Autumn and More

 A blanket of red and green, yellow and brown hints of purples and blues playing peekaboo.  This is Autumn in New England.  Traveling the mountains of New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont during the fall season of colors is a delight in visual as well as nasal stimulation.  We of the North Country have been gifted by the Great Creator of all things with the spectacular and wonder of the in-between time.  

Autumn is the Harvest, it is the rise of the Ancestors, it is the time of year when our imaginations are free to run amok amongst dead and decaying of our mortal myth.  All Hollows Eve is set at the end of October, the time when celebrations begin.  This is the time of year with our dead are closer to us than any other time.  So we have an obsession with the macabre and horror of our own minds.  

Samhain is the Celtic celebration of the Ancestors.  The time of year when we remember who we are and whence we come.   It is the beginning of the masses for bringing in the crops and communing with both nature and each other.  It is from this day that All Saints day was created that eventually became All Hallows Eve, and Halloween.

My Gaelic Ancestors brought this celebration with them from Ireland.  It is an ushering in of the Dark Half of the year.  A time when Hearth fires where left burning all through the night in order to shed light into those regions of unknown space in the house as not to encounter the spooks and goblins that are always hiding within. In these dark corners the physical world breaks down and is replaced by the Spiritual world.  We are closer to our souls and burn brighter in the sight of the lurkers of dark places.  Samhain is the spirit of the season which protects us from our folly.  

Celebrations are still held in the old way.  Druid priest would light a circle of stones and sacrifice would be made to the elements.  We don't do the sacrificing anymore, but Smores and other goodies are a fun alternative.  This is the beginning to what can be considered the biggest celebration in the United States today, Halloween.

Peace and Balance, 

John