Samhain Shenanigans

As soon as the schools go back and Autumn colours burst to life, time seems to speed up as Christmas looms closer. I love Autumn and I love Hallowe’en or Samhain as I know it, because it bridges that gap nicely and it’s great for teaching the boys how to embrace their inner Pagan and I love that I can link it all back to nature.

My Mum raised me to be open to any and all religions. I still don’t know to this day what she herself believes in and nor does it matter. Edward, my eldest has already started to ask lots of questions on the subject of religion and he seems to have inherited a logical approach to spirituality, which is wonderful. I’ll definitely encourage him to keep an open mind than tell him one religion is right and another wrong. 

My beliefs are my own and I try to let spirituality flow organically through our household. One week it’s Norse Mythology and Viking rituals, next week it’s Ancient Egyptians and Curses, this week it’s Samhain and the boys have been exploring the end of the Harvest. Here’s Loki with our latest and last allotment haul! 

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year. Winter is definitely coming… especially to North East Scotland! 

Samhain is one of two nights a year where, if you go in for these sorts of stories, the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest. It is a time when the Pagan Gods and Nature’s Spirits can crossover into our world and take their pick of the recent Harvest and spread a little mischief. 

My little God of Mischief, Loki has been enjoying himself. Every pumpkin I decorate is destroyed, every garland I hang he takes as a personal challenge to pull down and every display I make is rearranged and dragged onto the floor. He’s a big fan of books though at the moment and this has been a massive hit; That’s Not My Witch… 

I used some Grimm’s Celebration Figures, which turned out to be the perfect size to match to the illustrations in the book. Loki has loved it and Oren has been practicing his reading skills with it most evenings! 

My walls are littered with Edward and Oren’s Hallowe’en decorations they’ve made at school. Even the dog is upping her game bringing in twigs/sticks and tree branches from her morning walks (albeit they’re mainly attached to her ridiculous fluffy ears!)

I like to sprinkle a bit of magic over proceedings, just for fun, so this year we made a pentacle with the Grimm’s Leonardo’s Sticks and I explained that each point represents a different element. 

We talked about each element and took turns naming different things they cover. The pentacle is a symbol of harmony,  balance and magical protection. 

Again this year we set up a simple altar, but this time we used it to remember passed souls. We lost our cat Greebo earlier this year and he will never be forgotten and he is spoke about often by the boys. We filled the altar with colours associated with Samhain and lit a candle for Greebo. We all shared our favourite memories of him then filled our tummies! I have also buried an apple for him in the garden to mark the end of the harvest. 

Embrace the darkness and let the winter winds blow… 

All the toys pictured are Grapat and Grimms lovelies from Babipur. I’m going to do a separate post about them soon!