Red and Lucy and I had a pretty average Sunday. Laundry, dishes, naps—you get the point. Samhain is one of those holidays I always intend to celebrate grandly, but the mundanities of life tend to get in the way. So I’ve been contenting myself with simple observances, which leave me less stressed-out and just as connected with the divine.
Once the sun set, we built a fire in the front yard:
I arranged a few seasonal accoutrements on our front steps:
As you see, we didn’t get around to carving or even painting the pumpkin. That’s okay, though. It will last longer this way. The skull is my friend Horatio. I found him in a shopping cart near the Dumpster outside my apartment a few days before I left Boulder. I had sworn not to accumulate anything else, but I made Horatio a deal: If he was still there the next day, he could come with me. He was, and he did. Red bought me the cauldron at the Maryland Renaissance Festival a few years ago. Every witch needs a cauldron, and this witch has a man kind enough to find her the perfect one.
With the fire burning well, Red and I cracked open a few hard ciders and handed out Skittles to the neighborhood kids. (Yes, Skittles are vegan now! So are Swedish Fish, but Red kept those in the house because he loves them.) Lucy stayed inside with her Kong, because even though she wouldn’t bother the fire, I could easily see her knocking over a wee princess or Spider-Man in her quest for affection. I wore my panda ears. Actually, I wore them all weekend, which is not as uncommon as you might think. Here we are in New York, the day I bought them at the Rubin Museum:
We had fixings for s’mores, but didn’t get around to making them. Rest assured, there will be s’more action in the near future: We have a fresh box of graham crackers, plenty of chocolate, and a container of Sweet & Sara’s coconut marshmallows at the ready. We did share an ABC Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie—I love you, ABC, but you gotta stop with that “each cookie is two servings” bullshit. No one eats half the cookie now and the other half later. Okay, maybe I’ve done it once or twice when trying to be virtuous, but it just feels wrong.
Once the trick-or-treaters tapered off, we spent a few minutes talking about the changing of the year (Samhain is the pagan New Year), then I dropped into the fire pieces of paper on which I’d written things I’d like to banish from my life. I poured a little cider out for the ancestors, then we covered the fire and went inside to warm up. Lucy was very glad to see us.
Happy November, everyone. (It’s World Vegan Day, in case you were wondering!) Tell me all about your Halloween/Samhain/Día de Los Muertos/Secular Day of Candy and Costumes festivities!
Sounds like a lovely night in, I really want to build a fire pit.
ReplyDeleteI traveled back from seeing my mom in FL. By time I got home, the hubby and I turned off all the lights and hibernated in the basement. We were Halloween scrooges.
ReplyDeleteYour night sounds fantastic!