Samhain
The year turns inward. The veil between the living and the honoured dead grows soft as spun wool.
Samhain is old Irish, marking the closing of the pastoral year. The herds were brought down from the summer hills, the last fires of harvest were let go, and a new one — the Samhain fire — was struck fresh from stone. Every hearth in the settlement was said to be relit from this single flame.
In Gaelic Ireland and Scotland, the night was believed to open a threshold: those who had gone before could return to sit at the table, and offerings of bread, salt and cider were set out for them. Children masked themselves in soot and wore turnips carved to lantern faces — a rite that crossed the Atlantic and became the pumpkin.
Under the layer of costume and confection, the older meaning endures. Samhain is the pause before winter. It asks who among the dead you carry with you, and what within yourself is ready to be composted so something new can grow.
- — hearth fire
- — carved gourds
- — cider & salt
- — the ancestor's chair
- — black wool
Slow, ember-lit, threshold. Wear something the departed would recognise.
Objects of Samhain
