While some Eugene residents are celebrating All Hallows’ Eve with candy and costumes, others will be observing a traditional Celtic festival from whose roots grew the Halloween pumpkin.
Samhain, with pronunciations that include “Sow-in,” “Sow-ain” or “Sow-een,” means “summer’s end.” It is the holiday when pagans welcome the new year, enjoy deep introspection, honor ancestors and communicate with the recently deceased. Many believe that the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest during this time.
Depending on one’s personal tradition or denomination, there are different ways of keeping the holiday.
“More of the Wiccan-based side of it is you do gather in a circle,” said Donella-Elizabeth Alston, a member of a women-only religious group called Sophia Sanctuary. “We consecrate the circle with the elements of air, fire, water and earth.”
Wicca is an offshoot of paganism, and involves worship of a deity pair rather than a singular pagan goddess.
Alston said the group then calls the four directions — north, east, south and west — each of which has different energy. Then they call down the feminine deity. Members of the circle may call up a question, or perhaps request to speak to the deceased. When the ritual ends, they say farewell to the goddess.
Sophia Sanctuary’s ritual is scheduled to take place Nov. 4,
on lunar Samhain, which is
the closest day to a full moon or “dark moon.”
Samhain takes place at different times, depending whether people choose to celebrate Oct. 31 or on old Halloween, which usually falls two weeks into November. Pagans determine the date for old Halloween using the ancient Julian Calendar.
A three-day celebration from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2 is also common. In addition, many pagans celebrate Samhain at any time during those three days, which are often referred to as All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
The holiday is traditionally a meat-eating festival, where people slaughter cattle and harvest the last of the vegetables to prepare for the winter, so it’s a good opportunity to cook a feast.
“It’s a very important part of our rituals,” said Norma Joyce, the priestess for the Eugene chapter of Women in Conscious Creative Action. “After it’s over, we eat.”
Another ritual is eating Dumb Supper, a dinner prepared and eaten in silence for a time of introspection.
Many pagans and Wiccans focus on other elements of Samhain.
“Most strongly, it’s a fire festival,” said K.C. Anton, proprietor of the pagan supply shop Woodhart: Ways of Olde.
He said fire guides the good spirits to the doors of living relatives and keeps the bad ones away.
“That’s where a jack-o’-lantern comes from,” Anton said.
However, people didn’t always carve pumpkins — they used to carve turnips.
The Celts used large orange turnips more like modern-day rutabagas, said Deborah Snavely, who works part-time at Woodhart and is Anton’s domestic partner.
However, at the heart of all the traditions, from pumpkin carving to circle rituals, Samhain is a time for family, friends and quietude.
Dennis Duvaul, who publishes a directory of local pagans, plans to eat a vegetarian meal at home Oct. 31, perhaps do a short ritual, and then pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters.
“I’m definitely planning on having a quiet evening at home with my partner honoring our ancestors,” Duvaul said.