Well it is that time of year. We actually celebrate Samhain and we honor our past ancestors the next day. But the decor and some of the activities go hand in hand. There are other ways to commemorate this time of year as well that are traditions of many places around the globe. Each one has very colorful and sometimes pretty spooky looking decorations and costumes. There are activities that include parades, festivals, concerts, trick or treating and of course PARTIES! I by no means can mention all of those different celebrations here, but if you are interested please look them up and even add some of the traditions into your celebrations. Sometimes it is fun and really fulfilling to get to know about other cultures and traditions other than your own heritage. Kids love it too.
This is a fun time of year. My family loves pumpkin everything and of course the decorating. We love horror movies, haunted houses, trick or treating, pumpkin patches and carving pumpkins. At home we do have some traditions we uphold and of course the party. Like I said we honor those who go before us so sometime is spent around a bonfire reminiscing and celebrating what character traits we inherited or got from knowing them. We have hot cocoa and smores. Since Samhain is the end of the year on our seasonal wheel, we talk about what we want to let go of and new goals we want to ponder on during the winter months of Yule. Then it is inside for the party.
As you can see above here are some pics from our previous Samhain. There is the bonfire and then there is a colorful fire. The colorful fire was done with a chemical base solution you can get in the heater section at the store. When we talk about what we want to let go of we each throw a handful in the fire to symbolize see those things go up in flames. Then there is the pumpkin carving. They got really creative with a variety of interests. The long table with the many tea candles is the alter dedicated to the many who have gone before us. Sometimes we light a few for whole generations before us and talk about what they went through to get humanity where it is today. The smaller decorations are from a table set up inside. One of the things we did last year was a blessing pumpkin. Everyone wrote something they were grateful for and put it into the pumpkin. No names were mentioned. On Thanksgiving, sometimes we do this on Mabon, we read them out loud and spent a moment to be thankful.
So for the food of the party I have included some pics above to give you an idea of what I made. I couldn’t find my pics in this computer so I took it from the ideas I found on Google. We did bobbing for apples, black spaghetti with creepy creatures and a drizzled orange pumpkin sauce over it, skull shaped pumpkin bread, orange punch with some critters and eyeballs in it, some adult Halloween inspired alcohol cocktails, holiday inspired cookies, and of course lots of candy. One year we even attempted the whole human body made out of foods. That was a big challenge but fun. The little ones wouldn’t touch it, Ha.
For decorations we had the black lights with candles and lanterns everywhere. Balloons and streamers with the colors of black, orange and white. We had graffiti all over the place, spooky music, costumes, and we mimicked dances we found online. We told some spooky stories and just hang out.
We had family, friends and a person came from work with his family. That made about 20 people. We are in the mist of putting the final touches on this years activities. One of the things included is going to see Friday Night At Freddy’s Movie coming out right before Samhain. Another thing we did this year was learn to crochet enough to make some pumpkins and bats. We painted some canvases and we painted the pumpkins instead of carving them. We put them out front with black mulch in the flower bed along with other decorations.
I hope you take the time to enjoy this time of year in what ever way brings you joy.
