Happy Samhain!

Well, today is Samhain! Uhm...not much else to add. Everything I wanted to post about Samhain happened last week.
Anyway, Happy Samhain/Halloween everyone. Hope you all have a great day.

Me? I changed my bank account! Yeah, that was exciting. But hey, I have a visa card now, so I don't have to wait about a billion years for money to transfer for my online subscriptions.

Halloween Week-Prejudice

Very year, thousands of fundamentalists, usually Christian, try to boycott Halloween because they believe it is a “Satanist” holiday. Though modern Hollywood has perverted ‘witchcraft’ and Pagan symbols, these fundies tend to take things much too far.

Think of the movie Rosemary’s Baby. The writers did their research: they got a lot of the Witch terminology right, like Sabbats, and they showed the witches with herb gardens, and using these herbs in drinks and to help Rosemary’s baby grow properly. But, they also made the witches into Satanists, and Rosemary’s infant was indeed the son of the Devil. This film was made in the 60s, when the horror genre was really getting its own niche. This is where you had the very experimental type of horror movies, like Rosemary’s Baby or the Exorcist.

Now, as for fundies...this is an excerpt from a BBC article
“Rev Campbell said his church was opposed to Hallowe'en because it was "one of the two major days for Satanists", and "God's word clearly condemns and warns people about celebrating or glorifying Hallowe'en or the occult".” -- Source

How can anyone even consider this is at all true? Yes, Halloween has negative connotations because of the movies, as do witches, but for the general population, no one really cares about the history of Halloween. Kids like dressing up and getting free candy, and in the end, shouldn’t we, at least the general population, just let kids have fun without spewing nonsense about how it glorifies evil.

I know a lot of Christians don’t feel that way about Halloween. Even if they are ignorant to Paganism, they don’t let it get in the way of fun. When I went to Sunday School, we had Halloween crafts the Sunday before Halloween. Even if our ministers thought it may have at one point been a Devil-worshipping holiday—which is, of course, bullshit—they now see it as a fun holiday for kids to dress up and get free candy, and they aren’t going to go out and sacrifice people to the Devil if they do.

It can be hard to be a Pagan and listen to this hatred being spewed out; we want to rid the world of ignorance. But, it can be hard to reverse centuries of brainwashing on the Church’s part.
I have absolutely no conclusion here....

Anyway, question time: How do you deal with prejudice?

Halloween Week-Scents

This is more of a question I'm posing to you. What sort of smells make you think of Halloween/Samhain?

For me? Well, I don't like the "fall" scents. They are too heavy and they make me feel gross. So, things like pumpkin, or maple are out of the question. For Halloween/Samhain, I like the smell of apple. It's still light and fruity which I like, but also with some of the more autumnal elements.

Halloween Week-Rituals

A lot of people have big rituals for Samhain, and a lot of people have small or solitary rituals for Samhain.

This year, I don't know what my mother has planned, if anything, so knowing me I'll end up hanging out in my room with Quetzalcoatl and watch Animated Star Trek (No! I will not watch Indianna Jones 4 Quetzalcoatl! I'm too afraid of the grey, and it was a pretty shitty movie) or some horror flick like Rosemary's Baby, or Carrie. I have to go to the bank that afternoon though.
Yay! Banks!

Anyway, what sort of rituals do you do on Samhain?

Halloween Week-Samhain Food Lore

Halloween is right around the corner, so today I'd like to talk about ritual food for Samhain.
It is traditional on Samhain night to leave a plate of food outside the home for the souls of the dead. We used cake last year at Lisey's house. The first slice goes to the house, then you distribute slices to everyone else, and slices for the dead people you want to remember.
A candle placed in the window guides them to the Lands of Eternal Summer, and burying apples in the hard-packed earth "feeds" the passed ones on their journey.

For food, beets, turnips, apples, corn, nuts, gingerbread, cider, mulled wines and pumpkin dishes are appropriate, as are meat dishes. You can pick-and-choose what you'd like to use, based on your own tastes, of course.

Halloween Week-Decorations

Halloween is just around the corner, so (hopefully) you have your decorations all out. We have a halloween village, some crosss-stitch my mom made, and a halloween tree with Nightmare Before Christmas and Peanuts Gang ornaments. Of course, we also have candles, pumpkins, and (for some reason) the cast of my dad's teeth that his dentist gave him when he got his mouth guard.

So, what sort of decorations do you have? Do you have different decorations for your Samhain celebrations, or do you use the hokey Halloween stuff?

Us? We like the hokey stuff, so we're going to keep that up.

Halloween Week-Costumes

Hello everyone, welcome to Halloween Week! All Halloween, all week!

So, last night I had my Halloween party. It was a blast. I’ll be sure to give you all a link to the photos later, when I upload them onto my computer.

My harem girl costume is too hot and kind of uncomfortable to wear all day on the 31st, so I’m going as a fortune teller for that day. I’m going to set up a sort of altar on my coffee table, with a deck of my tarot cards, and my crystal ball. I’ll wear a long skirt and one of my poet (aka super puffy) tops, and tie one of my many altar cloths to my head, and talk in a slightly over-kill Russian accent.
As much as I loved my harem girl costume, I do need something a bit easier.

Are any of you guys going to be dressed up for Halloween day? What are you going to wear? Will you have a costume for fun and a more serious one for any samhain rituals? Will you wear "tradional" garb for samhain?