How do you celebrate Samhain/ Halloween?

[Rhianna813]

Greetings All,

Halloween is a favorite holiday for both the kid, kid at heart and Pagans! Yeah!! How do you celebrate it? :ghostie:

Blessings!

Rhianna

[Hamelyn]

Parties, of course! There's something to be said for solemnity, but what sort of celebration doesn't include a good time? I'm sure the universe likes us to have fun.

[Fairyelf]

Its all about family time for me..
I like to take my kids out for the tricks and treats...
then we will come home..look through my horror movie collection..
pop in a movie and snack all night!!

Ill go outside as well and just stare at the moon and just relax..

[Rhianna813]

I love costumes and usually find a way to wear 2-3 different ones during the days around Halloween. I also like answering the door and seeing the cute little kids in costume too. Going to a party with a costume contest is also fun!

I also like making an altar and decorating the house, including jack o latterns. This is definitely my favorite holiday :-)

Rhianna

[Iris]

All of the above! :dancy:

[IvyWitch]

All of the above! ^_____________^

[Morr]

Ritual Observance

[~SleepyWillow~]

TRICK OR TREATING!!!!!! that is the absolute best...my son and I go for hours then we sit and watch anything spooky on TV while I warm him up with hot chocolate and sort thru the candy. I dress up as well I don't think i will ever stop..Haloween is my absolute favorite holiday!

[TaysatWesir]

Dressing up in a costume I would have picked all the options but this year there are less trick or treaters, and parties huh none that I know of. I would do a ritual however sometimes I just like to watch horror movies all day.

[DragonDawn]

I selected all of them.
This is my first year I'll be participating in a ritual. I always dress up. I give out candy even if its just to the people in my college classes. And after the ritual is a costume party.
:D

[Tullip Troll]

All of the above...all of it

[-Sky-]

I love Halloween and Samhain!Every year I am adding more and more activities,he he.
Last year I had my first ritual observance for Samhain and generally my first ritual.I also carved 2 pumpkins,I baked cookies and made candied apples,lit a fire,dressed up as a very sexy witch lol.
This year I am doing a hell more:I am cooking soo much things like a Pumpkin cake and muffins,fortune doghnuts,candied apples and grapes.I am carving more pumpkins and making some of the crafts Iris found,I am setting up an ancestral altar,lighting a fire again,watching a horror movie etc and all these with mom participating.
But let's not rush and jinx things!

~Anna

[Know Your Rights]

I am so very much like a little kid and love to dress up. There's a hockey game this year on the 31st and my friends and I are all going dressed accordingly, one as an injured suit (hockey player who's not playing), the other is going as a team trainer, and I'm going as a hockey player who just finished practice...
I really should start doing observance, but, due to the fact that I do still live with my mom, and she's very much Christian, at the moment that is a no go...

[SilentDreams]

Eh I couldn't click any on the poll. I don't know if I want to celebrate Samhain or Halloween. I just think that finally I've out grown trick`or`treating around the town. I don't go to parties, mainly cause my friends throw few parties, and the others i'm never invited to.

Samhain kind of snuck up on me this year. I just started really learning about them for the first time these past two months. I don't think I'm really prepared. I know I know, "you don't need anything but yourself...blah blah blah". But I would like to do a little more and for that extra bit I'm unprepaird(sp?).

In any event I might go to a last minute party. Or I might celebrate Samhain, I do have a few weeks till too prepaire. So I guess my answer for now is "unsure".

[Thundermoon]

Well each and every year I go to Salem Ma, all dressed up. So far this year my costume is almost complete, right down to the shoes hehe...all Ren style, with a hint of Scottish! I walk about the cobblestones, from shop to shop. Picking up supplies here and there. Then towards nightfall, everyone usualy walks to Gallows Hill for the Samhain Ritual. I still remember my first year, so heart felt and strong, and tears, happy tears. If you don't know me yet, I am an emotional sap! Sometimes I wish I wasn't a Cancer lol

[tygherrayn]

Our celebration is a simple dinner at home with our friends who are more like family than most of our family. We often give out candy when the kids come around .. and this year there are more kids so I'm sure I'll get something for them.

But we just have a simple dinner, and spend time with those who mean the most to us. We always put out an empty plate for those who we've lost, and we write their names on a ribbon and lay it in the place setting.

[Tigerlily]

I said trick or treating because I haven't missed a year yet (I'm 17 now and debating whether I should go out this year. I'm trying to watch my figure, lol, and I might give away all my candy if I go).

I also selected ritual observance. Even though I've been pagan for a few years, I haven't done all the sabbats yet and Samhain is one I never did. But I plan on doing it this year and practice some scrying. :)

[Gwynna Star]

All of the Above!!! _witchball

[Nadira_Akila]

Yay halloween!

Well, I usually try to find a party to take my son to first or take him to one the day before...do very light trick or treating with him...enough to get at least 10 pieces of candy...

I loooooove giving out candy...it kinda of encompasses the night for me weird thing is I always loved to celebrate the day but when I was a Christian it was almost forbidden so now I make it into a scary movie...pig out creepy night camp out on the floor and couch type thing...with my friends and fam while passing out candy. So halloween night is a mixture of alot of things...thats what makes it so fun!


Peace&Light
Nadira

[pixidust]

This is the first year i'm going to celebrate Samhain. As far as holloween goes, my dad never let me do anything . "Why should you go out door to door taking candy from strangers, when you have been reaised not to?" I suppose he has a good point. that and i Guess it was for the devil.

Pixi

[Hazel BlueMoon]

Greetings All,

Halloween is a favorite holiday for both the kid, kid at heart and Pagans! Yeah!! How do you celebrate it? :ghostie:

Blessings!

Rhianna

Well, I try to celebrate my sabbats usually all the same way....

MORNING- I set up my circle if I decide to have one, I gather needed magickal items, and firewood.
MID MORNING - I read and write in my journal, and go through any goals I have for my 'Craft.
AFTERNOON - I brew any potions, I dance and nature worship...mostly I spend this time out doors with nature.
LATE AFTERNOON - I begin my fire, and I hold a feast, after I'm threw eating, I play music and dance.
AFTER DARK - I build up the fire, dress in costume, I perform various forms of worship, Rub self with oils, and drink wine, continue to dance and celebrate, maybe meditate, chant and sing, if I have a familier at the time, I usually spend some time with him/her.

Now, this is just my basic setup, I usually fill in specifics with the perticular sabbat. I learned this from an old, old witch book that I stubbled across. I love it!
Blessed Be.

[whitewater]

i can't vote, because i celebrate it all the ways! happy halloween, by the way! :ghostie:

[lythadancer]

I do all the above!! At my ritual this year we are having a "come as you were" celebration and a silent dinner. I am working on that outfit. For going out I am going as medusa! I have waist length hair, twisting it up to look like coilling snakesand putting little crystals on the ends for eyes. I can not wait!

[Rhianna813]

Well, I try to celebrate my sabbats usually all the same way....

MORNING- I set up my circle if I decide to have one, I gather needed magickal items, and firewood.
MID MORNING - I read and write in my journal, and go through any goals I have for my 'Craft.
AFTERNOON - I brew any potions, I dance and nature worship...mostly I spend this time out doors with nature.
LATE AFTERNOON - I begin my fire, and I hold a feast, after I'm threw eating, I play music and dance.
AFTER DARK - I build up the fire, dress in costume, I perform various forms of worship, Rub self with oils, and drink wine, continue to dance and celebrate, maybe meditate, chant and sing, if I have a familier at the time, I usually spend some time with him/her.

Now, this is just my basic setup, I usually fill in specifics with the perticular sabbat. I learned this from an old, old witch book that I stubbled across. I love it!
Blessed Be.

Hi Hazel,

That sounds wonderful! Because you celebrate for a whole day do take the day off from school or work? I work full time so either do something on the weekends or evening of Sabbat. I have often wished that people could have more options for "holidays" because not everyone celebrates Christmas and Easter. But if I had the whole day off for my holidays I would like to focus more on a complete celebration. Perhaps I need to just ask for these days off in advance.... _witchball

Blessings to you!

Rhianna

[Doodlebug]

Trick or Treating or handing out treats.

[enchancea]

Handing out candy and Ritual observance once everyone has gone to bed

[Enozgirl]

This year Halloween will be spent at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney, followed by the "headless horseman" hay ride, then dancing the night away :). This is the first year I'm not at home handing out candy, so I've got a friend who's cat-sitting to promise he'll be dressed up and hand out goodies.

My coven is doing Shadowfest (our Samhain) in November, so I won't miss ritual this year to hang out with the Mouse.

[Ice Rose]

Greetings All,

Halloween is a favorite holiday for both the kid, kid at heart and Pagans! Yeah!! How do you celebrate it? :ghostie:

Blessings!

Rhianna

well i would say ritual observance and the fact my hubby wants to do something real special ritualistic wise it makes me excitied to do this with him, me and him have never practiced before, and i pray to the Goddess that what we do is acceptable as a celebration of the end of the year and harvest of Samhain. i would also like to pass out candy and try to pass for a kid so i can get some to. :p

[AuroraSilvermist]

We take the kids trick or treating, and we often dress up in costume, ourselves. Plus, we have a ritual observance. But this year it looks like we'll have to do our ritual without our 7 year old daughter. She didn't like it when we turned all the lights off for Yule, and she has informed us that she doesn't want to do "that Pagan stuff." :lol:

[AuroraSilvermist]

well i would say ritual observance and the fact my hubby wants to do something real special ritualistic wise it makes me excitied to do this with him, me and him have never practiced before, and i pray to the Goddess that what we do is acceptable as a celebration of the end of the year and harvest of Samhain.

Aw, Ice Rose...whatever you do ritually to observe Samhain will come from your heart, and so it is always acceptable! I'm sure it will be beautiful.

The first ritual my husband and I did together was on Samhain, and we just sort of made it up as we went along. He called the quarters backwards (I didn't have the heart to tell him) and we just sort of fumbled through it, but it was perfect because it came from us, and from a place of love and reverence. Yours will be the same! :hugz:

[kaosxmage]

All the above!!!!!!!!!!!!
:abanana:
--Kaos

[Sleet]

All of the above!

Go trick-or-treating with the kids - in costume myself, of course!

Attend two or three Halloween parties

Pray at my altar, thanking my Lady for the bountiful summer and the beautiful autumn, wishing the forest a pleasant winter's sleep (my altar is out in the woods).

[~whispers~]

All the above of course!! Taking the kids trick or treating. And havin a family party afterwards.Then during the party myself and my Mom-n-law will sneak away while the guys and kids fill up on candy and whatever other "treats" we make. The guys know what we are going to do.. they just don't see things the way we do.But thats ok.. we all have fun and it works. This year we have even been able to include some Pagan art and decorations into our home decorating for the Holiday. So its really cool!

[savannahrose44]

There is no all of the above option! :eyez:

[~Anamorata~]

We do all but the party thang...we've gone to a few in the past, and they were certainly nothing to write home about. We'll do what we always do...wake up early and greet the dawn, then make breakfast, clean up, then begin our ritual horror story reading, take a break for trick or treating, dinner then finish our horror story reading. After lil one is in bed, SO and myself will do ritual alone(NOT sex!)...then go to bed...rather boring to some, but we enjoy it. ;)

[Memory's Flame]

I will be giving out candy!! (My youngest sister is coming to visit since her school will be out for the week before) So we'll give out candy and watch The Nightmare Before Christmas... But I will find a quick break to go outside, and meditate under the moon!

[Lady Jessi]

Greetings All,

Halloween is a favorite holiday for both the kid, kid at heart and Pagans! Yeah!! How do you celebrate it? :ghostie:

Blessings!

Rhianna
I now incorrporate it all, I have a "chosen family" now, and we try to do a ritual, and afterward we throw a party. If we are at a home where trick or treats frequent, we participate. Makes for a very nice time indeed.

Lady Jessi

[amberwolf]

MY teen girls usually dress up and take the little ones round the estate trick or treating then we have our dumb supper followed by ritual and then we party................

[fay]

So we'll give out candy and watch The Nightmare Before Christmas...

i luv the nightmare before christmas. isnt it good.
we dont tend to have loadsa celebrations, im not sure whether its living in the uk or just living in my area but its not so big on the trick or treating or parties etc. so just ritual for me i think. i think samhain might be a bit difficult for me this year as i just lost one of my friends and im so not over it. ive posted in the energy forum if people will look at that please.

blessed be

[Kaylana]

To me sabbats are a time for to be festive so I party...but sabbats are also time to be serious, so I do a special ritual also.