Samhain feasts are laid that none should hear the spirits’ hungry wail.
Ghosts and witches call and cross the planes from whence they’re wont to dwell.
Dead and living sense each other through a never thinner veil.
Jack O’Lantern walks the earth refused by Heaven and by Hell!
Mortals venture out at night to celebrate the summer’s end.
Witches stroke their cats and solemnly intone the Samhain chants.
Leprechauns and fairies play their mischief, flit about and dance.
Spirits speak, and lights from ghostly lanterns flicker in the wind!
Scary is the night when souls all rise to take their Samhain walks,
For not all are happy to be crossing to the other side.
Every frightened spirit chills the rooms and spaces where it stalks,
And the wrongly dead wreak vengeance on the guilty where they hide!
But the brave and blameless souls on either side anticipate
Playing tricks and sharing treats as on this night they celebrate.
So the merry souls who walk beside you in the Samhain night
May just find it kind of fun to thrill you with a ghostly fright!
Author notes
Samhain: (SOW-in) Gaelic – summer's end. 'Samhain' is the name of the month identified as November in the Gregorian calendar. Samhain Night in the Celtic Pagan calendar is the celebration which Christian culturists tried to appropriate as All Hallows' Eve or Hallowe'en. Most of the familiar traditions of the holiday have their origins in the ancient celebration of the end of summer.
In a list
A contest entry
- Halloween Contest by galfalfa.
525 points, ended October 14, 2008, 10 entries
Honorable mention
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 6 of 6
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I envisioned Samhain Night as i read through this poem full of imagery - too bad i missed the feast, feeling sort of hungry
thanks for entering my contest,
galfalfa -
this poem is so deep and misteriouse brilliant imagery and a great write
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Other than Yule, Samhain is the ancient holiday still most widely celebrated in modern Western culture, albeit with little consideration for its religious/spiritual nature. It's a shame our culture does not take better advantage of such opportunities to renew our spiritual awareness and values while shedding some of the materialism which is the kitsch of the soul.
I enjoy the rituals of many faiths as artistic exercises and expressions. However, I find little spiritual significance in ritual except as a way of opening the mind so the human spirit may commune with the Divine. I believe in the psychological power of ritual if not in the magic(k).
I have no religion except generosity and good will, but rituals such as I practice are directed in my Christian faith. God created the sun, the moon and the stars to be signs for the seasons. Considering the almost universal significance given them in the world's religions, the turnings of the seasons seem to be divinely ordained evenings and mornings for the renewal in one's mind an awareness of the spirit. At those times especially it is good for me to raise my eyes and heart with reverence for the majesty and loving kindness of the Creator... and then go celebrate with joyous hilarity the life's breath and blood with which I am blessed! -
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I am a Pagan and you have captured Samhain (SA waine in my English accent)wonderfully, more so than most of us olde Pagan wryters.
You are quite correct there is very little to be said for ritual and though I do practice a few, as a form of communion with other Pagans and spiritual meditation, for me the real essence of spirituality (whatever faith) is who we are, how we treat ourselves, others and our world. That is what I keep in my 'Shadows' as I walk my path through life.
Brightest Blessings, my friend
Jem -
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And to you
I think I have never actually heard someone say the word 'Samhain'. However one who is familiar with it should say it in my hearing would probably be the pronunciation I would adopt, be it an English speaker or a speaker of one of the extant Celtic tongues.
I am pleased to hear from a follower of the ancient ways that my words are accepted for the spirit in which they are shared. My familiarity with Paganism is limited to what I read. Any misrepresentation or perceived disrespect is unintentional and due to my narrow comprehension, not any ill will or disregard for another's spirituality or faith.
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