The Christian synchrobloggers have taken on another Pagan topic, this time Samhain. Most of their posts are in response to the secular Hallowe'en activities of trick-or-treating and the like, but some discuss aspects of our festival, Samhain:
Interesting. They are aware that Samhain is a nice wholesome festival associated with ancestors and remembering the Beloved Dead, and Steve Hayes pointed out correctly that in fact the
ancient Pagan festival wasn't really about this - in fact the way it is celebrated now is almost entirely drawn from the medieval Christian celebration of All Saints and All Souls. I just wish all Christians (and all Pagans for that matter) would read up on the history - the best place to start being Ronald Hutton's excellent book,
The Stations of the Sun. Anyway, it makes a nice change to see some sane and balanced views from the other side (to offset the
journalistic silly-season).
If you want to celebrate Samhain the way the ancient Celts did, read
Robin Herne's article about it. For myself, I like the Wiccan approach - commemorating the Beloved Dead and the ancestors (both people we admire and relatives who have died) and being aware of the underworldly connotations of autumn, as the sun descends towards the winter solstice.
If you've written a Pagan blog-post about Samhain or Hallowe'en, post a link in the comments and I'll write a feature about Pagan Samhain blogging, if there are enough.
5 comments:
That's actually helpful Yvonne; even just reading what You've written I understand it better. I just don't get the connection with kids demanding candy or "we'll egg your house"
:)
(But maybe that's no worse than Christian televangelists saying "Give me money or God can't bless you"...)
Yvonne,
Thanks for reading and posting on my blog.
I understand myself (and others who synchroblogged) to share the same intention as the neo-Pagans and spiritual seekers I meet.
We live in a world where people are disconnected from themselves, each other, nature and [God/Goddess].
I welcome the opportunity to learn from anyone and everyone with experience at re-connecting people with what/whom they're disconnected from.
http://timvictor.wordpress.com/
Hi Pete and Timothy
Welcome - nice to meet fellow spiritual seekers who like to exchange ideas in a spirit of interfaith harmony.
Pete - trick-or-treating comes from the tradition of guising - a much older tradition which was a way of embodying our fear so we could laugh at it.
Thanks so much for the links Yvonne. I appreciate your openness.
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