Did anyone celebrate Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox yesterday?

[mdbucks]

My oppologies I did not realize this was a religious holiday, till I googled Samhain, but if you would give a brief description it would be appreciated, I'm always willing to learn something new if you don't mind sharing. And no I will not turn it into a right or wrong religion debate.

 

[SpottedCrow]

This is a quick link about Samhain, MD.
http://www.chalicecentre.net/samhain.htm

It's a fire festival along like Beltaine, but also a harvest festival.
Not a big deal either...You can also celebrate it as All Hallow's Eve...or All Saint's Day. It's also sort of a remembrance of the folks who have crossed the bridge ahead of us.

The JackOLanterns represented the fire of the sun. The original Irish used Turnips.

The costumes were to fool any bad spirits that may have come back for the night.

Trick or treat for the same reason. If you give food gifts, the house brownies or Lares/Penates will keep watching your home. You can do like Pei says, with cream. I use bread alot. The Native Americans use corn or corn pollen. The orishas of voudon use rum and tobacco on their altars. If you don't give them offerings then they might play tricks on you, like hiding your car keys...

 

[silkiechicken]

We usually celebrate the moon festival with moon cakes and other stuff like that but as time has gone on and we've got older... we do it less and less. Plus, the moon cakes in this area suck compared to vancover!

A moon cake

 

[SpottedCrow]

Those sound really good! Some of them anyways...

In the next city over there's a humungous population of Chinese and Vietnamese...so there's an Asian market place nearby...I might have to check it out, but I'd freak if I saw Silkie meat hanging anywhere.

 

[PeiTheCelt]

Quote:
It's not exactly a religious holiday for me, so much as a historically cultural one with spiritual connotations..

I like having a day where we take a moment and share with those who have gone before... So I leave out bread and cream for standard foods and dates (or honey) for sweetness. And if you look at just about any holiday that any person anywhere recognizes, it's a religious holiday at it's heart.

(ETA: okay I guess things like Labor Day, 4th of July etc. aren't so much, but you know what I mean).

(I would give more information about Samhain if SpottedCrow hadn't already covered it pretty thoroughly *laughs*)