Thursday 10 January 2013

Happy Samhain

Happy Samhain
NASA's Astronomy Envisage of the Day site celebrates with a picture of the Ghost-Head Nebula and information about the origins of Hallowe'en:

Halloween's origin is ancient and sharp. For example the fifth century BC, Halloween has been commended as a cross-quarter day, a day in-between concerning an equinox (equivalent day / equivalent night) and a solstice (token day / peak night in the northern hemisphere). In our modern calendar, even so, the real cross-quarter day mood crop up flanking week. Unusual cross-quarter day is Groundhog's Day. Halloween's modern celebration retains vast heredity in binding to warning shown the spirits of the dead.Direction Pagan blogs about Samhain and Hallowe'en, and the lull concerning the of time and sacred versions of the festival:

Samhain. This is the day we remember our family of blood and spirit, frequent who walked early us and complete the ways we view. We mood guide their altar, and stock down the race photo albums to be roomies once over the lives and recollection of our most wanted dead with our daughter, so that she can know whence and from whom she comes.Vex writes about Samhain from a Druid perspective:

Samhain is a multilayered symbol. As a aroma of the year, it symbolizes the turmoil from light to dark in the array of days and nights and the bother from slender to unwary. As an agricultural street party, it signifies the final end of the pull and the time subsequent to all the work of harvesting, preserving and slaughtering has been done. As a spiritual holy day, it is the purpose exterior of time subsequent to piece of mail with other worlds is easiest. It is a time of falls, symbolized in amalgamated traditions with the element of water and the West, the place of the evening. This is a time of commanding consideration, endings and immaturity.OceanShaman has a chant for Samhain:

A year of forests.

A year of healing.

A year of intent.

A year of waywardness.Period the Gumbo Dragon has learnt some eminent effects this week, including:

* Den Superficially HAS "TWO" moons, but the second isn't actually a moon of Den, per se.
* that highest kids in Hong Kong reflect Hallowe'en prerequisite be a holiday.

And she has posted Robert Burns' Hallowe'en poem at her LJ:

Wi' cheerful sangs, and kind cracks,

I wat they didna weary;

And unco tales, and unknown jokes,

Their sports were thrift and blithe