What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

Samhain (SOW-in) is the Celtic holiday to celebrate the dead, to celebrate the end of the harvest season, and to welcome in the dark half of the year. On the ancient Celtic calendar it also marked the new year. For many Witches and Pagans, it still marks the new year in a spiritual sense. It’s celebrated, usually, from sundown on October 30th until sunrise on November 2nd. Many of the traditions of Samhain have been incorporated into the holiday of Halloween. 

On Samhain night, my family gathers at my parents’ house for our celebration. The evening starts with a ritual to honor the ancestors and those who have recently passed. This ritual usually includes a bonfire, if the weather allows us to have it outside.

After dinner, we sit down for a dumb supper. This is a very old tradition where foods that were favorites of our departed are served, and we eat in silence (hence the archaic word “dumb” as a descriptor). We set an empty place setting for the spirits, and offer up a portion of each dish in offering. A tradition we have is that we carve honeycrisp apples into jack o’ lanterns to decorate the table. After dinner, we fill them with seeds and nuts and leave them outside for the birds and squirrels.

Later in the evening, we tell stories about our departed loved ones, do divinations for each other, and play games. It’s truly my favorite night of the year.

But before all that, I take time for myself. I spend Samhain day working in my garden. I don’t have a harvest, per se, but I do grow a lot of herbs and flowers. I take that day to put my garden to rest for the winter. I also bring my herbs inside so I can continue growing them in the house while it’s cold and dark outside.

But my favorite Samhain garden tradition is planting the bulbs and seeds that will overwinter and be ready in the spring. Those little seeds remind me that winter isn’t forever, that there will be sun and warmth and beauty again. It helps me get into the right mindset for dealing with my seasonal affective disorder (SAD). It’s also my own personal way to honor Nannie and Pawpaw, my maternal grandparents. They grew up in large farm families and continued to garden after they moved to town.

Pawpaw’s parents started a greenhouse after they retired from farm life, and it’s still in my family today. Growing plants, food, flowers, and herbs runs deep in my family. Some of my favorite memories involve helping Nannie and Pawpaw in their garden, and being rewarded with tomatoes right off the vine.

Samhain is my favorite holiday and my favorite time of the year. Because it’s only celebrated by Witches and Pagans, which are both religious minorities, it’s not a big commercial holiday with a lot of expectations. Our celebrations and traditions still retain their spiritual significance. There’s no pressure to find the perfect gift, host the perfect party, or spend time with family you don’t like.

It’s also my favorite because I feel close to my grandparents and other departed loved ones again. At Samhain, the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest, so the spirits can return and spend time with us again. I love the energy of the season, the spookiness, and the long nights. It’s a really wonderful time to be a Witch.