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Samhain, Last Harvest, Halloween

© Bob Ewing

Author's note: Greetings! This year Jocelyn and I made the same journey that I undertook when I first wrote the following article for the Suite in 2004. It seemed fitting to offer it once more as the content is relevant.

I've just returned from a trip to Courtice, Ontario where I visited an old friend and his family. We went to university together and actually stayed in touch over the years, more than 20 now.

I find that this time of the year, mid-October, is the beginning of a period of reflection which intensifies on October 31, Samhain, and continues for the month of November. It is a time to reflect on where you have been and where you wish to go.

It is, in the Northern Hemisphere, the end of the harvest, and a good time to look back at your experiences with your garden. A time to begin to think about changes while letting yourself dream about the possibilities for the next year. Samhain marks the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year, or New Year's Eve, for Wiccans and Druids.

It is the time when the veil between the worlds is especially thin and the spirits of our ancestors can easily drop by for a visit. Once people left out food to console the departed ones so that they would not bother the living. Today, there are many people who follow an earth-based religion.

The celebration of Samhain is a major event on the pagan calendar. It marks another turning on the Wheel of Life. It signifies the return of the Night and the disappearance of the Day or the end of Summer and the start of Winter - the change from light to dark. Summer's glow has waned and the sky belongs to the moon and the stars.

Gardens are contemplative places, full of promise, sleeping, dreaming until Spring's Sun awakens them. It is the time of the year when we realize the fruits of our food provision efforts. Will our supplies last or will we face hunger? What happens if the Sun's rising is delayed or we have excessive rain and cold?

I mentioned earlier that it is a reflective time but it is also a time to awaken to our intimate relationship with the Earth and that how all we eat springs from that intimate connection. Use this dark season to understand the importance of clean air, water, healthy soil and the Sun to your gardening efforts and become aware that you do not work alone.