I have to admit, Halloween, or Samhain is my favorite holiday of the year. Here in the desert, the weather finally cools off and has a crisp bite. Pumpkins and Jack O Lanterns appear on people’s porches. And celebrating Samhain where the veil is thinnest between the worlds of the living and the dead is always a special time for a Spirit Dancer like myself.
Many years, and this year will be no exception, I’ll have a ritual to ask for another year of blessings and guidance from my ancestors. This is normally my Father, Grandmother, and Mother. They mean a lot to me, and I miss them all very much.
But I have to admit, I also get a big kick out of dressing up and acting out as a, well, witch. I go to costume and play Bingo even just to have an excuse to go out in public in witchy clothes, or what the mainstream considers witchy clothes. It comes from my family. Even though they were not wiccans, my Mom REALLY got into Halloween. My favorite was one year, my mom took one of the low notes from the pipe organ in our basement. (Yes, I really grew up with a pipe organ in my basement, and at one time 7 pianos, including a baby grand, in my house.) She tied a string to the door and when a kid came up and yelled trick or treat, she blew on the low, spooky note, and slowly opened the door with the string.
Unfortunately, the kid freaked and went running screaming down the sidewalk. We had to run out after him and explain it was a joke, which when he calmed down, he was ok with.
After that, she only did that when we peeked out the door and saw it was teenagers and not smaller kids.
We also would wire up the baby grand piano in the living room and when someone came up and yelled trick or treat, turned it on so it started playing. Any kid not familiar with player pianos, it looked like a ghost was playing the piano.
I even had a neighbor in the next block that worked at a funeral parlor. Every year he brought home a coffin, dressed as dracula, and would open it and sit up and talk to the trick or treaters. That was a hoot, and I used to trick or treat well into my teens just to see the show.
Now, I live in a town that has one acre lots. Fear of candy tampering, and my tremendously long driveway (my house sits waaaaay back) keeps the trick or treaters down to one or two die hards a year. I really miss my youth with small lots and houses that everyone trick or treated and we all knew each other.
What about you? What do you do to celebrate Halloween, Samhain and, I can just hear Donovan singing it, the season of the witch?
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