Samhain Musings

Photo by Amy Parrish.

It's the most magical time of the year: the leaves are vibrant and the air is crisp.  My hair constantly harbors the smell of woodsmoke from a bonfire.  Bike rides through the woods are the most pleasant, and cider tastes refreshing whether hot or cold.  Fall is in full swing!

Which means Halloween, or Samhain, is upon us.  For ancient Celts, Samhain was a New Year's celebration.  It was the end of the "light days" of land cultivation and the start of the "dark days" of fall and winter.  It was also the time when the veil between this world and the next was the thinnest.  To this day it remains the most popular of Celtic celebrations, and the only one the Catholic church was unsuccessful in converting into a religious celebration- although they did manage to create All Saints Day on November 1st.  And so to celebrate, here are some Samhain musings.  Enjoy! 

~ Tonight I am making mussel chowder for a few friends and then we are all heading down to Ohio Village for the All Hallow's Eve celebration!  All Hallow's Eve is a 19th century Halloween celebration complete with curiosities, palm reading, fortune games and a re-telling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, complete with a headless horseman:)  We've gone before and it was a lot of fun- if you're in the Columbus area you should definitely check it out. 

  A spooky photo Will took of me at the last All Hallow's Eve.

~ The song Gossip in the Grain from my favorite musician Ray LaMontagne always makes me think of cooler nights, bonfires and time spent in Scotland.  Have a listen if you like.  (He's coming to Columbus December 3rd!!!)

~  Jack-o-Lanterns: these started out as turnips in Ireland, but in New World turned to pumpkins because of their prevalence.  They are meant to keep evil spirits away, just as trick-or-treating evolved from leaving out food as a peace offering to these spirits.  There are so many fascinating carving ideas!

 

~ I heard the most interesting podcast on hoaxes from the Stuff You Missed in History Class series: one of the hoaxes was about the Cottingley Fairies.  The fairies appear in five photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths in 1917, and caused a stir among the Spiritualist crowd.  The girls later admitted to faking the photos using cardboard cutouts, although Frances forever claimed that the fifth photo was real.

  The first four photos...

 ...and the fifth.

~ The White Forest, by Adam McOmber.  Doesn't his name just sound creepy?  Last night I started this novel about a young girl in Victorian London that can "discern the souls of man-made objects and enter the White Forest, a terrifying parallel realm".  McOmber's writing is contemporary enough for you to connect with the characters and yet he is able to capture the mystical feelings at the center of 19th century Spiritualism.  There's a whole movie playing in my head, which is high praise- if I can see the story, I can feel it.  Read a review here: I'd love to talk about it with anyone else who may have read the book! 

~ I used to perform in a show called Legacy of the Hanging Judge at The House of Seven Gables when I was at college in Salem, MA.  Every weekend of October, I sat in a small, chilly room in the Nathanial Hawthorne House (which is on-site) with two other girls pretending to be bewitched by tourists when they came to our room:)  It was a lot of fun, and you could feel the history on the grounds.  I loved the bustle of the people outside our window while we waited, and the general excitement of Halloween in Salem.  An experience for sure.

An event photo from Facebook.

~ And a crow, for good measure:)

  

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