Samhain vs. Halloween
So, the beginings of my yearly Samhain contemplations started last week whilst down painting various spooky things in LittleBro's basement. Rob, who was painting with me, expressed his annoyance at people trying to "religiousize" Halloween. So we got into a discussion of course. He demanded to know how anyone could know anything about the Celts when they didn't write anything down. I replied that for one thing, they did write things down. And of all the Pagan Celtic religious holidays, the one we're most certain about is Samhain since it's on the Coligny Calendar. (if you start talking about archeological evidence & various scholarly sorts of books, people have a harder time arguing with you, particularly if they're used to talking with less-scholarly Pagans.) It evetually struck me that his problem was he thought that if it was a religious holiday then that might cancell out the very fun Halloween we're so used to as part of American culture. I pointed out that while it's one of my most sacred holy days, I still believe in dressing up & having fun & partying like crazy. Samhain & Halloween are two different holidays. One led to the other but I can celebrate them both without either being lessend by it.
Of course, techinically neither have happened yet. However, this past weekend I went to LittleBro's Halloween Party dressed as River from Serenity/Firefly with Warboy dressed up as Jayne from the same with *the* hat & the biggest friggin Nerf gun ever made (which he left at Bro's house & which bro is now swearing he will never give back. I wonder how Roy is at fighting lefties...). One of the guys at the party came as an autograph book- a white shirt with some sharpie markers & we all got to sign it. Warboy wrote "My love for this costume ain't hard to explain- the Hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne". People had a harder time figuring out who I was meant to be- although once they got it, they thought it was great. prosperotter made all the food, which was delicious, & then got ripped & provided the entertainment. (Don't touch the straight men!) :) He was dressed as a Voodoo God, although I can't remember the name- the one with the top hat & the skull face. Little Bro was Silent Bob while his buddy was Jay. The funny thing about that is that my little brother looks a hell of a lot like Kevin Smith (on the rare occasions that Kevin has short hair). They even have some of the same facial expressions, which my little bro has been doing far longer than Kevin Smith has been famous. (I want to meet Kevin Smith someday & say, "Dude, you are sooooo much like my little brother!" just 'cause I think it'd be funny.) Along with the Voodoo God, we also had the Devil & Jesus show up. Jesus's costume waas really good- to the point where bro didn't recognize who he really was. So we were a pretty religiously diverse crowd, I must say. One of Bro's buds had wired the entire house up for sound & provided the music, which was good, although I could think of some things I would have added (The Tubular Bells remix done by Book of Love, Bela Legosi's Dead & a few other choice Bauhaus tracks, some Thrill Kill Kult from before they went disco, Tones on Tail, various & sundry other weird, weird things). The best was the screensaver he had on the computer- "No I don't have Monster Mash".
So there's my Halloween for the most part, with the exception of dressing up & hading out candy Tuesday evening & the bellydance Haflaween on Wednesday, which I think will be a blast.
Samhain... well, that's half-done, too. I went to Whispering Lake's Samhain on Sunday. It was the first rite I'd been to with them since I left the group last year. Everyone was very, very welcoming. I was really impressed with how tight the rite was. They could use some more drums, though- I was very glad I'd brought mine. :) (Of course, the last time I said they needed some more drums, certain parties took it as a critisism of them specifically, which confused me since they were already doing a ton of stuff in the ritual there's no way they could have been drumming in addition to everything else. Meanwhile, the only group I've regularly done ritual with that I would say had enough drums is Stone Creed & they've got about a dozen normally). I had some dark chocolate for The Morrigan, a song for the others, but mostly Brighid, (one of the Death Songs from the Carmina Gadelica, which I found a Paganized version of on the net years ago, I'd forgotten that I'd meant to re-write some of it since I found the original version of it & some of it's a bit more Wiccan than I'd like. I changed some of it on the fly- hope I remember what I sang!) and a song for the ancestors- The Beatles' "Blackbird"- one of my Dad's favorites. I'd really wanted to bring the Morrigan a steak & some other things for my other Patrons but I'm just too broke right now. It was good getting to see everyone & even meeting a fellow I didn't know was local but is very active on the ADF lists.
I found myself contemplating something during the rite that's something I've been keeping in the back of my head for a bit. How do I deal with honoring a dead friend when in reality I'm not inclined to honor him? Instead, what I want to do is go into the afterlife & kick his ass for being so incredibly stupid that he died. He shouldn't be dead- he should be at his bench-my old bench- at school, busily creating some really cool jewelry. Instead, he got into indulging all manner of illiscit substances & it killed him. An otherwise healthy & lively 22 year old kid. I asked George- the SD of Whispering Lake- for his thoughts. He said I should do exactly what I felt I should do- go into the afterlife & kick his ass. So perhaps I'll be attempting some sort contact-- set some things on fire & have a long conversation with him in my head.
This wouldn't be the first friend who died due to his own or someone else's stupidity but it's the first time I've had to deal with such since I've been practicing as I do now- with such emphasis on honoring the Dead at Samhain. When it's people I've loved who've passed away due to a health reason or old age, Samhain is a huge comfort. In fact, the Samhain after my Dad died was intense & amazing & helped me in many, many ways. But this is so very different & I think I need more time to get past my anger at Doc before I can properly greet him as a friend in the chain of dead that I see at Samhain.
It's been good thus far. I've been thinking of introducing my Mom to the idea of leaving food out for the dead. Not sure what she'll think of it.
Of course, techinically neither have happened yet. However, this past weekend I went to LittleBro's Halloween Party dressed as River from Serenity/Firefly with Warboy dressed up as Jayne from the same with *the* hat & the biggest friggin Nerf gun ever made (which he left at Bro's house & which bro is now swearing he will never give back. I wonder how Roy is at fighting lefties...). One of the guys at the party came as an autograph book- a white shirt with some sharpie markers & we all got to sign it. Warboy wrote "My love for this costume ain't hard to explain- the Hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne". People had a harder time figuring out who I was meant to be- although once they got it, they thought it was great. prosperotter made all the food, which was delicious, & then got ripped & provided the entertainment. (Don't touch the straight men!) :) He was dressed as a Voodoo God, although I can't remember the name- the one with the top hat & the skull face. Little Bro was Silent Bob while his buddy was Jay. The funny thing about that is that my little brother looks a hell of a lot like Kevin Smith (on the rare occasions that Kevin has short hair). They even have some of the same facial expressions, which my little bro has been doing far longer than Kevin Smith has been famous. (I want to meet Kevin Smith someday & say, "Dude, you are sooooo much like my little brother!" just 'cause I think it'd be funny.) Along with the Voodoo God, we also had the Devil & Jesus show up. Jesus's costume waas really good- to the point where bro didn't recognize who he really was. So we were a pretty religiously diverse crowd, I must say. One of Bro's buds had wired the entire house up for sound & provided the music, which was good, although I could think of some things I would have added (The Tubular Bells remix done by Book of Love, Bela Legosi's Dead & a few other choice Bauhaus tracks, some Thrill Kill Kult from before they went disco, Tones on Tail, various & sundry other weird, weird things). The best was the screensaver he had on the computer- "No I don't have Monster Mash".
So there's my Halloween for the most part, with the exception of dressing up & hading out candy Tuesday evening & the bellydance Haflaween on Wednesday, which I think will be a blast.
Samhain... well, that's half-done, too. I went to Whispering Lake's Samhain on Sunday. It was the first rite I'd been to with them since I left the group last year. Everyone was very, very welcoming. I was really impressed with how tight the rite was. They could use some more drums, though- I was very glad I'd brought mine. :) (Of course, the last time I said they needed some more drums, certain parties took it as a critisism of them specifically, which confused me since they were already doing a ton of stuff in the ritual there's no way they could have been drumming in addition to everything else. Meanwhile, the only group I've regularly done ritual with that I would say had enough drums is Stone Creed & they've got about a dozen normally). I had some dark chocolate for The Morrigan, a song for the others, but mostly Brighid, (one of the Death Songs from the Carmina Gadelica, which I found a Paganized version of on the net years ago, I'd forgotten that I'd meant to re-write some of it since I found the original version of it & some of it's a bit more Wiccan than I'd like. I changed some of it on the fly- hope I remember what I sang!) and a song for the ancestors- The Beatles' "Blackbird"- one of my Dad's favorites. I'd really wanted to bring the Morrigan a steak & some other things for my other Patrons but I'm just too broke right now. It was good getting to see everyone & even meeting a fellow I didn't know was local but is very active on the ADF lists.
I found myself contemplating something during the rite that's something I've been keeping in the back of my head for a bit. How do I deal with honoring a dead friend when in reality I'm not inclined to honor him? Instead, what I want to do is go into the afterlife & kick his ass for being so incredibly stupid that he died. He shouldn't be dead- he should be at his bench-my old bench- at school, busily creating some really cool jewelry. Instead, he got into indulging all manner of illiscit substances & it killed him. An otherwise healthy & lively 22 year old kid. I asked George- the SD of Whispering Lake- for his thoughts. He said I should do exactly what I felt I should do- go into the afterlife & kick his ass. So perhaps I'll be attempting some sort contact-- set some things on fire & have a long conversation with him in my head.
This wouldn't be the first friend who died due to his own or someone else's stupidity but it's the first time I've had to deal with such since I've been practicing as I do now- with such emphasis on honoring the Dead at Samhain. When it's people I've loved who've passed away due to a health reason or old age, Samhain is a huge comfort. In fact, the Samhain after my Dad died was intense & amazing & helped me in many, many ways. But this is so very different & I think I need more time to get past my anger at Doc before I can properly greet him as a friend in the chain of dead that I see at Samhain.
It's been good thus far. I've been thinking of introducing my Mom to the idea of leaving food out for the dead. Not sure what she'll think of it.