Samhain and Yule

[England my lionheart]

Hi Guys,Samhain and Yule were a busy time for our ancesters,the harvest of blood or slaughter of the excess livestock and then the feast,Mistletoe and Yule logs for Mothers night,now i doubt you are all going to slaughter a Herd of Cattle but how will you prepare fo Samhain and Yule,thanks for any replies.

 

[Gentoo]

I treat Samhain as Halloween, really. GC gets really excited for Halloween... like REALLY. He's disappointed that it's been raining all weekend because he can't decorate outside yet.. he's anticipating his favorite pumpkin spice coffee and Shipyard's Pumpkin Head Ale. I just like the dressing up and handing out candy part...

Yule gets too tied into Christmas for me. I try to do something for the solstice, but it's usually half-done and I don't feel very accomplished with it. If nothing else, I take as much time as I can (as it'll be well below freezing) and look up at the stars and try to remember my purpose amid all the commotion..

 

[England my lionheart]

I treat Samhain as Halloween, really. GC gets really excited for Halloween... like REALLY. He's disappointed that it's been raining all weekend because he can't decorate outside yet.. he's anticipating his favorite pumpkin spice coffee and Shipyard's Pumpkin Head Ale. I just like the dressing up and handing out candy part...

Yule gets too tied into Christmas for me. I try to do something for the solstice, but it's usually half-done and I don't feel very accomplished with it. If nothing else, I take as much time as I can (as it'll be well below freezing) and look up at the stars and try to remember my purpose amid all the commotion..

Hi Meg,i know Christianity hijacked these festivals but Christmas is a Pagan festival,ok i think its the 21st to the 23rd of December but Pagan tradition is a big part of what is termed "the festive season",i hope it stops raining though so GC can get the decorations up.

 

[Sylvan]

In my original coven Samhain to Yule was called the Dead Time and it was encouraged that we not practice any magic unless necessary in order to honor the spirit of the season and to "save up" force for the rest of the year. The exception was healing and divination, also anything "underworld" related, or having to do with your ancestors. But it was generally encouraged that you not try to effect things too much during this time, and take it easy.

This year I am going up to a Fete Ghede, so I am doing both pagan and vodou celebrations this year (not simultaneously). I am excited.

Although it means I'll be out of town for candy-giving.

 

[Breathe]

I've always been hoping to try, or watch (in person), a Pagan Yule or Samhain festival.

This year I am going up to a Fete Ghede, so I am doing both pagan and vodou celebrations this year (not simultaneously). I am excited.

Please tell me how you will be doing your Pagan celebrations.

Fete Ghede, from a quick read up on it, sounds quite interesting. Is there any reason you feel comfortable sharing as to why you will do these celebrations as well as your Pagan ones?

 

[England my lionheart]

In my original coven Samhain to Yule was called the Dead Time and it was encouraged that we not practice any magic unless necessary in order to honor the spirit of the season and to "save up" force for the rest of the year. The exception was healing and divination, also anything "underworld" related, or having to do with your ancestors. But it was generally encouraged that you not try to effect things too much during this time, and take it easy.

This year I am going up to a Fete Ghede, so I am doing both pagan and vodou celebrations this year (not simultaneously). I am excited.

Although it means I'll be out of town for candy-giving.

Fete Ghede,is that dance of or with the dead,

 

[Draka]

For Samhain, aside from the usual Halloween thing of the kids going trick-or-treating, I like to have a nice meal with prayer as it is a harvest Sabbat. Later, after the kids are in bed, a ritual to honor the dead and perform divinations is usually what I like to do.

As for Yule, I like to decorate around the house. We have a tree, but our decorations are handmade. We usually add to them every year with something made with the kids. Like a couple years ago we got baking clay and used cookie cutters and handpainted our own little figures. It was quite fun. We do paper ones from construction paper, and I use crocheted yarn chains for garland. The only thing we buy to put on the tree are candy canes We do celebrate Yule separately in our house. We exchange gifts on Yule in our immediate family and then go to my parents on Christmas for our "second" holiday. I make a special meal on Yule, again with prayer, and just make sure we try to center on doing everything as a family that day.

 

[England my lionheart]

Pagan tradition is a large part of Xmas in the UK,Mistletoe for kissing under was around long before Christianity hit these shores and the Yule log,the tradition is that you go to the Woods and you will be drawn to a particular log which has fallen naturally,then you put it halfway into a fire and when the log has stopped burning you keep the other half to protect the Family in the comming year and restart the fire for next Yule with that log.

 

[Sylvan]

Fete Ghede, from a quick read up on it, sounds quite interesting. Is there any reason you feel comfortable sharing as to why you will do these celebrations as well as your Pagan ones?

My patron goddess Brigid has traveled to Haiti and later manifested herself as Maman Brigitte, wife of Baron Samedi, who I guess could be considered to be "ruling" the Ghede family. Who are connected very deeply with the dead. I believe Haiti to have "cutting edge technology" as far as spirits go, and have been drawn to work with Brigid in her aspect as Maman, and to contemplate and research about how these transformations happen to gods. Fate connected me with a woman (a brilliant artist and dancer) who has gone to Haiti and became a Kanzo, and who also became a wife of Baron Samedi. She has networked with some Haitian expatriates who have a house and they collaborate on big fetes. She also hosts experimental music concerts at her performance space which I will be performing at I suppose, earlier that week.

As for how I celebrate Samhaim. It really depends on what's going on that year. Sometimes I have had totally reorienting entheogen aided "trips to the underworld" using "walking meditation". Sometimes it was quiet and I just lit some candles for the dead and the Morrigan. Sometimes I am busy with some show or something and do something minor privately and consider my performance some kind of underworld offering and alter it (adding ritual elements as costume etc) accordingly. Last year I had fun wearing an intense mask a fellow magician made for me long ago with horns and animal pelts etc.. scraping on the side window lit up with strobe lights with a my sickle while my roommate gave out the treats to the kiddies. I think the parents were more scared then the kids though.. they took one look at my ritual tools and were legitimately scared.. their kids just wanted the goods.

I don't celebrate Yule so much as Winter Solstice. The solstices and equinoxes are real abstract holidays to me, and I tend to focus on the raw energies involved.

 

[Sylvan]

Fete Ghede,is that dance of or with the dead,

It is a yearly celebration for the Ghede of Vodou tradition, the spirits of the dead.
Its like the Haitian "all-souls day"

 

[Breathe]

Thank you for sharing Sylvan. That sounds pretty awesome.

 

[Vasiel]

My boyfriend will be throwing a Halloween Party (So I'll have to dress up as something). But since I live in Australia I will be going to a Beltaine Celebration. I can't wait, as it is going to be my first time at a Pagan event.

*happy dance*

For all you guys in the Northern Hemisphere, many blessings during the Samhain and Yule Celebrations. Don't eat too much candy

 

[England my lionheart]

It is a yearly celebration for the Ghede of Vodou tradition, the spirits of the dead.
Its like the Haitian "all-souls day"

Thanks,sounds interesting