Thursday 28 October 2010

Season of the witch


There are times when it seems to me that the English know more about the customs and traditions of, say, the French or the Americans than they do about the nations with whom we have long shared this island.

Take Halloween, for instance. So many people are under the deluded impression that this is an American import of fairly recent provenance. Yes, it’s true that there are pronounced American features to the contemporary festival, notably jack-o-lanterns and trick-or-treat, but Halloween has been celebrated here for ages past in Scotland and Ireland, where it emerged from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.

It has long been part of Scottish tradition for children to go out ‘guising’ on Halloween, visiting houses, dressed for the occasion their way lighted by a lantern carved not from a pumpkin but from a large hollowed-out neep, a turnip. In the homes they visit they perform a set-piece, a poem or a song in return for small gifts of sweets or nuts or whatever the household could spare. It was such customs that were carried by Scottish and Irish migrants to the Americas.

There are also English customs which, at root, belong to a pagan past, though here the tradition is much more heavily sublimated. Dominic Sandbrook in a polemical piece in the latest issue of the BBC History Magazine argues that the ‘foreign custom’ of Halloween should be scrapped in favour of the ‘traditional’ English festival of Bonfire Night (If I ran the country, I’d throw Halloween on the bonfire).

Celebrated on November 5, Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night, marks the foiling of the Gunpowder plot in 1605, in which Fawkes and a number of Catholic co-conspirators planned to blow up the opening session of Parliament with the king in attendance. But this is just a political gloss on another pagan practice, the lighting of huge bonfires to give renewed power to the sun, which ancient communities, governed by the law of the seasons, believed was in danger of dying at this time of year, with the nights growing longer and the days shorter. The Samhain bonfires, moved to a more acceptable occasion, also included the burning of an ‘old guy’, clearly the vestiges of a human sacrifice, long before anyone had ever heard of Guy Fawkes!

Samhain, the long dark night, the night when the dead are nearest to the living, is also the night of the witches, warlocks and imps! My coven will assemble, flying in to celebrate the turning of the seasons and to honour the Goddess. The fires shall burn and the wheel of life shall turn, and the dead come back home on Samhain. Yes, they shall, and join with the living, witches and straights, in a big Halloween party at my London home!









36 comments:

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  6. http://www.halloweendarksite.com

    Enjoy the night and the mystery, Ana. The old year dies.

    BTW: When I was younger, the books of Dennis Wheatley were still very popular. A couple were made into films by Hammer Studios. Also, have you read the works of Carlos Castaneda that purport to be a record of his encounters with a Yaqui brujo? They begin with "The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge." A cult classic from the early 70s that may offer an entrance to a different mystical tradition.

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  7. Thanks, Calvin; the old dies; the new waits to be born. I haven't read either of those authors. The latter sounds interesting, something to look into.

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  8. Adam, thanks and the best of luck with the poppies.

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  10. Drinking and smoking are self destructive and will not resolve depression issues.

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  12. another great post, Ana! Enjoy your Samhain as i will enjoy mine here in the states. Hugs and love!!

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  15. Only 3 to go to two hundred followers...then the Evil Ones shall awake...and sit down to watch Foxtel.

    What's in that snifter in the first photo..blood? Or just cherry brandy?

    Well, have fun. See if you can find my place while you're out flying.

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  16. We provoked a war with the Germans and got in over are heads, call the Yanks Help! Help!

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  18. Tasie, why didn't you invite me to your party? Why won't you answer my texts? You are driving me mad.

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  19. God help me, I love you so much.

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  20. I hope you remembered to pick up every stitch.

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  21. Adam, pagans really don't draw a strict distinction between celebratory and solemn.

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  23. Elle, thanks. I hope you had a super time. :-)

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  25. David, why? I harm no-one. It's simply a celebration of the rhythms of life.

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  26. Adam, the message has gone out. The best of luck, though I'm sure you won't need it.

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  28. J, you know very well why. I’m really surprised that you’ve stooped to this. I wasn’t going to publish to avoid embarrassment, but I will not be intimidated, by you or anyone else. Please act like a man not a silly boy. I will not deal with you again in such a public manner, so think carefully before you decide on anything else of this nature, at least if you want to retain any lingering vestige of affection and respect I have for you.

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  29. Adam, there are no contradictions; it's all part of the cycle of life, death and renewal.

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