Tonight and tomorrow is when most modern Pagans celebrate Samhain. Samhain is the start of winter and of the new year in the old Celtic calendar. This is a time when the ancestors are honored, divinations for the new year are performed, and festivals are held in honor of the gods. It is a time of final harvest before the long winter ahead. It is perhaps the best-known and most widely celebrated of the modern Pagan holidays.

Lighting candles to honor the ancestors.
Photo by Jere/Tyreseus, CC License

“The Mighty Dead are said to be those practitioners of our religion who are on the Other Side now, but who still take great interest in the activities of Witches on this side of the Veil. They have pledged to watch, to help and to teach. It is those Mighty Dead who stand behind us, or with us, in circle so frequently.”

Additions to that number this year include Marione Thompson-Helland editor of The Beltane Papers, Ken “Silverwitch” Vanlieu, Susan “Lady Dreaming Owl” Miller, and Rosemary Kooiman co-founder of CroneSpeak.

“I love that story about Susan Anthony that Zsuzsanna Budapest tells in her book. Some journalist asked Susan Anthony, because she didn’t believe in orthodox religion, I suppose, “Where do you think you’re to go when you die?” She said, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to stay around and help the women’s movement.” So even if I don’t live long enough to see these things, I’ll be around to make a nuisance of myself.” – Doreen Valiente, the Mother of Modern Witchcraft.

This year has been one focused on the fight to honor our dead. Emerging as the face of this movement has been Roberta Stewart widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, who was killed in action in Afghanistan in Operation Enduring Freedom on September 25, 2005. Stewart’s quest to have her husband’s memorial inscribed with a pentacle (the emblem of his Wiccan faith) has made national news, and though the State of Nevada took direct action to honor Sgt. Stewart, she continues to fight so that every Pagan veteran may have the right to have their faith acknowledged.

Below you’ll find an assortment of quotes from the media and from fellow Pagans on the holiday.

“Samhain. All Hallows. All Hallow’s Eve. Hallow E’en. Halloween. The most magical night of the year. Exactly opposite Beltane on the wheel of the year, Halloween is Beltane’s dark twin. A night of glowing jack-o-lanterns, bobbing for apples, tricks or treats, and dressing in costume. A night of ghost stories and seances, tarot card readings and scrying with mirrors. A night of power, when the veil that separates our world from the Otherworld is at its thinnest. A ’spirit night’, as they say in Wales.” – Mike Nichols

“To celebrate Samhain, Wiccans gather for a feast. On this night, the end of the Wiccan year, Wiccans believe the veil separating our world from the spirit world thins. This makes it easier to communicate through the veil. So Wiccans try to contact the spirits of dead relatives.” – Olivia Montgomery, The Herald-Mail

“The old Celts knew how to throw a goodbye bash for summer. Samhain was one of their principal fire festivals that marked the end of their year… Europeans thought the end of summer was the time the spirits of their dearly departed came back for one last visit before winter… All I know is that this is the best time to say goodbye to summer and to bring back all those memories of joy in the sun.” – Jonathan David Powell, The Post Chronicle

“Altars to the dead lined the basketball court at Kezar Pavilion: One was a shrine to pets, another memorialized fetuses that didn’t come to term, and a third, with photographs of the first thousand U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, mourned the war dead. They set the stage for a ceremony where a thousand witches, druids and pagans prepared to meet the dead. It opened with a procession of goddesses, including the Virgin of Guadalupe and Demeter, the Greek goddess of fertility, who wore a mask decorated with wheat. A procession of six gods played out a cycle of death and reincarnation. With emotions building, those in the crowd shook their bodies, flapped their arms and stomped their feet in an ecstatic, pulsing release of energy.” – Matthai Chakko Kuruvila, San Francisco Chronicle

“Renewing social links with the dead and feeding the Land-spirits were both ritual means of ensuring a safe future. While Samhain (and the phenomenon of death which it celebrated) was obviously the end of a cycle, it was more importantly the start of a new one. Because all true novelty springs from the chaotic freedom and vitality of the Otherworld, a new cycle could be inaugurated only by dissolving all of the structures of the old one — just as the moment of death dissolves our identity in this world, allowing the fresh energies of the Otherworld to impel us towards new life.” – Alexei Kondratiev, Samhain: Season of Death and Renewal

May you all have a blessed Samhain, blessings to you, and your beloved dead on this season. Let this new cycle be one of great blessings for all of you.

Tags: Paganism