Halloween Magic: Cats, Dressup, Pumpkin Carving, Cooking and Campfires (Hallosteem Photography Contest Entry)
I've gotten increasingly fond of celebrating the time of Samhain/Halloween. Allthough most people think of it as a consumerist tradition from America, it is also deeply rooted in European traditions which have been mostly lost to us. It feels good to recreate the old traditions again and give them a new personal meaning. Personally I always celebrate the seasons as our planet circles the sun. I want it to feel fun, creative and purposeful. I find it important to celebrate the fruits of our labor, as life easily turns out to be all work and no play. For people wanting to live off the land and practise homesteading, earth based spirituality brings a richness into daily life.
For me Samhain means a conclusion of the season, when everything we have grown has been harvested, our land is made ready for the winter, and it is time to let go and just breathe a little bit. A time to reflex inward into the dimensions of the mind and the psyche. To gaze up at the moon and the stars, and to appreciate all those who were before you. To say goodbye to the autumn and all the richness of color. To dance with the fairies around the campfire. In Norway we call this time of the year Alfablot, the Sacrifice to the Elves, the “elves” in Norse not meaning Faerie but referring to spirits that are both of nature as well as the souls of our ancestors who live on in mounds, where they can still be sought and communicated with. Read more here: http://freya.theladyofthelabyrinth.com/?page_id=339
This year I decided to pumpkin carve the Elven star (also called the faery star or the septagram), because it has been our little family's personal symbol for most of our life. I guess the symbology and personal meaning of this is best described in a later blog post, but for now, it was fun and a bit time consuming to carve.
Life retreats into the bulbs and the roots,
The time has passed for the flowers and the fruits,
As leaves fall thick and carpet the ground,
The Dark Mother waits in silence profound.
The veil grows thin at the time of the dead,
As we honour our long-gone ancestors,
In whose footsteps we tread.
Now is the time for the apple feasts,
Time stands still for humans and beasts
Seek the wisdom of days gone by,
To deal with the past and let it lie.
Face your shadow and accept your faults,
Look now to the future to seek your results.
All pictures are, as always, mine, and I choose to enter them into the "Hallosteem Photography Contest" held by @aaronli, because why not? :)
My kind of wild Halloween party: With my cats, books, magical atmospheric vampire music, pumpkin soup and pie, cinnamon tea, campfires, fairylights and lanterns. Welcome to my hermit life.
Do you mark this time of the year?
That carved pumpkin is truly lovely @voiceofnature !
Me and some friends actually run psychedelic events under the name Álfheimr inspired from Norse mythology, and we often place our events on pagan holidays. I think we might have a few interests in common :)
Last year we did a celebration of Mabon:
https://steemit.com/norway/@xtetrahedron/alfheimr-mabon-2016-psychedelic-forest-gathering-in-norway
I very much enjoy your style of home decoration btw!
I did try to host a little psychedelic halloween party at our place yesterday actually. Sometimes it sucks to live so far away from everyone, as I wish we were more people. I wanted to go to Alfheimr actually, so say hi if I ever get there ;) We run an ecovillage project inspired from Norse mythology, we are Vanaheimr... hehe!
That sounds like my type of Halloween party!
Where in Norway is your eco-village project located?
I would love to come visit sometime in the summer half of the year and have a look at your project!
I'm surrounded by people that are about to embark on their own eco-village projects around Norway, and I'm also very interested to create my own eco-village for Álfheimr events and workshops in the future. It would be a way more sustainable way to make events for sure and the only way we would ever consider making a big event like a festival again...
I would love to draw some inspiration from other projects around the country, especially Vanaheimr!
Actually we did not buy the land yet, but we are ready for it as soon as the right place shows up, preferably in the fjords, where mountains are epic and the forest is lush. We are extremely serious about our project ;) Currently living in the county of Møre og Romsdal. I think Sogn og Fjordane can be beautiful as well.
Unfortunately that's what most people do, creating festivals on other people's land, and it kind of sucks.. I heard they've bought some of the land at Værøy though?
Some of the midnight sun crew bought the old air strip up there, but we in Alfheimr for sure have not bought land anywhere. We are two very different crews ;-)
Yes, I know. But that's an interesting move :)