Samhain (pronounced Sa-wain) is the Celtic New Year. In the past, this was a time when animals were killed if they couldn’t be fed through the winter, and the vegetation is dead or dying, so Samhain is associated with death. This holiday has been Christianized as “All Saints Day”, but it is more widely celebrated as Hallowe’en – All Hallows Eve. People in costumes of ghosts, skeletons, and witches preserve the tradition that the veil thins between the worlds and fairies and spirits walk the earth.
Dances we did this year include:
Turning Toward the Morning – a dance to Gordon Bok’s song about hope as the winter closes in.
The Shaman Dance, Sacred Spirits – both dances celebrate the presence of the spirit world at this time.
Night Woman – honoring the Crone “Skull and bone woman..”
Hex – a powerful dance of breaking through to a new beginning
Hora Starina – one of those dances that is itself a ritual
The Shift – a dance ritual of transformation.
Omal Red Rain – a simple traditional dance done to a haunting piece of music by Greek, Turkish, and Armenian musicians.
hallowmass, all hallows’ eve, the celtic new year, the time of true beginning when the spirit is freed from material form, the sacred fire bursts the outworn mold and prepares to create anew. to the outer senses, in the visible world, death walks. the killing frost comes, the dry seeds fall, the trees shed their masks and draperies and stand forth with their structure laid bare. the sky reappears in its timeless glory, the gates between the worlds open once more, ghosts and fairies and mortals meet at the crossroads. now we see the death face of the goddess, kali, kerridwen, the virgin mary with her dead son on her lap, the grotesque form of sheila-na-gig, simultaneously womb and tomb.
From The Feminine of History is Mystery, facing page 82