Happy Tamala & Samhain

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Dear Reader,

Today is the feast of the dead in many faiths. In Wicca, today is known as Samhain. In Filianism and Déanism, today is the first day of Tamala. Within the Janite tradition of the Filianic faith, today is the Feast of the Ancestors.

It is the third harvest of the season. The first harvest was celebrated at Lughnassadh / Chelanya in the beginning of August (in the northern hemisphere). This is the time when the grain is harvested, predominantly. This is a celebration of life's bounty and the fecundity of the earth. Feasting happened with a focus upon the grain being brought in. This was also a time for celebratory games and feats of boasting while the sun still waxed strong in the sky.

The second harvest was celebrated at Mabon / Cuivanya. This celebration comes in the middle of September (in the northern hemisphere). This is much like what one would expect Thanksgiving to be like. The themes of this holiday is the joyous reception of the bounty of the harvest and the blessings of family. One of the names of this harvest celebration is Harvest Home. This is the time when the harvest is in full swing. All manner of produce and fruit are being brought into the home and processed for winter. Great feasts happened because there was (in good years) more produce and goods than one could process on their own and the excess was shared with the community.

The third harvest was celebrated at this time of year. This is one of the 'fire festivals' of the orthodox Filianic faith as well as one of the 'fire festivals' of the ancient Celtic peoples. Daylight wanes during this time of year. Great fires were lit by ancient peoples like the Celts of old for two purposes. One was for the ritual purification of the herds as they were driven past them and the smoke helped to kill off some of the parasites attached to the animals. Second was to extend the amount of light that was needed for the work of culling the herds in preparation for winter.

There were games and celebrations in antiquity just as there are today to celebrate this threshold into the 'dark' half of the year. The fire festival persists in its own way with lighted jack-o-lanterns. The folk memory of the impoverished going from home to home begging for some of the excess bounty of the household persists in children going from home to home requesting treats. And the folk memory of changing one's manner of dress to confuse the spirits abroad this time of year persists in the wearing of costumes.

The intimacy of death with this holy day hasn't been shaken one bit in the passage of time. This is a time of year where the veil between this world and the spirit world is thin. Spiritual beings walk this world with relative ease as they do at other points of the year when the veil is thin. This is also a particularly good time for contacting the dead. That, however, is a topic for another post.