Happy Halloween!! Wishing everyone a fun and happy time! Halloween can be a fun celebration for those who participate.
On the very cusp of saying goodbye to summer and hello to winter time it is an important time in the calendar.
Today we find many ways to celebrate this season and the Halloween festival. We decorate our homes with orange and black, spiders and ghosts and ghouls, or a display of gorgeous squashes outside the front door. We might go trick or treating with young children dressed in amazing inventive fancy dress or go to parties dressed in Halloween costumes.
Some of us buy decorations for our homes, others craft their own and some even become family traditions. Even if you don't decorate or do anything yourself it can be fun driving or walking around the neighbourhood looking at all the inventive decoration. It is a festival that everyone can be involved in if they wish.
Nature Relating to Halloween, Festival Of Samhain
With all this going on I was reflecting on the origins of Halloween and how it relates and links to nature. Halloween has a strong connection to nature through its ancient origins and the season of this celebration.
Halloween developed from the ancient Celtic pagan festival of Samhain pronounced sow win. This festival has deep roots in nature and marks the point of transition between summer and winter or from the new life, growth, light and warmth of the summer time to the lower light levels , slowing down of plants and leaf loss, darkness and colder days throughout the winter months. So this festival marked the change of seasons as seen in nature and the constant rhythm of life and death.
During Samhain, and as the nights drew in and became much colder, people would naturally gather around warm bonfires. These fires symbolised the warmth and light of the sun and of course provided physical warmth so crucial in the cold nights. In addition they were a spiritual beacon, with the belief that they were guiding the spirits of the departed back to the Otherworld.
People believed at this time of year that the barriers between this world and the other world were broken down and that meant the living could interact with the other world more easily.
To disguise themselves they dressed as monsters and various animals so that the fairies would ignore them and thus avoid being kidnapped to the other world.
The costumes worn by people during Samhain often included elements of nature such as leaves, animal skins, or masks made from a range of already harvested crops from the fields. In this history, we can see the origins of where our current costumes enjoyed at Halloween may have originated.
Gathering Crops And The Pumpkin
The close connection between the time of Halloween and the harvest season reflects the importance of nature and its crucial link to our lives.
This time of year is traditionally associated with the gathering of crops in from the fields. This is undertaken in order to have food to sustain us and stave off hunger during the long cold winter time, with a good crop ensuring our wellbeing in the worst harsh winter months.
It is also important to prepare our homes and gardens for the cold sometimes harsh winter months and for us to adjust from the long easier summer days and warmth to the often harsher, colder and darker winter.
Pumpkins are a prominent symbol of Halloween frequently used as decoration inside and outside our homes, with talented artistic carvings, fun lighted carvings and sometimes competitions. In addition delicious Pumpkin recipes abound at this time of year.
Pumpkins and squashes represent the bountiful harvest and the abundance provided by nature. I love to see the pumpkins and squashes growing in the fields and they are satisfying and wonderful to eat. Originally turnips were used filled with coal for displays but this later switched to pumpkins.
I really enjoy seeing all the amazing carvings and abundant displays in homes and gardens at this time of year. It certainly brightens up the often dull, low light afternoons and evenings.
Overall, Halloween's origins in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain and its association with the changing seasons and harvest demonstrate its innate connection to nature and the natural rhythms of life.
This is just a brief look at the ancient festival and its relation to nature and how we celebrate today. There is certainly much more to its fascinating history, but here is just a glimpse of how it relates to nature.
So enjoy and celebrate Halloween and this change of the seasons and spare a thought for our ancestors with their beliefs and connections to the natural world.
Here are amazing and fascinating articles about Halloween from recipes to decor and more written by the talented contributors on Review This Reviews
Halloween Articles By Contributors On Review This Reviews
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