Lesson 1

Samhain

Note to instructor:
In this lesson we explore the holiday of Samhain with some exercises focused on the ancient Celtic festival and others focused on some more modern association with the festival. When choosing which activities and lessons to make use of you will want to examine them according to the Cultural focus of the Congregation and the way in which the Congregation or family expresses this feast day. A very Gaelic Congregation may focus on the ancient meanings of the holiday while another Congregation may wish to look at the way this feast functions within Comhaltacht Draiocht today. We have tried to set this lesson up with as many options as possible to allow it to serve a variety of foci. The key here is to pick and use whichever activities will serve the congregational or family spiritual identity.

Mythic tales:
If possible, a story related to harvest, the coming of the dark half of the year or the new-year should be told to the children. Select a story from the system of myth in use by the Pobal, Rang or family.

Short story:
Sarah and summers end.
Sarah and her family always like Samhain because it is such a fun High day and celebration. Sarah and her family and Congregation always celebrate Halloween with a big party and then have a Samhain ceremony another night. So it is like having two celebrations one right after the other.
Mom always plans an afternoon party for family and friends. Mom makes a big punch bowl from a pumpkin and fills it with punch. Dad always cooks a big pot of pumpkin soup and hollows out some small pumpkins to use as soup bowls. Sarah and her little brother Tom help big brother Joe to make roasted pumpkin seeds. The when everything is ready in the afternoon the guests start arriving. Uncle Bill shows up early with a load of pumpkins for everyone to carve. Everyone gets to carve a pumpkin and all of the carved pumpkins get candles put in them and they get put out in the yard until the yard is full of lots of big orange funny faces. Everyone plays party games like dangling apples and eats lots of soup and pumpkin seeds but no sweets yet. Then as the sun goes down all of the kids get in their costumes and go out with the adults to trick or treat. When the trick or treating is over everyone comes back to the house and the parents check all of the candy and now it is time for eating sweets. While everyone is eating candy and fruit people take turns telling ghost stories in the dark with just a few jack-o-lanterns for light. Finally when all of the kids are full and sleepy and the adults have told all the stories that they know people start to head home. Finally Sarah, Mom, Dad, Joe and Tom can all go to bed happy and sleep. The next day when the family is awake everyone helps to clean up from the Halloween party.
Then the Tribe assembles at the Nematon and prepares for the biggest most important High day celebration of the year. After the Samhain rite everyone goes to the feast which is started with a calling of the role of the ancestors. A special plate of food is prepared for the ancestors and put at the head of the table in honor of the people who have gone to the next world. People bring little photographs or other reminders of people who they remember. They put these things on the table in the ancestors place. Then they have a feast to honor the ancestors. Many people tell stories about people that they are honoring. It is a very nice night and people laugh and even cry a bit but it seems to make everyone very happy.
And when the whole thing is over, Sarah and her family start counting down the days until Samhain next year.

Samhain long ago:
Long ago in Ireland the people would have a celebration at the end of the harvest just as the weather starts to get cold and after most of the leaves had fallen. They called this celebration Samhain (Sow-in) which means Summers-end. All of the folk would come together for a ceremony and feast. This celebration was the end of the old year and the start of the new-year. Samhain also started the dark or winter half of the year and was a special time when all of the worlds had open gates so the spirits of the ancestors could visit the ceremony and feast that the people were having.

Pumpkin carving:
A pumpkin carving party is a great idea for kids (and adults) to get together and have fun in this season. It is best to make sure that you have the safer pumpkin carving kits available for use by the kids. Knives will need to be handled by adults. Don’t forget to collect the seeds from the pumpkins, salt them and spread them on cookie sheets to pop in the oven and roast. Serve the fresh seeds along with punch in a hollowed out pumpkin bowl. A pumpkin soup is also great to serve, especially if served in little hollowed out pumpkin bowls.

Halloween costume making:
Some Pobal and families allow their children to participate in the secular celebrations of Halloween. An interesting way to start bringing some of our religious and spiritual principles into the more secular activities is to allow the children to make their own costumes of nature spirits and heroes from myth. In order to prepare for this activity you will need to go to a craft store for supplies. Be sure to include t-shirts, sweatshirts, blank masks, ribbon, and lots of silk flowers and leaves especially in autumnal colors. The masks will need to be pre-painted in a variety of solid colors and allowed to dry. Help the children to choose characters from myth or nature spirits whom they wish to portray. This activity will allow the children to participate in the secular celebration but will serve to sacralize these activities for them and begin to give this holiday a specific meaning.

Last fruits of harvest party:
Have each child wear or bring some item of summer clothing and bring some item of winter clothing. Each child should also bring some type of late autumn fruit, nut or vegetable. Have snacks and juices ready for the party. Play games such as bobbing for apples, a nice and more sanitary variation of this one involves hanging apples from strings and having blindfolded kids try to bite one.
A table to receive the gifts of last fruits should be set up (a cornucopia is a nice addition to this table and it originated in Gaul) a basket or other symbol of harvest can be set up. Celebrate the end of harvest and the coming of the dark season by having each child put away the symbolic item of summer clothing and take up the symbolic item of winter clothing. Close the party by blessing the last fruits and then leave them outside somewhere for the animals.

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