Samhain, Halloween, All Souls Day, Día de los Muertos

[RandallS]

At the end of October/first days in November comes a collection of holidays themed around the Dead/Spirits/etc: Samhain in Celtic Paganism, All Souls Day in the largest form of Christianity, Día de los Muertos in Mexico, and Halloween in the US. Which (if any) do you celebrate? Why (and how) do you celebrate it?

[Tana]

At the end of October/first days in November comes a collection of holidays themed around the Dead/Spirits/etc: Samhain in Celtic Paganism, All Souls Day in the largest form of Christianity, Día de los Muertos in Mexico, and Halloween in the US. Which (if any) do you celebrate? Why (and how) do you celebrate it?

Favorite time of year!
I celebrate a Halloween/Samhain mixture. This day is my new year. (Of course I do observe the calendar new year, but my personal count is 1st of November = new year.)

I like the candy, horror movie, fun decorations Halloween part a lot.
Been celebrating it for over 20 years in that way. The Samhain part is becoming more and more important. Especially since I think I've finally found my spiritual home.

I feel very rooted in my celtic ancestry and thus this day is most important. Even more so considering the liminal nature of my believes.

About the how we celebrate. That will be different each and every time. This year I will be holding a Ritual Meal and I'm not sure yet, if we have a Halloween party or if we just visit the open air museum, where they have an actual fire and celtic re-enactment on this day. Maybe all of the above.

[KittyVel]

At the end of October/first days in November comes a collection of holidays themed around the Dead/Spirits/etc: Samhain in Celtic Paganism, All Souls Day in the largest form of Christianity, Día de los Muertos in Mexico, and Halloween in the US. Which (if any) do you celebrate? Why (and how) do you celebrate it?

I celebrate Halloween with my family. There's no particular reason except that I LOVE dressing up and scaring people and getting free candy. XD It's not a very spiritual holiday for me, so...Yeah. Basically, my family and I decorate our house to make it look scary, and we freak out our elderly neighbors. >.>

[Melamphoros]

At the end of October/first days in November comes a collection of holidays themed around the Dead/Spirits/etc: Samhain in Celtic Paganism, All Souls Day in the largest form of Christianity, Día de los Muertos in Mexico, and Halloween in the US. Which (if any) do you celebrate? Why (and how) do you celebrate it?

Halloween is my favorite holiday (it's a celebration of all things scary and I can be myself without having people stare at me), but I am drawn to aspects if Samhain (probably due to most of the gods I'm drawn to have chthonic aspects -- the idea of the veil between the worlds being thinnest appeals to me greatly).

[RandallS]

It's not a very spiritual holiday for me, so...Yeah. Basically, my family and I decorate our house to make it look scary, and we freak out our elderly neighbors. >.>

This pretty much describes me -- I celebrate Halloween like I do Christmas, purely secular. However, I do tend to do an annual Tarot reading for myself around Halloween.

[hufflee]

At the end of October/first days in November comes a collection of holidays themed around the Dead/Spirits/etc: Samhain in Celtic Paganism, All Souls Day in the largest form of Christianity, Día de los Muertos in Mexico, and Halloween in the US. Which (if any) do you celebrate? Why (and how) do you celebrate it?

Kind of a mix. Halloween is fun for the kids, so we definitely do the whole dress up and trick or treat thing. As I personally celebrate Samhain, I add in an honorary meal and a special altar set up for my ancestors. Simple enough, but very meaningful to me.

[stephyjh]

At the end of October/first days in November comes a collection of holidays themed around the Dead/Spirits/etc: Samhain in Celtic Paganism, All Souls Day in the largest form of Christianity, Día de los Muertos in Mexico, and Halloween in the US. Which (if any) do you celebrate? Why (and how) do you celebrate it?

I celebrate Halloween because all my friends do, and Samhain and Dia de los Muertos because both have personal spiritual significance to me. Usually I make sugar skulls and put out an altar for the dead, but this year instead of skulls I'm doing skull-shaped cookies and taking them to work. The ultra-Christian dude that used to work with us has moved to a different location, so there's no one there who doesn't enjoy the concept of Dia de los Muertos, as well as the concept of free food. For the Samhain bit, I will probably do a roughly ADF-style ritual, although those usually end up derailing into improv for me. Also, for Halloween, we're planning a huge mother of a blowout at the studio, so I'm making my Dia de los Muertos/Samhain plans with an eye to the hangover I'll have the next day.

[Carnelian]

At the end of October/first days in November comes a collection of holidays themed around the Dead/Spirits/etc: Samhain in Celtic Paganism, All Souls Day in the largest form of Christianity, Día de los Muertos in Mexico, and Halloween in the US. Which (if any) do you celebrate? Why (and how) do you celebrate it?

I celebrate Hallowe'en as the Feast of the Dead, although how I practice it differs from year to year. In the past I've used it to honour Dionysos's descent into the underworld, or Persephone as Queen of the dead. For the past two years or so, I've set up an altar to Osiris and lit candles and offered prayers for friends and family members who have passed on. Though I do follow Witchcraft traditions to a certain extent, I prefer to call it Hallowe'en or All Hallow's Eve rather than Samhain, just because I personally don't feel comfortable with Celtic tradition. I also have trouble pronouncing Celtic words. I know it's pronounced SOW-in, but whenever I read the word I just want to say Sam-hayn.

When it comes to Hallowe'en as a modern holiday for costumes and trick-or-treating, I'm a stick-in-the-mud grump who doesn't like to celebrate it that way. I enjoy candy and Hallowe'en themed TV specials, but I'm not into dressing up in some ridiculous outfit and getting drunk, which is what people my age like to do. I think it's fun for kids to dress up and enjoy that aspect of the holiday, but I just feel uncomfortable doing it as a 20-something. It sort of bothers me that people make a mockery of what I consider an important religious holiday, but I deal with it and accept people enjoy it in its present form.

[Waterfall]

At the end of October/first days in November comes a collection of holidays themed around the Dead/Spirits/etc: Samhain in Celtic Paganism, All Souls Day in the largest form of Christianity, Día de los Muertos in Mexico, and Halloween in the US. Which (if any) do you celebrate? Why (and how) do you celebrate it?

I've always done Halloween just because living in America, almost everyone does and I've just never stopped even as I get older. I just have too much fun wearing a ridiculous costume (and not being looked at like a crazy person) and running around eating candy. And I love pumpkins, so it's a good excuse to have some hanging around the house.

In the past few years, my mother and I have started doing a few things for Dia de los Muertos. Mostly, we've just made sugar skulls, but she wants to do an offrenda this year. So we'll see how that goes. My mom's side of the family is Mexican, so we have some cultural connection there. I think she's trying to keep in touch with her culture since we don't live near the rest of the family and she lives in super-white-all-Mexicans-are-illegal-ville.

I've never done anything for Samhain, but my best friend is way into Celtic stuff and she wants to do something for it. I have no idea what she has in mind, but I'm down for whatever.

[JuniperMorgan]

Favorite time of year!
I celebrate a Halloween/Samhain mixture. This day is my new year. (Of course I do observe the calendar new year, but my personal count is 1st of November = new year.)

I like the candy, horror movie, fun decorations Halloween part a lot.
Been celebrating it for over 20 years in that way. The Samhain part is becoming more and more important. Especially since I think I've finally found my spiritual home.

I feel very rooted in my celtic ancestry and thus this day is most important. Even more so considering the liminal nature of my believes.

About the how we celebrate. That will be different each and every time. This year I will be holding a Ritual Meal and I'm not sure yet, if we have a Halloween party or if we just visit the open air museum, where they have an actual fire and celtic re-enactment on this day. Maybe all of the above.

This pretty much.

Samhain has always had personal spiritual significance for me however. Looking forward to implementing a new part of ritual meal into an observance and setting up a more in depth honorarium for my ancestors since I've finally gotten pics and stories about them from my second cousin - who seems to be becoming the family historian.