Halloween/Samhain Traditions

[WillowEarthflame]

Hello board! It's nice to see you all, and may bright blessings and good health be with all of you.

My reason for posting today is that I've recently moved into a new home. And I've already seen the post on teaching the craft to Minors, and I've already gotten written permission from my "little brother"s parents to teach him what I know (Though he does legally turn 18 on halloween), and help guide him along a general path in Wicca.

The thing is, He wants to celebrate Samhain with me, and I haven't particularly been able to actually... celebrate the holidays with ritual or anything yet, and that's what he'd like. The last place I lived in was my mother's house, and she's a devout catholic, and I couldn't practice my faith there. But I can here.

So would anyone know a good site or perhaps a good book or two about celebrating our New Year/Samhain, and not just as everyone else does (party/trick-or-treating/etc)? I don't care if it's ritual or just a suggestion of activities to do in honor of the holiday, other than the ones we all know about (Pumpkin decorating, final harvest stuff, etc)

Also, October is my favorite month of the year, Halloween my favorite holiday. And I just wanted to wish everyone a great month and an awesome holiday 

Thanks for any help you could give me
~Willow

[Still Kate]

I'm sure Lark and Gryphon and many others on this board can offer you lots of thoughts.

I was intiated on Samhain 1993.
 
Samhain - translated in Gaelic (Scottish) means "All Hallows"

One of the books I use for reference is the "Witches Bible" by Janet and Stewart Farrar, phoenix Publishing, Inc. 
This gives a ritual for Samhain. I tend to use some of their writtings as a basis for a ritual and then incorporate some of my own thoughts and ideas and build the ritual upon this.

Samhain is the New Year and therefore I concentrate on putting the old year behind and looking forwards to the new one, thanking the Goddess for the past year and hopefully learning from all the experiences.

Crops had to be gathered by 31st October.
And on this night a hob-goblin would come and spoil crops that were left.
On this night, the spirits of passed relatives were drawn to the fire to spend time with their kin and the veil drawn back so the spirits may come and go as they please.

This is the time when Mother Earth starts her sleep and re-awakens in the Spring. Its a time for celebrating the Wheel of the year. Samhain is neither past nor present and belongs to neither this world or the Other.

I also feel a cleansing ritual is helpful, for yourself to re-establish your path (for want of a better description) and for your home as well.... its a new Year!

Hope this helps, this is just some of it, I could ramble on for ages on this.
Kate xx
(Be sure to have some sweets for the young ones who will no doubt knock on your door! and don't start your ritual till you know they'll all be asleep so you have no interuptions.)

[Brijrian]

I'd recommend checking out

"Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner" by Scott Cunningham (he has excellent basic ritual you can follow and simple ways to celebrate the Sabbats), "Witchcrafting" by Phyllis Curott, and possibly "Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Traditions" by Starhawk, Diane Baker, and Anne Hill (this one has stories and crafts that you can use during the different Sabbats).

*Brij

[Lark]

Samhain marks the last harvest before the long winter night.  It makes it a wonderful time to enjoy feasting and telling stories about the ancestors. 

In Pagan times this was the time when the livestock were brought down from the pastures and decisions were made as to which animals would be kept for breeding and which would be slaughtered to feed the clan through the winter.  This makes Samhain good time for introspection and deciding what is no longer necessary in your life and needs to be cut away rather than dragging it with you into the dark.

In my Trad we always saw Samhain as a time to honor our ancestors and our beloved dead.  We would have two altars, one for ritual, and one for the ancestors.  On the ancestor altar we would place pictures of those we had loved and lost along with offerings of food and drink.

Although I don't recommend her other writings "Halloween" by Silver Ravenwolf is a good book for getting ideas about what you might want to do for your celebration.  And you might also want to look at this link:  http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/7280/samhain.html

-Lark-