The origins of Samhain have long been disputed by many. The Church believes that Samhain is a celebration of Satan and his evil. Wiccans and Pagans do not hold this to be true. For us the holiday is the ending of our wheel of the year. Samhain is when the God dies and we start our New Year to wait for him to be reborn at Yule. This is the time of year when we celebrate the end of harvesting, the beginning of the Winter months and the memories of our Ancestors who came before us.
For me , Samhain represents another turn of the wheel and also my favorite celebration. Our house celebrates with *traditional *to the secular (I am using this term to describe anything that is not ritual specific) holiday things...carving Jack O'Lanterns, Trick or Treating and lots of yummy treats like pumpkin pie and homemade sugar cookies. This year I plan on celebrating for the whole weekend. Friday night we will be carving the Jack O'Lanterns and making cookies. I will discuss with my children the importance of the end of the Harvest and how we can celebrate and enjoy the fruits of the season by eating, drinking and making merry. Saturday will be filled with costumes and trick or treat and Sunday will be our Feast for the Dead. I plan on having a traditional Mexican dinner since I am 1/2 Hispanic. It will be honoring my own father, and many of our ancestors before him, who have passed from this life. We will serve up our ancestors on their altar (complete with pictures of all the deceased) first and explain that this eve our "family" on the other side require us to remember them.
PUMPKIN PIE ICE CREAM WITH CARAMEL SAUCE *
Crust:
1 1/2 cups crushed Gingersnaps (approximately 30 cookies))
1/4 cup butter, melted
Filling:
1/2 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
1 pint Vanilla ice cream, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground Ginger
1/2 tsp. ground Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground Cloves
1 cup fresh or canned pumpkin
1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream -- whipped
SAUCE
1 cup Caramel ice cream topping
1/2 cup chopped Pecans
In small bowl, combine crushed gingersnaps and
butter; blend well. Press firmly in bottom and up sides of 9" pie plate. Refrigerate
10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, in large bowl, stir 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon into ice cream. Spoon
into crust. Freeze.
In medium bowl, combine brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and pumpkin; blend well.
Fold in whipped cream. Spoon over ice cream in crust. Freeze 3 hours until firm. Let stand
at room temperature 15-20 minutes before serving. In small saucepan, combine caramel
topping and nuts. Stir constantly until heated through. Serve warm over pie.
A Blessed All Hallow's to Ye All!
Cheesecloth Ghosts
Take a few yards of cheesecloth (white) and cut into squares, equally. Get some balloons and blow them up to the size you want your ghosts to be and drape each with a square. Next use Aileenes fabric stiffener and brush over the tops covering the whole head and some down the body. Position over a 2 liter bottle or something to keep it up off of the table. I wait a few minutes and then start arranging the "body" how you want. After it drys, pop the ballons, add black felt eyes/mouths and put a string thru the head and you have a ghost! I hang them in front of my porch and in the trees. The stiffener keeps the heads from caving and if you want you can even stuff them with white tissue paper for added shape. Because the bottoms arent stiffened they flutter eerily in the wind! So SPOOKY!!!
(Potatoes, harvested from August to October, were a part of the feast in Ireland where they were made into a Samhain dish known as colcannon. Colcannon is a mashed potato, cabbage, and onion dish still served in Ireland on All Saint's Day. It was an old Irish tradition to hide in it a ring for a bride, a button for a bachelor, an thimble for a spinster, and a coin for wealth, or any other item which local custom decreed in keeping with idea of the New Year as a time for divination.)
Sauté onions (traditionalists sauté in lard or grease, but butter is acceptable.). Boil the potatoes and mash them (do not use artificial potato flakes). In a large pan place all of the ingredients except the cabbage and cook over low heat while blending them together. Turn the heat to medium and add the chopped cabbage. The mixture will take on a pale green cast. Keep stirring occasionally until the mixture is warm enough to eat. Lastly drop in a thimble, button, ring, and coin. Stir well and serve
From Myrriah's Home Page
1/2 dram Pine Oil
1/4 dram Frankincense oil
1/4 dram Patchouli oil
a/4 dram Lavendar oil
Mix well and bottle.
I got these groovy graphics from the Free Graphics Page at:
http://www.benjerry.com/halloween/index.html
*Recipes are from:
http://www.mylittlecorner.com/wicca/srecipes.html
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7039/AshlinCC.html
Click on these to go back to some of my other pages...
Laura Hammond