Each Halloween we recognize the times between solstice and equinox. From a farming perspective, this is where the drama is – In February the days are lengthening dramatically and the earth is awakening. In May the seeds and plants are becoming established – some blooming. In August the plants are producing and the push of harvest is starting. In October the harvest is wrapping up and the earth is preparing to sleep.
Each older, agrarian culture has these markers. It may be St Brigid or Candlemas or Imbolc in February. May Day or Beltane, Halloween, All Saints Day or Samhein at the end of October.
We wish you a beautiful season ahead. As the earth sleeps, we have the opportunity to eat last year’s bounty, rest and rejuvenate and plan for the seasons to come.
A blessed Samhain to you and yours, Judith. I’ve loved keeping up with your blog as it follows the natural wheel of the year. It makes the cycles that life is based on more meaningful to us modern folks when we realize what our ancestors had to do to pull their life from the earth. I’d don’t enjoy winter much anymore in my cronehood, but I accept it as a necessary part of the cycle of death and rebirth.
So nice to reconnect – such fond memories of the folks I got to work with there