Happy Halloween

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

I’m a bit late posting this, I know, but Halloween hasn’t gone yet. In fact it’s tonight the ‘ghoulies and ghosties and long legged beasties’ (to quote Robbie Burns) are active.

I thought I’d post one of my Halloween poems, so here it is.

Samhain

Don’t go near the graveyard, darling.
Samhain is tonight.
Don’t go near the graveyard, darling.
The dead will walk this night.

Keep your candle burning, darling.
Keep it glowing bright.
Keep your candle burning darling.
Be sure it gives you light.

The bonfires have been lit, darling.
To fill the dark with light.
The bonfires have been lit, darling.
Their flames reach such a height.

Put your home fire out, darling.
Be sure to do it right.
Put your home fire out, darling.
From bonfires we’ll re-light.

Put food by the door, darling.
Leave it in plain sight.
Put food by the door, darling,
For our dead to have a bite.

Do not be afraid, darling.
They see that we’re alright.
Do not be afraid, darling.
No harm from them tonight.

But evil spirits come, darling.
We must put them to flight.
But evil spirits come, darling.
Them we must try to fight.

Go and watch the bonfires, darling.
Stand in their bright light.
Go and watch the bonfires, darling
To keep us safe this night.

I wrote this after doing research for Vengeance of a Slave. The Celtic people believed the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead were thin on this particular night, and the dead, and other spirits could pass through.

Many of these spirits were friendly: our loved ones, gone before. The people set a place at the table for their dead relatives.

But the thin veil also allowed evil spirits to pass, and they needed to be guarded against. They shunned the light, and so that is why the people built bonfires. There may have been sacrifices at this time, to appease the gods, too.

People put out their fires and took a brand from the bonfire to re-light them for a prosperous year.

This has passed from then to today. We, in Britain, have bonfires on November 5th (which may have been the actual date of Samhain. It is thought it was celebrated midway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.)

Our modern use of lit pumpkins comes from the candles people put in their windows to frighten away the evil spirits, who hated the light.

I hope you enjoyed my poem. Please leave a comment in the box.

I am doing Nanowrimo this year. I didn’t do it last year, but thought I’d have another go this time.

For those of you who aren’t writers, Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month), is held every November. It is now an international thing, and many writers take part from all over the world. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. (50,000 words is the lowest number of words for a novel.)

As a result of my entry, I will be taking a break from my weekly blog in order to attempt to meet the challenge. This doesn’t mean there won’t be any posts. I might well reblog someone else’s, and also I’ll probably pop in to give you a breakdown of my progress–or lack of it!

See you all in December!

If you would like to join my quarterly newsletter, and get an exclusive free story by me, click the button below.

Send me my free story

This is a story of a mysterious haunting, but it doesn’t appear to be by a ghost.

Samhain. A Poem

Samhain is the pagan pre-curser to what we now call Hallowe’en. It was thought that on the nights of the equinox the veil separating the world of the dead from our own world thinned, and the dead could come through.

Not all the dead were consindered scary, though. The people thought that their recent dead visited them, and they put out food, or set an extra place at the table to accommodate them. These dead came to see their loved ones were going on alright.

Evil spirits, though, could come through, too, and so bonfires were lit to keep them at bay. The home fires were put out, too, to be relit the following day from the bonfires.

Pope Gregory decided that some of the pagan dates should be incorporated into the Christian calendar as psople were used to celebrating on those days. Samhain was one of these. The Pope designated it to be All Saint’s Day, hence the night before became All Hallow’s Eve. (Hallows being another word for ‘holy’ or ‘saint’.)

Pope Gregory also fixed the date of Christmas to co-incide with the pagan festival of Yule, and turned some of the pagan gods into saints. He also used pagan worshiping sites to build Christian churches, on the same principal. People were used to going there to worship.

Here is a poem I wrote for Samhain. I hope you like it.

SAMHAIN

Don’t go near the graveyard, darling,
Samain is tonight.
Don’t go near the graveyard, darling,
The dead will walk this night.

Keep your candle burning, darling,
Keep it glowing bright.
Keep your candle burning, darling,
Be sure it gives you light.

The bonfires have been lit, darling,
To fill the dark with light.
The bonfires have been lit, darling,
Their flames reach such a height.

Put your home fires out, darling.
Be sure to do it right.
Put your home fires out, darling.
From bonfires we’ll relight.

Put food by the door, darling.
Leave it in plain sight.
Put food by the door, darling.
For our own to have a bite.

Do not be afraid, darling,
They see that we’re alright.
Do not be afraid, darling,
No harm from them tonight.

But evil spirits come, darling.
We must put them to flight.
But evil spirits come, darling;
Them we must try to fight.

Go and watch the bonfires, darling.
Stand in their bright light.
Go and watch the bonfires, darling,
They keep us safe this night.

I hope you enjoyed my poem. Please leave a comment.