How to Celebrate Samhain With Your Family

How to celebrate the Pagan holiday of Samhain, which is on Halloween. And you don't even have to be Pagan! Samhain is night we honor those who have passed before us, like Day of the Dead, but different. The night of Samhain is when the veil between the worlds is the thinnest and spirits can pass back and forth easily. This is the basic way we celebrate this holiday with my two sons and husband after trick or treating. We love Halloween and Samhain! I hope you like my instructions and have fun!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pictures of deceased loved ones
• Talking Stick
• Candles
• Other tradtional altar equipment (optional)
• Deck of Tarot cards
• Some kind of can that is fireproof (must only be used by adults!)
• 4 small cannisters with lids (like margarine tubs, little ones) numbered 1-4 and small scraps of paper to be folded, say 20 in each cannister, depending how many people are participating.
• Paper and pencil

1. Set up an altar or table with the pictures of your deceased loved ones. Put things by their pictures that remind you of them. Usually Pagans only honor the loved ones that have passed on this particular year (since last Samhain-pronounced Sow-en), but I do all of mine, every year. Put your fireproof container off to the side, place the 4 containers in reach for later, along with your tarot cards, and anything else you will use.

2. Place your candles, you could do one by each picture. Or set them up in the four corners of the room, or whatever makes you feel good. Just make sure there is nothing to catch on fire by them! You could also set up Halloween decorations around your house or room or altar as well. Light your candles either the traditional Pagan way, or just light them one by one and ask to be protected from all negative energies. Imagine a white protective bubble around you and your family, that stays around you wherever you go.

3. Give everyone a sheet of paper and a pencil, ask them to write down any negative habits they have or negative things that's happened to them throughout the past year. Ask them to really concentrate on them as they write. (You might have to help the little ones out on this one). When done, place all papers in a pile to be used later.

4. Now everyone sit together in a circle, get out your talking stick (if you don't have one, make one! Use anything that works.) Hold the stick and explain that whoever has the stick gets to talk, and nobody interrupts. Give the stick to the littlest one first. Ask them to look at the pictures and say the good things they remember about each person who has passed on. And if they placed an item next to the picture, ask them to tell why (but don't force them if they don't want to). Then pass the stick, by age. When all done, then say something to the degree of: "We have gathered tonight to honor our ancestors who passed before us. We honor and remember you this Samhain night, and ask that if you'd like to visit us, please do so, with only the best intentions. Our protective bubble prevents any negativity from entering our space." You could say this first before you talk about the pictures, but its your choice.

5. At this point, you could do a group meditation of some sort, and ask for any psychic visions or something like that. But again, its your choice. I have a few kids books on mediation that I do with my kids, like a guided story. You could make this very non-religious and leave out certain things you don't agree with or like. That's the beauty of it, its all about what you want. There's no "book" that says "You have to do this or that". You could do a guided mediation where the they meet their spiritual guides and they could ask for help for the upcoming year.

6. Now, get out your tarot cards (or playing cards, but you'd have to have a book that interprets them for you) or other divination device. Shuffle and have each family member/friend pick a card. That's their card for the year, keep track of it. Its what you need to work on for the upcoming year. (I have a book that I keep all of my stuff in). My son one year picked a card with a black lab on it, walking through what looked like the gates of heaven. My son was still at this time very distraught over the death of our beloved black lab, Beethovan. The card told him it was time to let go. He cried, but understood that the card was right. And that night, I swear the dog's spirit was there while we were drawing cards. I felt a nuzzle in my hair and I knew he was there. I tell you, this is always the most emotional and beautiful part of the night. I hope you are moved by this step as well.

7. One thing we do every year, is draw a new spirit name, if we want to. I have these little containers that once held moon sand, and in each one (4 of them numbered 1-4) I have little pieces of paper with words (one has nouns, one had adjectives, one has element type words, and one has verbs). Then we each draw from each one and read them in order from 1-4 and that's our new the name the spirits have blessed us with. My eldest son's is Spiraling Fire Salamander Seed, and I found pictures on the internet with those words and I made him a poster to put up in his room. You don't have pick a new one every year, we just do if we either outgrow or don't particularly like our old name. Tell your family its a spiritual name, not to be used unless for spiritual purposes.

8. Ok, get those papers out you wrote in the beginning about negative habits, etc. Now, have each person hold theirs (help the kiddos on this one!) and say something like "I vow to try to better myself this year, and get rid of these negative things." My eldest son has lots of anger toward his father, so he writes things about that, so I could have him say "I vow to be more understanding with my father and not get so mad at him". You get what I mean, just have them say something that pertains to their situation. Then have them take one edge of the paper and dip it into the fire a candle (or if you are outdoors, use a lighter) and burn the paper in the fireproof container. Its a new year, time to get rid of the old habits!! Tell everyone to envision the negativity melting away into the sky (or open window) with the smoke, to feel it leaving their bodies/lives/etc. Then have them imagine themselves living a life without those negative things, and how much lighter and happier they feel.

9. Last but not least, extinguish the candles properly and thank the spirits for visiting. Usually by this time, my kids are SOUND ASLEEP on the floor haha! Tell everyone to keep their bubbles around them whenever they remember to, and it will help keep the negativity of daily life away from them. I hope you have as much fun on Samhain as I do every year. This is the one holiday I always celebrate, as I feel it is very important to honor those who have passed before us, and know I will never forget them. Also, remember to leave a plate of food out for passing spirits!

Tips & Warnings

• Don't take rituals and rites and celebrations too seriously, trying to get everything perfectly right, as you will do nothing but stress yourself out. Its supposed to be fun! Not perfect :) Whether it be Samhain or birthdays or Christmas, or anything else you celebrate.
• Gather your stuff while your family hangs out and watches TV or trick-or-treats. OR gather your stuff the day before and that way its all together.
• Come up with some cool words to use in your containers. Don't use words nobody would want to have in a spirit name :) Like colors, a boy might accidentally pick "pink". He's going to be mad at you for that one :)
• I always smudge people before a ritual or celebration. It helps them feel more "formal" and gets rid of negativity. I smudge the room, too. I use sage bundles and fan the smoke around the fronts and back of each person with my hand.
• Lighting candles, sage, and the papers are for adults ONLY! So when you are done, make sure you put your lighters/matches where the kids won't go behind your back and play with it. Just supervise closely if you have kids!

[Walkaboutangel]

on 10/30/2008 Blessed be

Angel

[MagickMomma]

on 10/4/2008 Please post a comment to let me know if you like this or not!