Happy New Year! If you're a Celt, then you are preparing to celebrate
Samhain (pronounced "Sowin", "Saven" by Irish and Scot
Celts, "Sam hayne" by non-Celts) also known as the Celtic New
Year. It's also known as "Summer's End" or "Little
Sun." For those who aren't Celts, you might refer to this time as All
Hallow's Eve or Halloween. But why do the Celts consider this an important
holiday and why do seemingly many Pagans cling to this as a most important
holiday?
Let's discuss briefly about the Celts and their culture.
By doing this, we can better understand the importance of this holiday.
The Celts start their days sundown to sundown and they are dualists.
There's a dark half of the year and a light half. When entering this
darker time, the harvests are finishing up and people are preparing for
the darker, colder months. The Coligny Calendar shows us how ancient Celts
reckoned time by lunar and solar aspects, mentioning the Samhain festival
as one of the main festivals celebrated. They had thirteen lunar months a
year, even though sometimes the thirteen month only composed a day or
three. In order to balance the lunar and solar calendar aspects, every
third year, they'd add a day to the lunar calendar, thus the term "a
year and a day." Further, they believed that there were days
"out of time" where the veil between this world and the
Otherworld was so thin that spirits could roam the earth-for good and bad.
For them, time and seasons were circular-only leading to another in a
circular or even a spiral motion.
Samhain is a time to not only thank the land for the
bountiful harvest, prepare for winter, but also a time to acknowledge
those who had died. Many cultures celebrate a Day of the Dead and the
Celts were no different. For them, it was a time where one could find out
what the future held from those who walked in the Otherworld. Considered a
time of celebration, the tribe one and all, past and present, were joined
together in celebrating the new year as well as the descent into the
world's womb-awaiting rebirth in the spring.
Celebrations of Samhain included leaving food for the
dead, singing, dancing, and the lighting of the sacred need-fire. On
Samhain, all fires in the homes would be put out. A special need-fire was
then lit at Tara (though some scholars say Tlachtga) symbolizing the gift
of the Goddess Brighid to sustain them during the dark time of winter.
Thus ends the old year and ushers in a new year and with it, wishes for a
prosperous life. Furthermore, we know that this one day allowed people to
act out as well, giving them license to misbehave as they normally
couldn't do at any other time. This was a day outside of time, allowing
both the Celts a chance to let off some steam before the freezing cold and
dreary days set in.
The Fairy folk or Sidhe (pronounced "Shee") also
are part of this holiday. Because the veil between worlds is so thin, oft
times they were seen as wandering the land causing either ill or good,
depending on how the humans had treated them during the year. They too are
remembered with fondness and fear by the living and small tokens were left
out in order to persuade the Sidhe to harm none in that family. The pranks
they played might be as small as spooking a cow or as terrifying as
putting a changeling in the place of a small baby. Celts were taught to
respect and honour the Sidhe, thus keeping altercations to a minimum,
though we read about a few of them in the Celtic myths and legends.
You're now probably wondering why the brief history of
Samhain and the Celts or what it has to do with writing. Pagans are
voracious readers and often enjoy various stories. Yet, there are times
when we wish for accurately portrayed stories that don't meander into the
paranormal genre. This is one very important holiday for not just Celts,
druids, but to all Pagans. Even Christians, if they look into the history
of All Hallows' Eve and All Saints Day will see capillaries that link
those festivities to the original pagan holidays of many cultures.
Honouring dead loved ones, celebrating the end of a fruitful season, and
preparing ourselves for winter both professionally and personal is
something we all strive to do. By acknowledging this festival as a
writer--even if we don't celebrate it with trick-or-treating, putting out
food for the dead, or dressing up in costume-we can perhaps put our
writing back into focus after a long, difficult year.
Think of Samhain as a time to be grateful for all the
writing you've done this year and for the things learned. Thank those
who've helped you take those steps forward in learning your craft. Clean
up your workspace, decorating it and celebrating the stories you've
brought to life. Go through your stories and see which of those unfinished
have potential for selling to a publisher. Those who do have promise, put
into a new folder so you can begin doing whatever is necessary to help you
finish them. For those stories that will never be finished, put them on
disk, CD, or print them out and put them away. Thank them for giving you a
chance to hone your craft, but let them go. You don't need to cling onto
every story. Just as seasons come and go, so do stories. Sometimes now
isn't the time to do them, so put them away for another more appropriate
time.
This is the time to prepare for the cold winter nights and
shorter days. How does this influence your writing? Do you notice a slump
during the winter time? If you do, now is the time to prepare for that.
Give yourself permission to spend the dark part of the year reading books
about writing, doing research, perhaps even trying something new in your
writing style (perhaps even learning how to plot!). The Celtic New Year
means that it's time to let loose, cut yourself some slack for a couple of
days and take the time to renew yourself. This moment out of time gives
you, the writer, a chance to re-evaluate where you are, where you've been,
and where you're headed. Enjoy this time last harvest time by enjoying
what made you want to write-read a book, watch a movie, go out with
friends.
May this new year be fruitful, productive and bring you
even more writing blessings. Bendithion!
