We think of Halloween as a time for dressing up in costumes, bobbing for apples, going to costume parties and haunted houses and going from house to house to collect candy, but what is the true meaning of Halloween?
Halloween also known as All Hallows Eve is linked to the Celtic festival of
Samhain (pronounced sow-in), which comes from the Old Irish which means 'summer's end' This marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the 'darker half' of the year.
For the Celts who celebrated their new year on November 1st, the day marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, the end of light and the beginning of darkness, the end of life and the beginning of death.
It is seen as a liminal time, when “veils between the physical and spiritual planes were thinned”. This meant Spirits, Fairies and other Elemental's could more easily come into this world and were particularly active.
This is also the time when your Intuition will be heightened.
The Celtic priests, called Druids, made large bonfires on hilltops around which the people gathered and offered sacrifices of crops and animals to the Celtic gods, as a thanksgiving offering for that years' crops and as an appeal for favor in the new coming year. Back in the Day many feared this Holiday, thinking this is when the witches would come out and cast spells on you, but they were gathering and dancing to give thanks to the Gods.
Halloween is a time to honor those that have passed. Some Traditions light candles and put them on their loved one’s graves and sit with them all night.
Halloween is about releasing/shedding the old energies and bringing in the new.
it symbolizes hope, good luck and transformation. It’s a time for letting go of the old to embrace the new.
Halloween is a time of rebirth.
This is the time to let go of all the things in your life that no longer work for you, so you can move forward with the new.
Blessings,
Charity