(Fell on the 3rd of May in 2008 in the Southern Hemisphere. For information on the Southern Wheel of the Year, click the label at end of post.)
Samhain is also called Last Harvest, All Hallows' Eve and Hallowe'en. It falls around the 1st May in the Southern Hemisphere, with the Dark Moon (New Moon) falling on the 3rd of May in 2008.
The Northern Wheel's Samhain symbols are nuts, apples, the antlers of the Horned God, bonfires and rebirth.
At Samhain the god goes into the underworld to prepare for His re-birth and the spirit world is at its closest.
Australia and New Zealand's ANZAC Day is a memorial to our war dead and falls on April the 25th each year, shortly before Samhain. Red poppies are traditional at ANZAC Day. They grew among the wheat in the fields of Flanders, where so many of our boys died in World War One.
In Mexico Samhain is the Day of the Dead and the ancestors' spirits are welcomed back into the family home for a feast. This is also done in Lithuania, where the ancestors are venerated. I have Lithuanian ancestors. It is done at Velines, which is the feast before Winter Solstice and covers all of October or the 1st of November on the Lithuanian calendar.
(For information on Ancestor Veneration, click label at end of post.)
Velines
For Samahain 2008 I went to the Druids Down Under's open circle. It was a freezing night and very still. The ritual was held round a roaring bonfire under the stars in a clearing among the trees next to a lagoon in northern Sydney. It was a good spot for Samhain. After the ritual we had the feast and all contributed an appropriate song or talked about Samhain deities and legends and said something about deaths of family members and friends during the year and in recent years.
I had a private ritual at home two days before. I had yellow flowers for the Lithuanian Pagan colour of death. I also had plenty of black and red on the altar. I could not get any red native flowers but had a red poppy to represent ANZAC Day, which was 5 days before.
I recited the names of my family's dead as far back as I know their names, and asked that any of them still wandering about on earth find safe passage to the otherworld.
It went well enough for my first private Samhain observance and I will certainly be repeating the names of my ancestors again next Samhain. The DDU open circle was also very good and will hopefully be held in the same place next Samhain.
