and constellations, are apparent in the skies above us despite the ambient lighting of Manassas? Guess they veil between the worlds HAS become thinner (que the Twilight music).
Paganism honors the sacred feminism, which men have always sought to put down because they fear it. When the male dominated religions took over, the concept of the “witch” as a slur against women also arose. Slowpoke, most Christian rituals merely co-opted Pagan celebrations. Christmas and Easter are examples. True paganism has nothing to do with satanic worship, and there’s nothing negative about being a follower of Wicca or any earth-based spirituality.