Well, sort'a. We're near to the middle of the month, and the Domestic Witch's Halloween 2010 Blog Party, so I've decided to switch from the fun, frivolous, fantastical holiday of Halloween to the biggest Witch holiday of the year, Samhain. And I thought I'd begin the new topic by writing about our first experience with it, last year.
It wasn't the first time I'd heard the word. I think the first time I heard it was in the 1978 "Halloween" movie, or maybe the novelization thereof. You know, the one with Michael Myers and Jamie Lee Curtis? If I remember correctly, the evil spirit of Samhain had possessed the innocent young Michael, or some such nonsense. Not that it's not a GREAT movie--I just object to their ignorant use of the concept of Samhain.
Being entirely ignorant of Celtic or Wiccan holidays myself, that was the last I heard of it, until I became Wiccan myself, in January of 2009. Learning about the new holidays that were now part of my life, I came to the chapter on Samhain--and was ecstatic! Imagine, a religion that celebrated Halloween as much as I did! How exciting! How wonderful!
But, I didn't want to give up the Halloween angle, either. So, last year, DH and I attempted to celebrate both. Now, I'm told it can be done, and often is. I plan to do it this year. But last year, last year was a disaster. Why? I think because we are SO experienced at Halloween, it completely threw us to try and combine it with anything else, perhaps most with something so similar. We ended up doing both badly, and were quite frustrated and unsatisfied, both from the festive side AND the spiritual side.
We learned from our mistakes, I hope. And we've thought about it a lot, and planned a lot. I'm confident that this year we can treat costumed children AND honor our ancestors, and do both well.
Wish us luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment