A splendid Samhain

Samhain / Nos Calan Gaeaf / Halloween
This year we were supposed to go to “Mother Moon” Holly’s beautiful Goddess Grotto, but she had Covid. Get better soon, Holly! Silver Phoenix of Arcanum Shoppe filled in the Wiccan ritual part – but we were unable to go. ☹ However we celebrated with Scouts and at home with family and at our obligatory trip to a corn maze. Sooo I thought I’d post some Hallow’s Tide customs from the British Isles.
Nos Calan Gaeaf – Simply means “night before the new year.” The popular Yuletide song, “Deck the Halls” was formerly in the Cymraeg (Welsh) language and entitled “Nos Calan” and was sung to commemorate the new year. When New Year’s Day was changed to Jan. 1st, the song became a Christmas staple.
Carving pumpkins – formerly rutabegas or turnips – the scary face frightens away baleful spirits, while the happy face with a light welcomes relatives who’ve passed, yet come to visit.
Speaking of whom, we often do a “dumb supper” type thing, only we put food & alcohol & cider outside for our ancestors, then welcome them to a bonfire when the “veils are thinnest”. Here in Bangor, MI, you can really see that – the fog will rise over the swamp, and there is a distinct pathway from there to our house with no mist in the midst. It’s cool lookin’. We call it a Spirit Vigil and it can last all night long.
Funny story – not to disparage Wiccans, for their cast Circles and shields are wonderful in many other instances – but... My Dad could not come into the area when we’d done a celebratory rite w/ Wiccans, and they’d cast a circle. I was like, “Dad, why didn’t you show up?” And he replied, “There was this wall in my way, so I turned back around!” We rely on personal shielding, amulets and talismans to prevent hauntings from not-so-nice beings. They’re apparently semi-permeable, so we can still talk to Uncle Bob and Aunt Zelda.
Likewise, wearing costumes foils unfriendly beings. They can’t recognize you to attack. They think you’re a Power Ranger or Rocket Raccoon, and go to haunt elsewhere.
One example of a spirit loose on Nos Calan Gaeaf is called “Teapot Jack” in Ireland, “Stingy Jack” in Britain, and Diogenes by the Greeks. He thwarted the Devil so he didn’t go to hell, but he was not nice enough to go to heaven (you can tell this is a story from after the Christianization). So poor Jack had to wander the earth with a flame in a root-vegetable lantern, searching for an honest person. This eventually became Jack o’ the Lantern. Poor guy is prolly still looking. Don’t go to Washington DC, Jack.
Like the Kore / Persephone and Hades story, Rhiannon goes to the Underworld to dwell w/ Arawn, thus the Earth becomes cold. The Calleach / Caeleag, the old woman of winter, draws her snowy mantle across the land. However, since Arawn was doing what honeymooners do, he forgot to mind the spirits, which is how they all get loose on Nos Calan night, and return to visit their kinfolks. Then Arawn has to round them all up with his Wild Hunt.
Meanwhile, King Arthur comes to the Other Realm and steals all of Arawn’s pigs. One of these is the Hwch Ddu Gwta, pronounced hooch Thu goota, the “cutty black sow” or enormous female pig who eats tardy trick-or-treaters. Kids, don’t be late home!
We also always go Leaf Peeping, cuz we live in the most beautiful place in the world.

Braw Nos Calan Gaeaf!

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