⛤SAMHAIN: History and Meaning⛤
Samhain is the holiest and most important Sabbat of the whole wheel of the year; it combines a number of elements: the agricultural crop, the wild crop, the transition of the autumn season into a winter temperature and the commemoration of the day of the dead.
It is the time to remember our ancestors and our loved ones who greeted us, and as a solemn time it should tend towards contemplation of the mystery of life and death as taught by the ancients.
Samhain is a time for introspection, to empty the false of our mind, heart and soul. It is time to heal the source of our deepest wounds and those we have inflicted on others, before time overtakes us. It is the time when we can learn to see clearly.
The true victory of self is in the cauldron. Now we need to look at the nature of our motives and the outcome of our actions.
Samhain is the time to communicate and listen to others, a time of death, of the thought of the ancestors and what we are thanks to them.
The leaves are falling, the apples are ripe, and the ice is on the ground.
There is the scent of Autumn, an indescribable smell of October - pumpkins, apples, cinnamon, dry leaves and beer.
Samhain approaches and the veil between the worlds gets thinner every night.
You can feel it in the air that the Otherworld is approaching and the sunlight turns into sunset light. Our ancestors are celebrated in Samhain, it is the time of the dead and the dying.
The spirits of the departed are closest to our hearts, at this time when even the earth is dying.
A melancholy and introspective mood descends upon us in this dark time of ends and completions; and therefore possible rebirths.
In the growing shadows, darkness and fog prevail while the trees give off their colorful leaves, taking the appearance of skeletons.
This was also the time when cattle were killed for meat to be consumed in the winter months (the symbolic death of the wheat God).
All the cereals still in the fields after Samhain were considered taboo, no one could collect them and became an offering for the spirits of nature.
⛤Samhain is the best known of all Wicca Wheel of the Year celebrations. And there is a reason for all of this. Obviously, first of all it is a festive Sabbat
and above all it is the only Sabbat that people recognize as a pagan festival and they love to celebrate it anyway.
In years past, the Christian Church decided, according to the tradition of the time, that people could hold this festival that they were so attached to, but that it needed a new name. He also decided that instead of being a feast to celebrate all the dead, it was to be transformed into a celebration of the dead saints.
So the party turned into the best known Halloween.
⛤Our ancestors used to protect themselves this night, cutting out faces in vegetables and placing them near the windows.
This gave birth to the so-called Jack o 'Lantern pumpkin.
These carved pumpkin faces were placed next to the windows to keep the spirits of this night away.
Being the veil of the subtle worlds, it was not only the ancestors who returned to earth, but all the people of the Underworld.
⛤Samhain is obviously the end of the "summer" mid-year(The Celts divided the year into two parts, summer and winter).
It is also the last harvest before the snow.
It is the opposite black of Beltane, announces the role of the Dark and celebrates the Crone. It is also considered the first of the witchcraft year.
Since the Celts considered time to be circular rather than linear, the night is both the end and the beginning of the year.
For this reason, Samhain is a feast of divination and a time for the dead.
A night of contradiction where life and death, opposite but parts of the same cycle, were celebrated together.
⛤Sometimes most people think that this holiday is to venerate an evil god by the name of Samhain, but this deity does not exist in any Celtic or European pantheon.
It is a literary creation of the twentieth century, without a foundation of reality.
Fables of Druids who left pumpkins at the doors of families who had provided sacrifices for Samhain (Satan).
This is not TRUE! Samhain today is famous as Halloween, and obviously still has much of the old Celtic tradition, despite the church's attempts to turn it into a day of prayer for the pantheon of saints.
⛤The best known aspect of Samhain is the Festival of the Dead. It is a night to honor ancestors, to celebrate their lives and to respect their memories. It is a time when families get together and listen to stories about the life of their great grandparents and legends about kings and their knights. It was believed that on this night, the dead could return to earth to find the living. It was common practice to prepare the table even for those who have recently died and to leave food for their wandering souls. Lights should have been placed on windows and along streets to guide the spirits of the night.
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