Samhain 2022
We woke the morning of our inaugural Samhain gathering to skies clad in dark clouds dripping with rain. We were welcomed into a private home in Cottonwood Heights to celebrate our most anticipated gathering of the year.
Guests arrived in costume honoring various kin. Samhain was graced with the presence of a great blue heron, deer, a few winged insects, a rain storm, the night sky witches, snakes, some ancestral grandmothers, goddesses such as The Morrigan and Blodeuwedd, and many more.
Our evening began with a reading of our full Land Acknowledgement, written and read by Channing. We then gathered around beautifully decorated tables for a dinner of soups, seasonal vegetables, and desserts. Guests were encouraged to share a bit of their meal on the offering plate, which, when full, was placed on the ancestral altar brimming with the community’s photos and mementos.
After our meal, we broke out into “Samhain Stations.” Alisa led the Root Veggie Carving station, teaching about the significance of the Samhain fire tradition and the original Jack-O-Lanterns being carved out of turnips and rutabagas rather than pumpkins. Bergen facilitated the Ancestor Lantern station, where photos of ancestors brought by each guest were transformed into paper bag lanterns and their stories shared with the group. Channing’s station focused on teaching and experimenting with divination, specifically cartomancy with oracle cards.
Once everyone had visited each station, we gathered as a group to learn a simple Highland dance. It was an utter delight to dance as our kin together. After we’d tired ourselves out, we settled in for some storytelling. Alisa offered a traditional reading of Tam O’ Shanter by the poet Robert Burns, and Channing brought a modern-yet-faithful retelling of the myth of the Norse goddess Gullveig. As the night came to a close, guests gathered their belongings and met at the door for the parting ritual. A tealight candle was placed in their carved root vegetables and lit from the altar candles (symbolic of the traditional Samhain fires) before hugs and goodbyes were given. They took their Samhain flame home to their private hearths and awaited the long winters night until Winter Solstice.
