Halloween or Beltane? It depends what part of the world you live in!
More and more New Zealand children with the support of their unfortunately ignorant parents and those commercial businesses wanting to make a dollar are celebrating the Wiccan festival of Halloween or Samhain or All Hallows' Eve as it is properly called on October 31. As a Wiccan myself for over 25 years and therefore someone who considers this day as one of my 8 sabbats (special celebratory days), I am getting more and more irritated at the misuse of this festival and particularly as it is being celebrated in this country of NZ at the wrong time of the year.
All Hallows' Eve or Samhain the Witches New Year, is the night when the veil between the world of spirit and daily life is thin and able to be transcended, is in fact an Autumn festival which is why you can traditionally see pumpkins hollowed out with candles sitting inside shining their light in the windows of houses. It amazes me that "kiwi" parents think that it is appropriate to celebrate this autumn festival day in a New Zealand spring- sure there are pumpkins in the shops to buy but these are ones that have been stored in cool places after having been picked in the autumn harvest.
According to Starhawk in "The Spiral Dance", the Sabbats are the eight points at which we connect the inner and outer cycles: the interstices where the seasonal, the celestial, the communal, the creative, and the personal all meet. We are not separate from each other, from the broader world around us; we are one with the Goddess, with the God."
All Hallows Eve or Witches New Year is a time when we honour the darkness, when the separation between life and death, between those born and the unborn and the veil between the spirit world and our present reality is at its thinnest. It is the time for reclaiming the Crone, Hecate.
In Juliet Batten's book "Celebrating The Southern Seasons" she describes the Celtic Samhain as meaning 'summers end' being one of the major transitions of the year with the other being Beltane. Samhain was "the feast of the dead with storytelling and divination playing an important part." The fact that this is a festival for the dead explains perhaps the modern happening of dressing up as ghosts and goblins and "trick and treating"
In New Zealand the 31 October is actually Beltane - a spring festival when the community dance around a pole holding on to coloured ribbons in celebration of the coming of summer. It is the time to choose a mate for the summer season and traditionally this festival day is a raucous party time for the young women and men of the community.
Why do we celebrate Halloween in New Zealand at the wrong time of the year? Is it because we are actually slavish followers of American traditions and have been caught up with the commercial hype. The 31st of October is Halloween in the United States of America because now in the United States it is autumn, but in my country of choice Aotearoa/ New Zealand it is spring evidenced by the clematis blossoms and various plants now growing in my garden.
I wish to reclaim All Hallows' Eve for all wiccans and ask those people living in the Southern Hemisphere who wish to celebrate this pagan festival to do so at the correct time of the year-30 April.
Today here in New Zealand it is Beltane and I for one am happy it is spring and not autumn as it means the year is coming to close and holiday time is on its way.
I wish everyone who reads this a Happy Beltane rather than my unhappy Halloween!!!!!!
All Hallows' Eve or Samhain the Witches New Year, is the night when the veil between the world of spirit and daily life is thin and able to be transcended, is in fact an Autumn festival which is why you can traditionally see pumpkins hollowed out with candles sitting inside shining their light in the windows of houses. It amazes me that "kiwi" parents think that it is appropriate to celebrate this autumn festival day in a New Zealand spring- sure there are pumpkins in the shops to buy but these are ones that have been stored in cool places after having been picked in the autumn harvest.
According to Starhawk in "The Spiral Dance", the Sabbats are the eight points at which we connect the inner and outer cycles: the interstices where the seasonal, the celestial, the communal, the creative, and the personal all meet. We are not separate from each other, from the broader world around us; we are one with the Goddess, with the God."
All Hallows Eve or Witches New Year is a time when we honour the darkness, when the separation between life and death, between those born and the unborn and the veil between the spirit world and our present reality is at its thinnest. It is the time for reclaiming the Crone, Hecate.
In Juliet Batten's book "Celebrating The Southern Seasons" she describes the Celtic Samhain as meaning 'summers end' being one of the major transitions of the year with the other being Beltane. Samhain was "the feast of the dead with storytelling and divination playing an important part." The fact that this is a festival for the dead explains perhaps the modern happening of dressing up as ghosts and goblins and "trick and treating"
In New Zealand the 31 October is actually Beltane - a spring festival when the community dance around a pole holding on to coloured ribbons in celebration of the coming of summer. It is the time to choose a mate for the summer season and traditionally this festival day is a raucous party time for the young women and men of the community.
Why do we celebrate Halloween in New Zealand at the wrong time of the year? Is it because we are actually slavish followers of American traditions and have been caught up with the commercial hype. The 31st of October is Halloween in the United States of America because now in the United States it is autumn, but in my country of choice Aotearoa/ New Zealand it is spring evidenced by the clematis blossoms and various plants now growing in my garden.
I wish to reclaim All Hallows' Eve for all wiccans and ask those people living in the Southern Hemisphere who wish to celebrate this pagan festival to do so at the correct time of the year-30 April.
Today here in New Zealand it is Beltane and I for one am happy it is spring and not autumn as it means the year is coming to close and holiday time is on its way.
I wish everyone who reads this a Happy Beltane rather than my unhappy Halloween!!!!!!
haha finally gets it out of your system :) I still felt it was unfair i mostly could not trick or treat but i did enjoy the ribbons as a kid :)
ReplyDeleteTotally agree Audrey...Christmas was also a winter Equinox festival in the northern hemisphere - hijacked by the early Christians to covert the Britons to their faith.Both religious and commercial influences have changed the meaning of many seasonal festivals.
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