You Call it Hallowe'en, We Call it Samhain REDUX

America's Most Popular Holiday?

Last year, I published a revamped version of my original article for The Witches’ Voice, “You Call it Hallowe’en, We Call it Samhain”—adding some new images to refresh its look.

It seems Hallowe’en is still hugely popular and controversial, and I find myself wondering, as a Christo-fascist is now third in line for the presidency of the United States, how long it will be before Hallowe’en is outlawed. How long it will be before someone celebrating Yuletide in any way that’s not about the birth of Baby Jesus is arrested. How long it will be before women’s bodily autonomy (already eroded due to the striking down of Roe V. Wade) is forbidden completely.

I wish I was kidding but I’m not. This year’s Samhain season feels darker than usual, perhaps because so much death and violence are in the headlines every day. I’m one of those witches who tends to observe Samhain on the cross quarter (which is on November 7th this year) because the days surrounding Hallowe’en are often just too crazy and fraught with weird stuff happening. Some say that Hallowe’en is a holiday that allows people to “let off steam” because it’s the one holiday that seems to embrace death: a topic our culture isn’t very good at discussing or even acknowledging in a healthy way. Others seem to think it’s a time for watching horror movies non-stop while eating candy.

Modern witches often do rituals honoring ancestors or loved one who has passed on. But even most witches I know get caught up in the Hallowe’en frenzy. Certainly mass media only seems to want to write about witches in the month of October. (Witness recent pieces by NPR and the New York Times about the commercialization of modern witchcraft). Maybe by next week’s cross quarter I will have some more cogent thoughts on what Samhain seems to mean this year for me.

But for now, I’m letting Hallowe’en happen around me and observing it from a cozy distance. Maybe you’re doing the same? Also, if you missed my post last year, or if you want to read again about the origins of Hallowe’en and its links to Samhain, check it out.