Many Pagans celebrate modern Samhain on October 31, the same day as Halloween. Some, however, prefer to perform their observances on the full moon closest to the sabbat date. Others consult almanacs to determine the official astrological cross-quarter day.
Often it is a quiet, solemn occasion in private Pagan households. Many see it as the most important ritual of the year. Families with small children will often negotiate a compromise to let their children enjoy the costumes, pageantry, and candy while also honoring their own traditions.
Modern Themes and Common Elements
While Halloween has become almost entirely secular, Samhain has retained much of its spiritual flavor. It is still a day to honor the dead and to think about death along with other things that we fear. It is still a time to meditate and reflect, and people still perform divinations, enjoy feasts, and sometimes light bonfires during this holiday. While All Souls’ Day has also changed in character over the centuries, the Pagan Samhain actually aligns with the Christian holiday in terms of spiritual intent.
In the City
Those who live in towns and cities can partake in the most famous Halloween tradition: trick-or-treating. Every year, usually during hours set by the municipality, parents or older siblings take costumed youngsters door-to-door to ask for candy. In return, the neighbors distributing candy get their very own costume pageant delivered to their door.
Along with this tradition comes a tradition many people do not enjoy—one of all night mischief and vandalism. While most of the time vandals stick to smashing jack-o’-lanterns and throwing toilet paper in trees, some do more damage than that. This goes back to old Irish traditions where mischief makers would pull pickets off fences, takes doors off hinges, or even break windows. These practices were closely associated with threshold magick—not that it made the tradition any less frustrating for the person stuck repairing the mess the next day!
In the Country
People who celebrate Samhain or Halloween in rural areas often partake in slightly different traditions. In some areas, houses are too sparse for trick-or-treating to be practical for families with children. Often in those situations, community members gather in public schools or community buildings and host a communal Halloween party. Along with treats, children get to play games such as apple bobbing or balloon darts, and adults and teenagers can enjoy a scary movie in a different room. If a community is so sparse that this is not possible, Pagans often turn their focus toward the family practices that they themselves have established for the season.
A Few Halloween/Samhain Myths Debunked
As the years go on, historians and archaeologists often turn up information that proves old information wrong. One such example is the case of Pomona’s Day. While many sources popularly attribute Pomona’s Day to October 31, an investigation of the ancient Roman calendar reveals that any celebration of her or of an orchard harvest happened August 23 and did not have any direct association with death or ancestral themes.
One theory about how this association came to be is that when Christianity overtook the Celtic Isles, the military government often moved the days of locally celebrated holidays to different times of year as a means of reducing their influence. According to this theory, when the Romans invaded Celtic lands, the church decided to combine Pomona’s observances with the Celtic Pagan death observances. Over time, people came to assume that these holidays coincided.
In the modern age, such misinformation is not yet historical inaccuracy but is instead urban legend. For instance, in the 1970s, concerned parents became fearful that their neighbors might stick razor blades or poisons in the candy given out to trick-or-treaters. Hospitals and police stations began to offer to x-ray candy hauls, and it eliminated the distribution of homemade candies or natural fruits such as apples. There was never a single reported instance of a child finding a razor blade or worse in his or her candy bag, but the fear won out, and the tradition of homemade edible treats disappeared.
Different Pagans, Different Practices
Many modern Pagans celebrate Samhain, either on the full moon closest to October 31 or on that date itself. While Celtic in origin, Pagans may celebrate in a way culturally appropriate to their tradition. At Samhain season, it is appropriate to invoke the Morrighan, Dagda, Hades, Persephone, Hecate, and many other death and Witchcraft deities across many pantheons. For those who practice quieter, home-based traditions this is often a time of dumb suppers, quiet divination, and family reflection. The list of traditions mentioned here is far from exhaustive—many Pagans may also observe feasts dedicated to specific chthonic deities through the month of November in addition to or in place of Samhain.
Wicca
Wiccans consider Samhain the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. At this point in the sabbat cycle, the Goddess has descended from the earth to the land of the dead, where she will see and mate with her beloved, the dying god. Her opening the door to the world of the dead is believed to be why the veil thins, and there are rituals practiced to honor her descent and to honor the dead, especially those who died in the year prior.
Celtic Wiccans follow the Wiccan Rede and the God/Goddess soft duotheism but also believe in and work with the Celtic pantheon. Celtic Wiccans celebrate Samhain with common Wiccan rituals, including ancestor altars, dumb suppers, and divination. They often invoke Celtic gods and goddesses of death or those directly associated with Samhain such as the Morrighan.
Celtic Reconstruction
Celtic Reconstructionists are Pagans who are trying to rebuild ancient Celtic Paganism as exactly as possible. They call Samhain Oiche Shamnhna, and try to make their observations as close to the first frost as possible (NicDhana). Often the Morrighan is venerated at this time. In Irish myth, Samhain marks the day that she and the Tuatha de Danaan god Dagda mated at the River Unis.
In this myth, the Morrighan represents the forces of death and the moon, while the Dagda represents the sun and life. In addition to honoring this lore, Celtic Reconstructionists may smudge their homes with juniper, establish an altar to honor the dead, and prepare a feast with the first foods set on a plate at a reserved seat at the table or at the altar for the dead. At this dinner, people share memories of their departed loved ones and make toasts. After the meal, there is divination and storytelling.
Druidry
For Druids, October 31 is Samhain—a festival to honor the dead. They have many names for it, often based on their own Celtic cultural alignment. Names include La Samhna, Sauin, or Souney (November). Some also call it Calan Gaeaf, Calan Gwaf (first day of winter), or Nos Cyn Calan Gual (first night of winter), among many other names. It was one of the four fire festivals. In their spiritual tradition the Cailleach (Crone) comes to strip the leaves from the trees, and because of the veil thinning, all time becomes one time: past, present, and future happen simultaneously on Samhain night. This synchronization makes it possible for the dead to walk among the living and for the living to communicate with their dead. Often the modern observance will include a bonfire along with a remembrance of the dead.
Traditional Witchcraft
Traditional witches of Britain see Samhain as one of the great four fire festivals. Samhain is one of three nights of the year when the veil between worlds grows thin (the other two being May Eve and Midsummer). Some traditional witches cast two circles during their Samhain ceremonies—one for the living and one for the dead. It is a time of communing with the dead, especially ancestors, and traditional witches may make it a point to visit a cemetery, crossroad, or burial mound at this time. Samhain is considered a time to connect to the dark God and Goddess and to meditate on what they have to teach.
Eclectic Witchcraft
Eclectic witches borrow from different traditions in a manner that spiritually resonates with them. During Samhain, they often celebrate by honoring their physical ancestors but also their spiritual ancestors, including other witches and Pagans from before their time. Rituals focus on the dark of the year and often invoke gods of the dead from different pantheons. Persephone and Pluto, Kali Ma, the Morrighan and the Dagda, and the Norse goddess Hel are all possibilities during an eclectic Samhain ritual.
Neopagan
Neopagans do not necessarily identify with any one tradition or method of practice, nor are they interested in going through the initiatory practices common to Wicca and some forms of Witchcraft. For those who celebrate Samhain, it is a time to set out ancestor altars, to tell stories about people who have gone before us, to practice divination, and to gather around bonfires or attend public Samhain rituals and share in a sense of spiritual community.
Stregheria
Practitioners of Stregha, an Italian-rooted Witchcraft, call October 31 La Festa del Ombra, or Shadowfest. At this time, the goddess of their pantheon descends to the underworld to confront death. There, she meets the god Dis, and a dialogue about why things must suffer and die ensues. While she is there, they have intercourse and there is a sharing of mysteries. Streghas set out meals for spirits, leave milk and honey for faery folk, and remember their beloved dead.
Heathen
Norse (or Asatru) Pagans call October 31 the Winternights. Some may call this date Elf-Finding or Frey finding. At this time, they honor ancestors, give thanks for the land, and honor both death and all wisdom. The ancestral Norse considered this date summer’s end. On October 31, someone fells the last sheaf of the harvest, then blesses it and leaves it in the field. From this night on, they believe that the Wild Hunt—a ghostly party that hunts any traveler it might catch— rules the night.
Hellenic Pagans
Hellenic Pagans do not align with the Celtic pantheon. Instead, they spend the month of October honoring Aries and the month of November honoring Artemis. Boedromion (roughly September–October) does have a festival of the dead called Genesia that mainly honors deceased parents. Since the exact process of celebration is unclear in historical sources, Hellenic Reconstructionists make private choices whether to observe the holiday. A few may make a personal choice to align the celebration with Samhain as a matter of community connection, but Celtic holidays fall outside Hellenic practices.
Feri Witchcraft
Those who practice the Feri tradition of Witchcraft believe in ecstatic union with the divine. This means that rituals involve direct engagement through dancing, chanting, and trance work. At Samhain, they perform a ritual where they open a gate to the land of the dead, and through that gate call to deities to come and prepare them for death. They spend most of their Samhain rituals communing with their departed loved ones.
Reclaiming
Witches who practice the Reclaiming Tradition consider themselves to be reclaiming the powers of equality and justice. In San Francisco, every Samhain they honor the holiday, and their justice work with a large, public spiral dance. In this dance, people join hands and dance in a grapevine step together. From an aerial view, the movement forms a giant spiral.
In Wicca and other initiatory Pagan traditions, Samhain is also a popular time for initiations and degree elevations. Often the initiations are part of the Samhain ceremonies or take place in the weeks after Samhain, filling up the ritual calendar for covens between Samhain and Yule. Because most Pagans consider initiation profoundly transformational, they see the thinned veil as the optimal time for dramatic change—the old self (preinitiated) dies to the world and the newly initiated takes that former person’s place.
Other Holidays and Practices
While Samhain and Halloween are the best-known holidays at this time of year, there are others. Many are festivals of the dead or preparations for winter.
All Souls’ Day, also called All Saints’ Day
All Souls’ Day happens on November 1 or on the first Sunday of November depending on the Christian denomination. Originally part of the Christian attempt to absorb Samhain and similar festivals of the dead, it became an observance intertwined with the Pagan holidays that honor the dead. This day of holy obligation in the Catholic Church is a time to pray for all the dead and to ask for the intercession of the dead that ascended to heaven. In Catholic tradition, these prayers were necessary because of a belief that certain souls remained in purgatory, an afterlife halfway between heaven and hell, where souls might work out their issues before moving on.
Catholic and Orthodox Christians observe these holidays with the most ceremony. Some denominations split the observances into two holidays, with November 1 as All Saints’ Day and November 2 as All Souls’ Day. November 2 is for the souls that might still have some sin to work off in purgatory. Whether or not these dead need the prayers of the living is a point of controversy among some Christians.
Dia de los Muertos
In Mexico, the holiday Dia de Los Muertos on November 1, honors the dead with food, processions, and flowers. The practice of honoring the dead had been part of Aztec life long before the Conquistadores arrived. However, the arrival of the Catholic Church in Mexico meant subjection to a Catholic routine. Rather than ban the day, the church overwrote its meaning with All Souls’ Day and moved the date from roughly July or August to November 1. Instead of supplanting the day of the dead practices, this move by the Catholic Church sanctified the holiday for the people observing it.
During the season, people build altars to their departed loves ones, make skulls out of wood and candy, clean and decorate graves, and hold picnics at the gravesite of dead loved ones. It is different from All Souls’ Day in that those who observe it welcome the possibility of visitations in their homes from their ancestors.
Autumn Dziady
In Slavic countries, October 31 to November 2 are also days of festivals of the dead. Those who practice Christianity go to cemeteries of their departed relatives on November 1 and light candles, so their loved ones may find their way to heaven or to home. Those who practice old Pagan traditions (or sometimes practice both the old Pagan and the modern Christian traditions) also host what the Scotts and Irish called a dumb supper on November 2. The Slavs call this a Dziady. They set out a place at their dinner tables, complete with extra spoons, and the family speaks in whispers telling stories of their departed loved ones. They believe that any manifestation of nature during the dinner, from a breeze to an insect, represents an ancestral visitation.
These ancestor dinners are practiced three or four times a year, with specific seasonal rituals related to each one. The Slavic people who still practice this live mainly in Eastern Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus. Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz wrote a play about this folk practice, including scenes where villagers brought food and drink to abandoned houses and then counseled the dead according to folk wisdom instead of according to the dominant Christian mores.
Hop-tu-Naa
The Isle of Man still celebrates Hop-tu-Naa, a sort of ancestor to modern Halloween and descendant of the original Samhain. Considered an observance of the Celtic New Year, called “Oie Houney” by the Manx, on October 31 children go door-to-door carrying lanterns carved of turnips and singing. Hop-tu-Naa mummers sing traditional songs in Gaelic, such as one that translates to “This is Old Hollantide night/the moon shines bright.” In turn, the neighbors distribute coins—in modern days for UNICEF but sometimes even now for fireworks to set off sometime between October 31 and November 5.
Mischief Night/Guy Fawkes Day
The Great Britain bonfires of October 31 eventually moved to November 5. While some areas refer to this time as Mischief Night, the Catholic Church/Church of England eventually called it Guy Fawkes Day, after a man named Guy Fawkes, who was arrested when discovered underneath the House of Parliament guarding explosives intended to blow up the building. On this day, younger people set off fireworks and ring bells, ostensibly for the health and safety of the queen and parliament while burning effigies of Guy Fawkes. While meant as a warning against treason, the release of the movie V for Vendetta subverted the meaning of the Guy Fawkes mask into a symbol of just rebellion. Guy Fawkes Day replaced the original Mischief Night and for the most part replaced the traditional bonfires of Samhain night in the United Kingdom.
Modern Samhain Gatherings and Festivals
While not all modern Pagans necessarily celebrate Samhain, or celebrate Samhain on October 31, they often find reasons to come together at the end of October and the beginning of November. Many Pagan organizations choose to start and stop their annual calendar around this date. Often Pagans consider the “holiday” season that encompasses Thanksgiving and Christmas to begin with Samhain.
Public Rituals
Sometimes local covens or larger Pagan organizations hold public rituals at Samhain. These rituals may be small or large, indoors or outdoors. They often take place a few days before October 31 to accommodate those who also have private celebrations on that date. Covenant of the Goddess and Reclaiming tradition both have well-known annual public Samhain rituals. You can often find listings of these events in local Pagan shops, online at the Witch’s Voice, and sometimes via Meetup.com.
Witches’ Balls
When in a position to do so, Pagan communities throughout the United States will hold a witches’ ball near Samhain but not on it, so as not to conflict with private Samhain celebrations. These celebrations often include food, drink, dancing, music, and of course costumes! People looking for events to attend can check the Witch’s Voice website for special Samhain events around the United States. Well known witches’ balls have happened in New Orleans, Denver, Detroit, and Salem. If you do not have one in your area, start one! Large gathering events take about a year to plan, so use your Samhain meditation time to figure out how best to go about starting the event, and work some magick for the right people to help you to come your way.
Secular Gatherings and Festivals
While Samhain, like Dia de los Muertos, is still very much a religious festival, many Pagans blend their sacred home traditions with some of the celebratory aspects of the sacred holiday. Often this includes participating in the fun events of the season: horror movie marathons, masquerades, hayrides, and visiting haunted houses!
Haunted Houses
Every Halloween season also comes with fun events leading up to Halloween. One of the more popular activities is the haunted house. In this experiential theater, the audience walks through a darkened building and faces frightening or silly scenes. The people who create them range from people fundraising for charities to artists wanting a new interactive medium to entertainment companies seeking profit from the billions that Halloween generates every year. Locations for haunted houses can be almost anything. They have been set in private homes, churches, old warehouses, shut down jails, and barns. Some farmers have even enhanced their traditional hayrides with haunted walks in the woods and monstrous scenery as the tractor pulls its passengers past.
Costume Parties
The tradition of dressing as the frightening things of the night has given way to dressing as whatever might strike your fancy. For children, costumes are part of the exchange of trick-or-treating. For adults, they are a way to have fun sanctioned only at Halloween or science fiction conventions. Often people dress for masquerade parties where a costume is required for admission. Because of the convention-breaking nature of the holiday, people also often wear costumes to work or while going about errands on Halloween day. For Pagans, wearing a costume is a matter of personal taste. Many participate in this fun, while others choose not to because they already wear robes and other specific ritual clothing during their actual ceremonies.
Trick-or-Treating
What was once the poor going to wealthy houses and seeking soul cakes in exchange for prayers transformed in the New World to small children approaching their neighbors with the call “trick-or-treat!” The neighbors get the entertainment of seeing cute children in small costumes, and those who are not parents often get to hand sugar to children they do not have to look after later. The ritual call “trick-or-treat” is not the genuine threat it once was. It used to be that if a neighbor—likely citing religious objections—refused to provide a treat to the children wandering door-to-door, a trick indeed would follow. The history of threshold tricks (removing pickets from fences or taking doors off hinges) gave way to smashed jack-o’-lanterns, eggs thrown at houses, toilet paper in yards, and broad ranging pranks that run the border between vandalism and performance art. Ordinances regulating the ages of trick-or-treaters vary from city to city, but often these do help preserve the public fun in Halloween while minimizing the property damage. Nowadays most people consider trick-or-treating a ritual formality rather than a genuine threat.
Many Pagans genuinely enjoy trick-or-treaters. Cute kids in costumes are always fun, and many Pagans have children themselves, so they also participate! Most of the time, trick-or-treating happens before sunset so that there isn’t too much of a problem. Sometimes, however, when Pagans are practicing their own Samhain observations they may need a quiet, uninterrupted time to observe. The custom, when this happens, is to leave the porch light off. Most trick-or-treaters respect the policy.
Treats Instead of Candy
While we think of “treat” as something to eat these days, a treat is any small thing that induces a sense of pleasure. To children, a toy, a story, or a new experience is as much of a treat as sugar. If you prefer to give something besides candy, consider one of these do-it-yourself approaches to satisfy trick-or-treaters.
Small story scrolls: Print tiny stories about Halloween onto a sheet of paper, cut them into tiny sheets, roll up the scrolls and tie them with a ribbon. If you have children, ask them to make up their own three or four line stories to go on the scrolls.
Origami fortune cookies: Honor the tradition of Samhain divination without adding to the pile of sugar! Make paper fortune cookies out of origami paper or out of square-cut magazine paper and insert fun fortunes or silly facts on small sheets of paper that you insert inside the “cookie.”
Miniature cootie-catchers: Honor the Samhain tradition of divination with this middle school origami trick. Called cootie-catchers or paper fortunetellers, you can write down numbers, symbols, or names on the inside. These are simple to make but can take some time. These make a good project during a scary movie marathon.
Cootie-catcher
Homemade rainbow crayons: If your family uses crayons heavily, you probably have a collection of crayon stubs too small for use but too large to discard. Give them new life by making rainbow crayons. Gather the crayon stubs in a silicon mold of any shape you like—if you can get a Halloween-themed mold, even better! Place the mold on a cookie sheet and place in your oven at its lowest setting. Leave for thirty minutes. Turn off the heat, and remove the sheet and mold. Allow to cool. When finished, you can pop the crayons out of the mold and you now have a rainbow crayon to give out to your trick-or-treaters!
Give a book: In 2010, renowned fantasy and comic writer Neil Gaiman made a proposal: give away books for Halloween. You can gather books at garage and library sales, or gather stacks of books you know you won’t re-read. If you have a lot of thrift stores in your area, talk to the managers about buying out the children’s books in bulk—you can often get a discount for taking inventory off their hands.
Suggested Activities
Halloween/Samhain has a host of fun activities for adults or children. Fill the month of October with all sorts of spooky decor, service activities, or divination games.
Pumpkin Carving
For older children and adults, pumpkin carving is still a messy but beloved Samhain tradition. If you can, carve pumpkins in an outdoor space, but if the weather does not permit, make sure to spread newspaper all over the working area—including areas you think couldn’t possibly get pumpkin on them. It’s possible, especially with children present.
If you want to tap into history and have more advanced carving skills, also buy some beets and turnips and carve those. You will have to work smaller and, unlike pumpkins, they are not as soft on the inside, so scooping them out takes much more work.
When done, many people place tea lights inside. However, autumn winds do not always cooperate, so many people put LED lights and flashlights inside. If you are feeling especially playful, put a noise-making motion sensor toy inside—it will alert you if someone has wicked designs upon your helpless pumpkin!
Bonfires
A bonfire goes back to the days of the Druids when the surrounding villagers doused their hearth fires and then lit them from a flame carried from the Samhain fire. While modern power companies have made this tradition moot, the bonfire still aligns with those old rites. Try having a formal ceremony where you light a candle from the fire that you then bring into your house. You may also want to practice scrying by gazing at the bottom of the flames, observing what visions flash within your mind.
Fun with Apples
Apples configured into harvest celebrations from September through November. Associated with the wicked witches that are everywhere during Samhain season, apple games flavor the season.
Apple Peel Divination: While this used to determine the initial of who a young man or woman might marry, these days lengthened life spans and less economic need for marriage has transformed it. So should you take a vegetable peeler or paring knife and strip an apple of its skin in one long slice and throw the peel over your shoulder, assume that the letters it forms are the initials of your next romantic partner, whether or not you end up married.
Apples on a String: If you set up a bonfire, try playing this divination game: tie one string each to three apples. Have three people stand before the fire, each one with an apple held before the fire by its string. The first apple to fall belongs to the one who will marry first. If an apple clings to its string until the fire dies down, that person will never marry.
Snap Apple: This works best in a space that has rafters or open pipes. Suspend apples from the rafters with a string or tie the apples to a pole that can reach the ceiling. Have a contest to see who can get a bite from the apple while keeping his or her hands behind his or her back.
Bobbing for Apples: Save this game for adults and older teens—this might lead to some safety issues (or at least lost retainers) with the younger set! Float apples in a large tub of water. Again, players may not use their hands and may only remove the apples with their teeth. Sometimes the Scottish would throw a silver coin in the bottom of the tub, usually claimed by the lucky person with the best lung capacity. This game is usually more enjoyable for teenagers and adults than for younger children.
Make Your Own Haunted House
While visiting haunted houses is fun, working in one is even more fun! You may take a serious, scary, or silly approach to it: perhaps set up a three-dimensional walk through your favorite underworld and have the tour guides aspect those that guided the dead. You may also want to reenact favorite scenes from horror movies (or horror spoofs), or have people meet different dead celebrities along their path. Consider this if you are looking for a fundraiser for your current Pagan organization!
Adopt an Ancestor
Most communities have old cemeteries in them. Some still get loving maintenance while others languish in neglect. This decay especially happens in rural cemeteries. Host a solemn procession in a cemetery, in one that allows you to strew flowers. Go to a cemetery with a friend or two, or with your children, and look closely at the neglected gravesites. If it feels right to you, tend to that grave. Clean off any leaves or debris, call in any vandalism you happen to see to the cemetery keepers, and when done give a small offering of water to the soil of the grave. Before you leave, pause to address a prayer to the gods or the land, asking that this soul be restful and the grave be honored. This is a gentle way of honoring all ancestors, especially those time has forgotten.
Adopt a Living Ancestor
This is a good time of year to volunteer in nursing homes. Since this is a time of ancestral exploration, it’s also a good time to talk to the strangers next door about their own history. The world has changed rapidly in the past century, especially in the ways we travel and share information. Spend some time interviewing those born before 1950 about how they used to celebrate Halloween, and if they didn’t, ask what they did during autumn.
Create a Safer Halloween
If too many people in your community use Halloween as an excuse for bad behavior, make an effort to change that! Most police forces or sheriff’s departments have a citizen-based volunteer core that can patrol the streets and keep an eye out for harmful behavior. You can also connect with someone who runs the neighborhood watch on your street.
Perhaps, however, you live in a community where the police run into misunderstandings with public Pagan rituals. Rather than repeating difficult cycles and hoping nothing will happen, be proactive! Offer yourself or your group as a resource to the police when they think a crime might involve the occult, and invite them to friendly question and answer sessions well before any public ritual. Be sure to inquire with your parks department or city hall about public ordinances that might concern your group if you are doing a public outdoor ritual. While this won’t work in all areas—sometimes people’s superstitions about religions other than their own will always outweigh the facts, but in many areas, the police appreciate proactive outreach.
Have a Divination Party
Samhain is the season for divination. Invite like-minded friends over to try out modern and historic methods of prognostication. Try reading for one another using tarot, runes, the I Ching, or even a Magic 8 Ball. If you feel adventurous, make a game of inventing a divination method. Perhaps serve an Irish divination based dessert: make a cake and bake in a ring, a thimble, and a coin. The ring means marriage, the thimble being single, and the coin riches.
If you can clean up your roof easily and you won’t anger the landlord or the neighbors, try throwing shoes over your house. Wherever the shoe lands points the direction that the person who throws it will go in the next year. If you have practice reading tea leaves, try serving tea. Or perform the egg-white divination where you drop egg white from a pierced egg into a glass of water and read the shapes therein. Keep a bowl of hazelnuts available; if you have a bonfire going, guests can take two hazelnuts, name each one after a person and throw them into the fire—if they crackle and jump apart, these people are incompatible; if they jump closer, they’ll get on just fine. Take turns with guests, having them hold water in their mouths and listening to the party outside of a window—the first names they hear in the eavesdropped conversation will be a name of significance to them in the coming year.
The Candle Chain
Druid traditions found ways to survive in new forms in historic Ireland. While lighting all hearth fires from the sacred Samhain fire disappeared into Christian tradition, the Irish found a clever way around it. As clergyman James Keller once said, “A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.” In October, Irish women set about making one candle to represent their household. The woman of the house would then light that candle and take it to her neighbor, offering prayers of blessing. The neighbor would then light a candle she made from that flame, which she in turn gave to the next neighbor. Soon each house stood connected, light by light, from the passing of the candle to each household.
Start a chain of candle prayers just like the old Irish. Ask a few magick-friendly friends to join you on this; if it goes well you can make it a running tradition. If you want to make candles, wonderful, but simply buying a bag of tea lights or votives of any color will do.
Tell Stories
Storytelling is how all spiritual traditions continue and grow. Samhain itself may have the richest soil of all for these stories. Every human being has some type of story in them, even if it’s a small one. Tell a story about a grandparent—something that he or she taught you, something that he or she did that made you laugh, something that made you wonder about the mysteries of their lives, or the memories that they never shared with you. If you can spin a spooky yarn, do. Often people love to share tales of their personal spooky experiences, such as moments sighting ghosts or sensing the future. The most diverting evenings are the ones filled with stories shared.
Hold a Magickal Movies Marathon
One of the less verbalized themes of Samhain is one that horror and fantasy movies capture the best: magick is possible. Invite friends over who also love this genre and watch some movies or television shows that explore the themes of magick, life after death, bending veils in time, and alternate worlds. Some suggested titles you might want to try:
Dead Like Me
Wonderfalls
Practical Magick
Mirror Mask
What Dreams May Come
Haven
Midnight in Paris
Hold a Samhain Vigil
The Irish used to sit up with the hearth fire on Samhain night. If you don’t have a fire to tend, you can still do something fire-related—make candles! Use this time to meditate on the year past and set intentions for the year ahead. You may have more success if you only choose one goal and spend the evening planning the small steps you need to take to achieve that single goal. If you prefer a quieter evening, keep yourself up with this crafty pursuit.
Samhain is a very serious holiday, just as Halloween is immensely fun. This does not cause conflict for most Pagans because celebration is often just as much a part of Pagan religions as reverence. Many Pagans are especially fond of both Halloween and Samhain—these holidays honor the dead and let us remember their fun and funny moments when alive. Halloween also encourages us to face our fears and to celebrate that magick is possible.