Halloween and Samhain today (or tomorrow, depending on your traditions), Dia de los Muertos and All Saints Day tomorrow. Then All Souls Day the following day. Safe to say that it is pretty hallowed few days in store for us! Happy autumn holy days for all who are celebrating. Here’s to many more!
This year’s celebrations are not going as planned. Typically every year we do what we call a Harvest Feast at our house (less pagan sounding than Samhain Feast for our non-pagan friends and family). We cook a nice meal, invite people to bring their own food, and we play Halloween music and socialize. It’s really a combination of a few different cultural traditions– for instance, people dress up in modern day costumes (a secular Halloween tradition), We have an altar for our departed loved ones (Dia de los Muertos) where I put a plate of food out for them (Samhain) along with soul cakes (Christianized Samhain?).
This year, we won’t be having a party. My wife is working, so I’ll be home alone. No one to celebrate with. So what am I gonna do?
HERE’S THE PLAN:
Yes, I will be alone, but that doesn’t mean I can’t a fun, meaningful holiday.
What is your favorite pagan holiday?
Not gonna lie, it’s Samhain all the way. I love its connections to Halloween, I love how it 
makes me feel witchy, I love watching all those cheesy movies like Practical Magic, Halloweentown, and of course, HOCUS POCUS. It’s the perfect time for a holiday because it’s the end of cotober, beginning of november, when it’s cold and maybe rainy but not too cold or rainy, and in some parts of the country the leaves are not only falling, but also in magical colors– although in the bay area they are mostly brown leaves. Still, hearing that crunch under your feet it really nice. It’s also perfectly acceptable to wear jackets and scarves by this time, so I can wear most of my clothes (I don’t really do shorts, or tank tops, or really shorts sleeves, and I love to layer). I’m just in a really good mood. I get to be festive and weird and it’s okay because that’s really the spirit of Halloween, which shares time and space on my calendar. So judgement is low around this time of year. Continue reading
After putting Judaism on the back burner I felt an almost immediate sense of relief. Honestly, it’s hard spending most of your time defending your spiritual decisions, and although it was fulfilling I don’t think I was fully ready to take that on. So when I finally gave myself relief I had this burst of energy. I wrote a song, a chant, and wrote a poem for my prayer book! I’m not ready to share anything yet, because part of me is really self conscious about my creative works, but just getting it on paper is a big deal for me. I have a hard time dealing with the fact that I’m not perfect,so not getting it right the first time I put pen to paper, having to revise or do more than one draft infuriates me and prevents me from starting a lot of creative projects (including blog posts). That’s probably why I have so many half finished short stories in abandoned notebooks, and also why I have so much yarn and yet no handmade hats or scarves to my name at the moment (I knit and crochet). The truth is that I have a hard time enjoying the journey– I’m all about the destination. I want things to get done and I want them done right. and that can really interfere with my learning because I get tunnel vision on the destination and I don’t explore. And if I hit an obstacle I give up in frustration. Continue reading
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