Halloween in Australia

Its not Halloween in Australia 

 

 Its Beltane night in Australia as i am writing this, i am currently single and have no plans to connect with any other Pagans tonight.
 For the last few years the ignorant masses in Australia have stated to trick or treat on October 31st which is Halloween and Samhain in the northern hemisphere. These people don't seem to realise its not Autumn here, but i shouldn't be surprised these are probably the same people that celebrate the Winter Solstice or Yule at the height of Summer.

 I don't even know if we can blame them, the shops are still selling all the Samhain paraphernalia at the wrong time of year, and it seems respect for the religious holy day has been ignored in favor of cheap commercialism. 

  I have lamented this take over of Beltane before here Halloween 2015 and i have been saddened by the lack of interest in Samhain 2015.

 I don't know what to do about it. There are fewer trick or treaters at my door this Beltane, probably due to me politely informing the adults that they had the wrong night in previous years. However if we accept that those avoiding my house are the same people that know facts, then that would mean that these people are purposely being religiously bigoted, and that's pretty sad.

 If there were more Pagans in my small town then perhaps we could make a big show of trick or treating at the right time of year. But sadly there isn't and i feel that these people would just start double dipping so to speak. 

 Possibly the worst part is that i would love to share our most holy night with the non-Pagans, but no one comes to my door on Halloween/Samhain.

 If you know anything about Beltane, it isn't really an appropriate night for responsible guardians to send their children to strangers houses. It negatively effects our holy Beltane rites and it basically means we have had to delay any real celebrations until well after the streets are cleared of the seasonally deluded and their brood.

 I had mused in the past abut celebrating  Día de Muertos or the Day of the Dead on the 31st, perhaps doing the Day of the Dead thing early in the evening and then getting back to the Beltane celebrations later in the night. However i didn't know if The Day of the Dead was seasonal or an actual date (dates really), and i was also uncomfortable with the cultural appropriation aspects of doing this. But i have since discovered that The Day of the Dead was originally an Aztec festival, and was originally celebrated in Summer! So that set the time of year about right, and this year among the tatty "Halloween" merchandise i saw a number of Day of the Dead items, mostly calavera (candy skulls), so it appears the cultural appropriation cat is already out of the bag. Also i feel less guilty about this aspect due to my dealings with La Santa Muerte.

 So what to do? Tonight more than others i actually find myself annoyed that the ignorance, laziness, or religious insensitivity of others had made me concentrate on Samhain when i could be celebrating Beltane.

Door to door for Día de Muertos

 Obviously you should only go door to door for  Día de Muertos, if you are actually celebrating the festival as respectfully as you can. An appropriate costume would be colorful and have candy skull make up or a devil mask. a funny poem might facilitate the exchange for lollies.

  Going door to door for Beltane

 If people really must go Mummering on Beltane perhaps we can at least expect them to do so respectfully. A modified Hoodening could work. You should really only go door to door on Beltane if your family is needy, or perhaps you have at least given to a respectable charity.
 Dressing as fairys, goats and other horned animals, rabbits, bees, and the Obby Oss (Mari Lwyd) might all be appropriate.
 Singing the Obby Oss carol or a Beltane song, a Beltane blessing, or reciting a clever rhyme could easily replace the inappropriate "trick or treat?".

Going door to door on Halloween / Samhain

 Make sure you have the correct night, its April30th / May 1st in Australia. Only go to peoples houses that are participating, they will have "spooky" decorations and will have their front light on. Go in a costume, you have to put some effort in.

Samhain 2015

Happy Samhain

 What is a Samhain, i hear you ask;
 Samhain is a Pagan Sabbat or seasonal holy festival day, though it is really both a season and a holy day. The Pagan year begins and ends with Samhain. It is a festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, the Holly King rules this darker half of the year. Samhain is  celebrated on sunset 31 October to 1 November in the Northern Hemisphere, but here in Australia we are in the Southern Hemisphere, so we celebrate Samhain (Halloween) 30 April to 1May.

 It is a time to Honor our ancestors, to remember and celebrate the dead. It is a time of reflection, a time when the walls between this world and the other world (specifically the world of the dead) are thin. You have seen this festival as Halloween, but there are other similar holy days dedicated to honoring the dead all around the world.

 The thing is Halloween has only just begun being celebrated in Australia. I should say mainstream Australia, and i should also say trick or treating has started, and i should say mimicked not celebrated, as the holy days holiness seems to be mostly being ignored.
 Now being able to celebrate my holy day with everyone else would be very cool. As opposed to say mainstream Australians celebrating the winter festival in the horrible Midsummer heat.
But alas it is not to be as the shops sell the Halloween paraphernalia in October, and the trickers come mumming around, what is the festival of Beltane where we would celebrate life, not death.

 Now i sort of understand the other "holidays" being at the wrong time of year for Australians, as the seasonal holy days were appropriated from there Pagan practitioners in the Northern Hemisphere and simply transplanted here into the Southern Hemisphere, where the remaining seasonal symbolism simply doesn't make any sense. (Think Yule in the height of Summer.)
 But this our sacred Samhain, our Halloween has survived with none of that baggage (at least not for most Australians) so it saddens me that there will be no trick or treats again this Samhain, though i always keep a bowl of treats out just in case.

I hope you have a blessed Samhain.