Samhain and Halloween Surviving in Parallel

For most of us, Halloween is a time for fun and games where hordes of costumed munchkins must be warded off with offerings of candy, but to others, this time of year is special and sacred. To the Wiccans, an order of nature worshipers thought to have descended from the Celts, and other neo-pagans, this time of year marks the end of summer and what we call Halloween, the call Samhain (pronounced SOW-IN, rhymes with "now spin").

Samhain is a festival celebrating the harvest and depending on the specific sect, is scheduled on either October 31 or November 1. Besides celebrating the harvest, Samhain marks the beginning of the dark season when the power of the gods has to be called on for protection from the harsh northern environment. Samhain was the perfect day to call upon the spirits because this is when the "veil" between the world of man and the world of the spirit is at its thinnest and the other world can be easily contacted.

Magical rituals, sacrifices, and prayers to the Earth Mother take place non-stop the entire day. Rites such as nude dances around a bonfire while adorned in animal head masks are frequent and often-times the height of the celebration. These ancient festivals helped shape what is now our Halloween.

Many people believe that with the rise of our modern Halloween, the practices of Samhain became extinct, but for hundreds of years, the sacred harvest rites have been kept alive by secret covens of Wiccans and witches. This ancient order has been misunderstood and prosecuted to the point of extinction by Christian fundamentalists, but for the past decade there has a revival in the practice as people are turning away from traditional religions to something more grounded, meaningful, and less dogmatic.

It is estimated that there are currently over 100,000 practicing pagans in the U.S. and many are represented through newly formed legal organizations. One such organization, known as Circle, is located in southern Wisconsin and has over 30,000 members itself. Every year they hold their great Samhain festival which lasts all night and is the largest gathering of pagans in the country. Here, the ancient arts of nature magic are kept alive and new practitioners are gained with each year.

With the apparent fall in popularity of our modern Halloween, amid our crises of over-protection of our children and fear of our neighbors, the old rites of Samhain have grown proportionately. Once a major holiday and social event celebrating the harvest and preparing families for the religious holiday of All Saints on November 1, Halloween has been taken hold of by commercialism and apathy. The true spirit of the time-held traditions and meanings are encompassed again in Samhain and for some it has re-evolved into the significant occasion it was meant to be.