HAPPY HALLOWEEN (Samhain) (Murphy, Branson: yard, rated, best)

[20yrsinBranson]

Since this is my most favored holiday, I'd like to wish all my on-line buddies here a very happy holiday!

Tonight I will be having a dumb supper to honor my ancestors and afterwards we'll be enjoying an open fire with some adult beverages and listening to some fine music.

I hope all of you have a fantastic evening as well, however you choose to celebrate.

20yrsinBranson

[Ciaerin]

same to you 20yr. we are taking the girls trick or treating and then everyone is coming to stay the weekend at our house. we are having a bonfire and of course a little adult recreation (aka beer).

[firebll31]

My hubby likes Halloween best too-always decorates to the 9's with graveyard, fog machines, body parts, etc. He even bought a '76 Cadillac Hearse a few years ago and uses it as a prop for some cool decor. About the time the kids stopped showing up(9:30) some friends dropped by for "Trick or Booze". We took the booze of course!

[maagy]

There is hope for me in Missouri after all!!!! Thank You so much and I hope ur fire was big enough to to keep u warm thru the cold months.

[ViktorVitorro]

Thank you for the Samhain wishes, which is a rather suprising thing to have seen on these forums. I myself being of a Pagan expressive individual, rarelly find someone saying Samhain instead of the exploited term Halloween. A brief history of this event is as follows.


Samhain was known in Ireland as the "Lord of Darkness". The Druid religion was practiced by ancient Celtic tribes that populated Ireland and parts of Europe. This religion worshipped Samhain, the Lord of Darkness. Some writings also speak of Samhain as the "Lord of the Dead". But, scholars suggest that this is incorrect.
The Druid New Year began on November 1st. It is also known as the "Feast of Samhain". The Celts only recognized summer and winter seasons. Literally translated, Samhain means "Summer's End". At this time, the hours of nighttime were growing significantly over the hours of sunlight. Hence, Lord Samhain reigned over the long winter months as the influence of the Sun god and the summer season (Beltaine or Beltane) preceded. Samhain's influence grows with the increase in the hours of darkness, as he can only roam the earth during hours of darkness.
The Druids believed that on their New Year's Eve, all of the people who died in the past year would rise up and search for the passageway to the netherworld. On this night the passageway or "veil" between both worlds was it's thinnest. Lord Samhain would roam the earth in search of these souls to capture them and take them to his world of darkness. To this day, some people put lights in their windows to help the dead find their way, and keep Lord Samhain away from taking them.
The Druid religion, dating back to about 200BC, had priests and priestesses. These magicians (or soothsayers or wizards) filled the most important roles in Celtic culture. At the time the Celtic tribes were close to nature. As a result, they worshipped many things in nature as their gods. But no Druid god was more powerful ,nor more feared, than Lord Samhain.
Some of the roots of Halloween are traced back to the Druid religion and Lord Samhain. Certainly, Halloween took aspects of darkness , black color, evil spirits, and people rising from the dead and roaming the earth on this night. These themes of Halloween are all common with this religion. Pope Gregory II moved the christian holiday of "all Hollows Eve" from May 13 to November 1st to coincide with the Feast of Samhain. This was an effort by the catholic church to downplay the pagan festival. Hopefully, they reasoned, it would replace Samhain and the pagan celebration would fade away. The pagan festival continued to be celebrated, and Halloween evolved largely from it. Today, the Catholic church tolerates Halloween, recognizing it is a fun holiday and not intended to hold religious or other supernatural beliefs or religion.

So, to You I bid a blessed Samhain. and a Winter of fullfillment.

[joetownmom]

I always have a bonfire at Halloween and even do a little ritualistic stuff, pagan style.

As for dumb suppers, since the original poster is a fan, here's a link to one of my favorite published short stories about one:



Poor Mojo's Fiction: Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy "Hoo Doo"