Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Samhain (sou' wen)

"On November Eve they [Irish peasantry] are at their gloomiest, for, according to the old Gaelic reckoning, this is the first night of winter. This night they dance with the ghosts, and the pooka is abroad, and witches make their spells, and girls sit at a table with food in the name of the devil, that the fetch of their future lover may come through the window and eat of the food." William Butler Yeats

Ah, the night when the veils between the worlds are at their thinnest--the dying of the old year. Of course there are a few quandaries I always have about today--the Celts were Lunar--so the actually day would be the first full moon in Scorpio--Oct 25 this year and they counted days as starting sundown to sundown--that kind of feels right on Samhain even if it doesn't any other day of the year.
My mother says it's always been my favorite day. My husband calls me spooky loo, and growing up I was rather spooky--great big almost black eyes and almost white blond hair (witch--taps into unruly feminine power). Of course it is becoming un PC to celebrate Halloween---wouldn't want to offend anyone. Frankly, everything offends someone. It's becoming the national pastime to be offended.

I used to go to this one really Gothic cemetery here on Halloween . My husband won't go with me often (and never on Halloween) and it's not in the safest part of town. There's a surreal quality to the air there--most days and today in particular even though it's on the edge of one of busiest parts of town. Anyway I gotta get out and about --might say more later---Ooooo there's a civil war cemetery just down the road---hmmmm

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