Halloween & its traditions

MarieDreamcatcher
Oct 30, 2020
3 min read

Halloween or as its traditionally known Samhain, was the Celtic version of new years eve, as the 1st November marked the beginning of the year and was the start of their winter.

This time marked the date when livestock had to be killed and preserved with salt by and when crops also had to be gathered up by, and if they weren't they would be abandoned.

This was due to the belief that the Pooka a shape shifting hobgoblin who delighted in torturing humans was believed to spend samhain destroying or contaminating whatever remained unreaped. This economic uncertainty lead to a sense of eeriness with the turn of the year, with the dying and still unborn, making the veil between our world and that of the dead very thin, meaning that neither human or spirits needed passwords to come and go between our world and theirs. On this night the spirit of the dead sought the warmth of the Samhain fire and communion with their living family and friends.

This time of year on one hand was one of divination and communion between the living and dead. And one of an uninhibited feast of eating, drinking and of life and fertility in the face of the closing dark.

❤Handfasting Tradition❤

So the tradition of handfasting is where two people would come together in front of their community and make their pledge to each other by using ribbons to tie around the wrists, this is where the phrase tying the knot came from. The knot is a symbolic representation of the oneness between the couple and the unity that binds them. Traditionally you would three cords and could pick the colour of the ribbons based on the representation of the colours that you want to imbue into the marriage.

Traditionally you would make this pledge for a year and a day then after the first handfasting ceremony if you have decided that you still want to live and love together for the rest of your lives you would have a second handfasting ceremony.

Traditionally these would take place at Samhain (Halloween), and would be done next to a body of water and would have rocks, crystals and honey. The water would be a representation of the emotions between you, the rocks and crystals would represent the solid foundations you are making your vows on and the honey in the abundance of love and sweetness in your marriage.

For our wedding we included handfasting in our ceremony and it was a beautiful moment and we included the girls in the ceremony they passed us each of the ribbons, we used 4 to represent each of us in the family.

Before we planned on including the handfasting we had booked the wedding at Buttermere next to one of my favourite bodies of water and the theme was crystals, then we decide on including handfasting, then whe I was reading about handfasting in a book (one that I currently can't lay my hands on) it said the things which would be traditionally included and I was blown away! We'd planned a traditional handfasting without even knowing it.

And finally there are simple ways to honour and celebrate this time of year.

Get out in the autumn air

Light a candle for loved ones passed

Put an extra plate for the ancestors

Have a traditional meal packed with vegetables

And release old energy which can be done through meditations and cleansing the home.