Dear Australia, Halloween isn’t American

The idea of being American was frowned upon growing up. I don’t know how many of Mum’s friends had ever been to the USA, or how many “Yanks” they’d met, but while I was encouraged to be “colour blind” (which I know is wrong now, but honest-to-god they were trying to do the right thing) I was guided away from anything “too American.”

That included things like Sesame Street and Halloween. Even though Halloween has Irish roots.

Halloween started catching on in my small town when I was in my late teens, but I didn’t go trick or treating for the first time until I was 20 something and living in Canada. (Only two people asked me if I wasn’t a bit too old haha)

If you have any Wiccans in your family, you’re likely aware that Halloween and Samhain are linked, but I wanted to dig into the topic a bit and then expand into how I observe these holidays as a witch on the other side of the world where it’s spring, not autumn. Your Google is as good as mine, so I’m not going to give you a history lesson. I’m not going to check my sources or anything. I’m going from memory and experience. If you’re into this topic, there are historians out there who can tell you the ins and outs. I’m just using the basics as a framework for the rest to make sense.

Samhain (Pronounced Sow-een or Sav-in depending where in the Celtic world you’re from) is a festival of the dead. It’s about honouring the spirits of our ancestors, visiting with them, and telling their stories. It’s an acknowledgement that without death there can be no life; and that death can be a positive thing. Death is a doorway for us Wiccans, a transition rather than an ending. For those who are ready to die, death is a release. Death can be a kindness. During this holiday we acknowledge the necessity of death.

It can be a good time to let bad habits die, too, and to do what’s known as “shadow work” which some therapists call “unpacking”. Whatever the term, you work through your baggage, you admit where you went wrong and where others wronged you. You process it. You grieve. And finally, you can let it go. You can transcend.

The reason Samhain and Halloween are at that specific time of year is because that’s when the Celts had their last day of the year. The old year died, and on that night the veil between life and death is said to be the thinnest. That’s where the costumes come in. People would wear masks in an effort to protect themselves. The ghosts wouldn’t recognise them, or might even mistake a human for one of their own and leave the human alone. Monsters don’t hunt other monsters, and all that. I love this because it reminds me of where bridesmaids came from. Originally bridesmaids served as a decoy in case bad luck was coming for the bride that day. The spirits (or whatever) wouldn’t know which woman was the bride, and thus one of the other ladies would have the honour of taking the fall. Tangent there, sorry.

Anyway, there’s this huge aspect of facing your fears with Halloween. Most people are afraid to die. We’re afraid of pain. We don’t want to be hurt or to lose our loved ones. Most of us are uncomfortable with the occult and the spirit worlds. Halloween is a time to “laugh in the face of danger.” To admit we’re all human, that we share these fears and experiences. To acknowledge that with life comes pain, and to deal with that pain some of us need to poke fun. 

Also children are obsessed with death. Or at least mine are. Halloween gives them an opportunity to get that out of their system.

Cool right? But Wiccan holidays (Sabbats) are seasonal. It isn’t Samhain in Australia in October. Same as it isn’t Yule at Christmas in Australia. While my siblings in the northern hemisphere can hide their practices inside the mainstream, down here I have to let my freak flag fly. Which is fine, but how do I make that work for my little family, with all the myths and symbolism and opportunities for decoration?

Same way I make predominantly sharing my circles with Christians and other non-magick folk work – by looking for the similarities, not the differences.

At Beltane, the veil is said to be thin too. But instead of the dead coming through, it’s the fey. Yeah, I’m a grown arse woman who believes in fairies; fight me.

Seriously, that’s how it goes. Nature is waking up and the nature spirits are getting frisky, stealing your earrings and spoiling your milk if they don’t like you. They just want to have fun, much like children at Halloween. Their morals and their humour aren’t the same as ours, which opens the door to that macabre humour of Halloween. The pranks and the cheap scares, and that underlying awareness that despite humans cutting themselves off from the natural world, other beings are still here. There are still so many things we don’t know.

The basis of Beltane is love, and so too is Samhain; if you think about it. What is grief but love with nowhere to go?

Decor wise, my altar stays to season (Beltane/spring), the front door and balcony are good for Halloween (though I’ve been lazy this year. Need to dig out my fake rat and scare my sister again), and my planner is Halloween until October 31st, then Beltane until I start feeling the Christmas spirit. See? You can have the cake and eat it too.

I love celebrating things. I love having events to look forward to with the kids. I love that Christmas isn’t everything.

As a kid, Christmas was the big thing. We’d have the big Christmas lunch, the house would be open for whoever wanted to come by, mum would wear her special Christmas outfit, food and gifts seemed nearly endless. The lead-up was torture, and I try not to think about that, but Christmas eve and day of? Best time of the year. But there wasn’t anything else.

Birthdays were okay, there were modest gifts and an ice cream cake, but mum didn’t throw birthday parties (I had one, my tenth. My sister never had a single party,) and the only other time we got new clothes was if someone died. I hated Easter. Yep, I love chocolate, and we made sure our stash lasted at least six months, and the bunny usually bought a gift too, like a bike helmet or mug. But we had to go to church, it was cold, and the excitement wore off well before mid-day. Nan would watch the same scary Easter movie and no one had ever heard of an egg hunt. So, Christmas was EVERYTHING. And that’s too much pressure. Too long to wait to laugh and relax and splurge on the people you love.

I know a big part of how that played out was money. We grew up below the poverty line. But I’m sure we could have dyed the eggs in the fridge and hidden them in the yard like Dear Hart’s family did for Easter (admittedly the idea of playing with food like this freaks me out, but still, it’s not hard or expensive.) We could have made some kind of Halloween costume (old sheet ghost, perhaps) and rallied some mates to trick or treat. Until I became Wiccan I never even questioned the assertion that Halloween was only something Americans did. And now I’m like, why does it matter? If someone is into something fun and harmless that involves community spirit, encourages kids to be creative, and maybe gives a chance to talk about the afterlife and the people we grieve for, why should we care that they can’t spell colour properly? Should the difference between zed and zee dictate how we have fun? Did Mum think Sesame Street and Halloween would open the flood gates of the USA’s gun violence? If she were still around, I’d ask her.

Perhaps she just didn’t like gore. Me either, Ma. I’m not into horror or graphic violence. But there’s so much more to the thinning of the veil than dismemberment! Let me throw down some ideas.

Halloween/Samhain:

• Dumb supper (invite the ghosts of your rellies for dinner, eat in silence.)
• Take the kids to a cemetery to clean it up. Talk about respect
• Halloween crafts, carving, etc.
• Get out the old photos, maybe even make a shrine
• Visit some caves
• Read tarot cards or let your kids have fun with a pendulum
• Leave an offering for the spirits, or place cookies at a three-way crossroad for Hecate

Halloween/Beltane:

• Fairy costumes
• Biodegradable glitter and body shimmer
• Spooky fairy gardens
• Occult movie nights
• Fairy or other magic-themed movies
• Love until death stories
• Carve a watermelon.
• Outdoor sex (with or without costumes) once children are in bed.

And of course, there’s free candy and a visit from the switch witch!

Miriam Cumming is a proud pansexual Wiccan living in Australia. If you’re looking for a fun witchy read this Halloween, check out Miriam’s books. Happy October!