Samhain: When the Summer Goes

My Beautiful House Ghost Constance Chauncey
Previously Incarnated as
Victorine of 814 and Priscilla of Pine
In The Book of the Year: A Brief History of our Seasonal Holidays, author and anthropologist Athony Aveni writes that "Halloween is the modern day version of Celtic Samhain, literally when the summer goes" (127). What a lovely translation! -- "When the summer goes." How perfectly those words capture the tone of All Hallows, All Saints, All Souls, and all the time-honored festive customs that have become our collective psyche's way of tuning into the cosmos, turning with the sun, bidding farewell to the summer, and greeting the Wiccan New Year (called Samhain, pronounced "sow - en).


Just last week, in connection with the ginkgo light (click or scroll down), I was quoting from one of the best children's Halloween books ever -- The Witch Family -- a clever little story of two clever little girls, Amy and Clarissa, whose drawings can shape the reality of their choosing. If they want the Halloween sky to look a certain way, well, then, they just draw it that way! If they want to befriend Little Witch Girl and fly wildly through the sky with Old Witch on Halloween night, they just insert themselves into that picture, and away they go!

Here are a couple more favorite Halloween passages from The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes:

"Amy sat back and thought, 'Yes,' she said. 'It has to be dark, very dark. And the sky must be the Halloween sky. And the moon must be the Halloween moon. And the clouds, the Halloween clouds. Everything will be scary and spooky and windy "' (137).

"Halloween shadows played upon the walls of the houses. In the sky the Halloween moon raced in and out of clouds. The Halloween wind was blowing, not a blasting of wind but a right-sized swelling, falling, and gushing of wind. It was a lovely and exciting night, exactly the kind of night Halloween should be. Amy's rapture was complete. She looked up at the sky" (144).

"What a Halloween it had been! How could she wait a whole year for the next one?" (177).

Or, as Barry Manilow sings:

"Oh how I hate to see October go . . .
It doesn't matter much
How old I grow
I hate to see October go"
(nice slide show).

Also by Anthony Aveni, Stairways to the Stars: Skywatching in Three Great Ancient Cultures [Stonehenge, Mayas, Incas], recommended by a tour guide on one of the bus trips I took on the Yucatan Peninsula a few years ago.

Scottish Samhain Season

Thanks to my friend Victoria / aka Auntie Wickie
for these autumnal Scottish art cards
by Keli Clark Designs
A Blessed Samhain to All,
as the night draws near
and the veil grows thin!

New For Spring
~ On Facebook ~

Michaelmas

Bringing in the Harvest ~ ca 1890
by Hendrik Pieter Koekkoek (1843 – 1927)
Michaelmas -- I have always loved the sound of that word and always intended to learn more about this festival -- the Feast of St. Michael -- a celebration of harvest, shortening days, and end - of - the - summer fruits and flowers, hence Michaelmas Daisies and blackberry pies.

I never cease to be intrigued by all the folklore associated with this season and the cluster of celebrations that crowd the calendar, ranging from the Autumnal Equinox to the Winter Solstice. I am so excited for every single one of these beautiful days and the way that everything fits together, leading up to my favorite time of year.

I read a good little quotation awhile back but didn't copy it down, something along the lines of: "life belongs to God." That observation appeals to me during such a splendid autumn, with each afternoon entirely gorgeous enough to break your heart and all the holidays packed with so much meaning. Just glancing out the window is enough to fill me with the sensation that, yes, surely, "life belongs to God."

~ Autumnal bouquet from my friend Sandy ~

~ Auntie Margaret's Michaelmas Daisies ~
England ~ September 2019

More Daisies ~ Prague City Center ~ October 2019

And School Celebrations in Virginia, USA
Doing our best to celebrate all the antiquated
autumnal customs, leading up to Samhain!

Transylvania

For more October postcards
and wit & wisdom from Victoria Amador
please see my current post

"October Light, October Heavy"

@ Kitti's List

~ 28 October 2002 ~

"Happy Halloween!
Happy Samhain!
Happy All Souls Day!
Happy Dia do los Muertos!
Happy Wiccan New Year!
Have a marvelous & scary time!
Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo!

Well, it wasn't Paris, but I enjoy being back in Romania.
Next year I am doing the Transylvania Tour!
I didn't see any ghosts, but I certainly met a lot of odd people.
It has triggered a renewed interest in ghosts and paranormal activity.
What's your take on the afterlife?
Are there famous haunted sites in Philly?"

******************************

In Other Halloween News:
Many thanks to our sweet neighbor Tami,
who has kindly made sure that we would not be
without trick - or - treaters this year!

Look who has already been seen on our front porch:
Happy Halloween to this fearsome T - Rex!

~ GET YOUR SCARE ON! ~

Related amusing video: "This is why I don't
let my family pick me up from the bus anymore!"

The Darkest Dark, the Descent

~Traditional Celtic Verse ~

The sun is in the south and the days lengthen fast,
soon we shall sing of the winter that's passed;
for now light the candles and rejoice as they burn,
and dance our dance of the sun's return.

~ Solstice Meditation ~

Holiday . . . High Holy Days . . . winter Solstice . . . Yuletide Season . . . Christmas time, a time of family and friends, feasting and firelight, the sound of bells ringing out across a snowy night, the lighting of the candles, the trimming of the trees, and the turning of our thoughts upon the sacred ways of peace.

No matter what its name, this high point of the calendar has forever been celebrated in joyous and sacred ways as we bid farewell to the dark days of winter, and welcome with songs and thanks giving the bright, hopeful sun of a bright new year.

****************
Two lovely passages in celebration of the light. But wait -- today is for celebrating the dark, not the light. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day, the longest night, so meditations such as these are really for the next day, the day after the Solstice, right? Before the light returns, I want to celebrate the season's darkest dark, the year's descent, which is precisely why I relish every day from Mabon to Samhain to Yule.

I embrace the Winter Solstice not because it heralds the return of light but because it is the shortest, duskiest day of all, the culminating magic of increasing darkness. Instead of feeling joyful at the returning light, I am always a little sorry to bid farewell to the short dark days. It may be good that Spring is on the way, yet I always find something disheartening about the edgy new light of January, something jarring.

Perhaps feeling bereft that the darkening days are over for another year aligns with the Keatsian tendency to be "half in love with easeful death" (more on this to come & previous Keats).

A sunny Winter Solstice in Virginia this year,
standing under the Southern Magnolia

P.S.
Evening Star ~ The Span of Darkness
~ The Vernal Equinox! ~

The Mourning After

Halloween ~ Just Before Midnight
Downtown Chicago 
Photo by Sam McCartney

Last night, a happy haunted Halloween; this morning, a blustery All Saints Day. We awake in mourning -- for Halloween, for October, for Daylight Saving Time. As of today, it's all over, and the bleak mid - autumn is upon us. In fact, we are precisely in the middle of autumn, at the magical half - way point between the Autumnal Equinox (Mabon) and the Winter Solstice (Yule), which is what all the Samhain and Dia de los Muertos celebrations are all about.

As a special bonus, the hour that we sacrificed back at the beginning of Daylight Time is restored to us, but still, despite that extra slice of light on the sundial, it seems to have have grown darker out and I cringe to "always hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near." Why is that?

Thoughts from friends and poets:

"Time has come today! Time!"
Thanks Rita Burrell

"Do not let yourself be deluded by anyone;
this is all I teach." ~Rinzai
Thanks Michael Lipsey

"Take pity on time ." ~Edward Lucie - Smith

" . . . our pitiful share of time . . ." ~X.J. Kennedy

"Do not pity the dead, Harry.
Pity the living . . . " ~ J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (722)

*************

And, finally, this poem, which you might remember
was recited in the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral
-- that's how I first learned about it.
In connection with the above passages, I think it explains why
the custom of mourning for an entire year makes a lot of sense:

Funeral Blues
(Song IX / from Two Songs for Hedli Anderson)

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone.
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling in the sky the message He is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever, I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun.
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973)

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Need something to fill that extra hour?
In addition to contemplating our mortality
and that of our loved ones, past and present,
check out my book blog & get some reading done!
Current post: "The Jeweled Books in the Shelves"

Art & P.E.

One of My Grade School Art Projects ~ 1967

When my kids were little, I loved having the chance
to recreate some of my favorite projects with them.

Ben's Version ~ 30 years later ~ 1997

Many thanks to my friend and former Philly neighbor,
artist Robin Gresham - Chin for reminding me of the
joys of grade school art and physical education.

Awhile back on facebook, Robin
asked a most intriguing question:
"What is your first memory of making art?"

Her prompt yielded so many inspiring revelations
and vivid memories, all so creative and nostalgic!
For me, the moment that came to my mind:

Around age 5 (1962), I asked my mom if
I could have the lint from the dryer screen
to use for creating a snow scene in a shoebox.

I wish I could remember how that project
turned out, but, alas, no evidence survives!

From my earliest days, I enjoyed art class about a thousand
times more than I did P.E. However, I loved Robin's post
about the President's Physical Fitness Test and -- even
better -- my favorite gym class sing-along "Chicken Fat"!

"Chicken Fat" was another one of those memories that I
wanted to re-live with my children because it had given
me so much mirth in my own youth, so in the 1990's we
found it on a CD to play in the car while running errands!

First Place? You've gotta be kidding!
My only memories are of failure and humiliation
I didn't even remember that I had all this "Play Day"
memorabilia -- just happened to come across when
searching through my old notebooks for saved art.

More Childhood Art:

Samhain Triumvirate

Harvest View

Don't Shoot My Pig

"Earing"

All Souls ~ Sam's Goblin

O Christmas Tree

Inscrutable Houses

Art "Stuido"

Cityscape

Watercolor by Ben McCartney, age 8 ~ 1998

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