Samhain is the end of the harvest season. It starts at sundown on October 31st.
A few fun things to do on samhain are:
Have a fest:
On the sabbats, the best thing to do is have a fest. Invite all your friends and family and cook ALLOT of food. Because it's Samhain, try to focus on the vegetables, especially the ones that grow under the ground, like carrots and potatoes.
Acknowledged People who have died since last Samhain:
Have a small portion of your day to acknowledge that people have died, but don't morn, celebrate there new life.
Have a seance:
Talk to the dead through any means you want. Try to contact a spirit through a pendulum, ouija board whatever you're comfortable with.
Give up:
Quit something that's bad for you, or reduce it. I'm reducing my unhealthy food intake, and am going to be eating more fruit.
Let the dead into your home:
Leave some light candles on your windowsill and open your front and back doors. Say something like ' Let wandering spirits who must come in, explore the grounds and out again'. Try to say something to get them to leave when Samhain is over. It's just unwise to invite ANYTHING into your home.
These are some fun things to do on somhain. I hope i was helpful for anyone stuck for ideas.
They play an important role. Don't just carve one tho, they're protection. Like scary gargoyles, the jack o'lantern is used as a guard against harmful spirits so that only those who are welcomed may enter. I prefer to use symbols in mine. For instance 2 sowulo sideways is the pumpkin's smile /// , the triangle nose represents mind, body, and spirit, and I carve ehwaz or algiz at the bottom directly under where I will place the candle. Using symbols is about using what means something to you, so work with what you feel most comfortable with.
They don't need to be pumpkins either, squash work great too. In fact I like them more because their seeds taste better when you cook them for snacks.
Wow i had no idea jack o' lanterns had such a deep meaning :D i guess allot of things of modern day halloween have pagan or whatever you want to call it roots. It is very interesting when you step back and take a good look :D
XD i LOVE Samhain, it's usually held at my place, and this year i've invited a bunch of witches over, so i'll be making some pumpkin nut loaf bread, and a nice stew. along with that, we'll be doing our normal stuff, a big circle, some tarot reading, and i get to talk with Rori [a spirit who'se followed me for many years, he hates talking, so we agreed to talk only on Samhain]
never let spirits enter my home, might be neat to talk to them, but Rori's a bit overprotective and foreboding, so i think he'd get upset and start breaking stuff.
Sounds fun, what can you do on Samahian if you're not allowed to have people over and live with Christian family? I can't carve pumplkins because my mom has a mess phobia thing going on, I can't cook again, my mom's mess phobia, O can't create an alter, I would hold a seance but I would rather do it with a friend, so what can I do on Samhain? Oh, and I also can't hold a bonfire because there are regulations on that kind of stuff where I am, and my Mom would die before she dropped me off at a Samhain Festival, although, there probably isn't one because the area where I am is very Christian. What can I do for Samhain?
I'd like to point out that Samhain and Halloween celebrate different things. Samhain is the end of the harvest season, and people celebrate it to thank the harvest. Halloween is when they veil between the living and the dead are at the thinnest, and celebrates quite a few things such as ancestors.
However, over the years they have been merged, and now many people think they are the same thing; which is rather annoying but you can't blame them.
Halloween originated from Samhain (the Irish American Settlers) and then later influenced by other Harvest festivals and celebrations of the dead from around the world. So technically they're not the "same" but they don't have any difference in the belief surrounding them (besides the commercialism).
Call it All Hallow's Eve or Samhain, it's my absolute favorite holiday. I really don't see much of a difference between the two besides the commericialism that has taken over all major holiday seasons. It isn't hard to get around that though. Maybe that's because I grew up with movie and book The Halloween Tree.
Here is a good source that explains the origin, and a link included in this page about jack o'lanterns too.
http://www.history.com/topics/halloween
