samhuin

With fire and light, labyrinth and ritual, over 60 people came together to celebrate a southern hemisphere Samhuin at Autumn Farm Saturday 29 April.

walking the labyrinth

Samhuin (also known as Samhain and Samhiunn, and pronounced “sah-van”, or “sow-in”) signals the close of harvest and the initiation of the winter season, and is one of eight festivals, also recognised by Pagans and Wiccans, marking the Celtic wheel of the year, with nature and her changes at their very centre. The other festivals are the midwinter solstice, Imbolc, spring/vernal equinox, Beltane, midsummer solstice, Lammas and the autumn equinox.

Samhuin literally means summer’s end, but the dates on which it is held in the northern hemisphere, October 31and November 1, fall in the New Zealand spring.

Elements ; Water, Earth ,Fire and Air

Redressing this incongruity was one intention of organisers Grant Knowles and Clair Fones.

“I feel it’s important to redress the seasonal imbalances in New Zealand where traditional celebrations and rituals fall at the wrong time of the year,” said Clair, citing our autumn Easter, originally a pre-Christian renewal festival celebrated on the spring equinox, as an example. “It makes for confusing messages. How can you be centred in yourself if you’re not aware and connected to what the earth is doing? Here you pass into another season, and there is nothing there to mark it; there’s nothing really spiritual there any more.”

giving everyone a candle

Rather than simply replicating a European event, Grant said that they wanted to make the festival appropriate for the southern hemisphere. “There were several ways we looked at doing that. We looked at including Maori but felt we didn’t know enough about it. Samhuin is also a Celtic Pagan thing and we wanted to preserve that. A lot of us have pagan roots. I also had a feeling that as many of us have lived here for generations, the festival would have its own flavour, no matter what.”

Clair, who is English and in New Zealand for two years, attended Samhuin in Edinburgh six months ago, and suggested a Golden Bay event. “We can do it,” was Grant’s response. “I ran around and got some funding, which was gratefully received.

Air at the ritual circle

“We also did a lot of research—and there’s more to come—on what it’s about. We’ve taken it back a little bit further to look at its matriarchal aspects. one way of representing it all is to have an Oak King and a Holly King. We took it back to its Goddess roots. We wanted a “soft” festival, which we felt was more in keeping with Golden Bay’s nurturing, healing energy.”

Clair believes one purpose of these festivals is to help ease people into the transition through the seasons and through life. “We wanted to help people embrace the winter; to deal with the dark time of the year. I think if we embrace the dark time of the year we can accept that dark side of ourselves. It can help us deal with life on all levels.”

Water at the ritual circle

With the aid of wwoofers, Grant and Clair planned the event and made 60 pyramidal lanterns for the ground and 20 to hang from the trees.

The revellers arrived at 5.30 on Saturday, some in costume, and some with face paint. “There was lots of colour,” said Grant. “We had four people dressed as the elements, fire, earth, air and water. There was Celtic music playing. I was dressed as a gatekeeper to the otherworld, and welcomed them into the labyrinth, while an ancient Greek labyrinth tune played. The labyrinth symbolised the transition between this world and the underworld.

“Everyone picked up a piece of harvest and carried it into the labyrinth, proceeding to a gate in an oak-lined avenue, with the lanterns lighting a magical pathway into the underworld. By that time it was quite dark. I told the story of the labyrinth and the festival, as so often people know nothing about it.”

the ritual

The assembly reached the “portal”, two oaks side by side, where the four elements presented everyone with a candle representing the light of the waning season. The harvest was placed around the altar and everyone sat in a circle with 28 lanterns representing the cycle of the moon, while a trance rhythm was played on the drums.

drumming the trance rhythm

Clair, dressed as the Oak Queen, symbolising the light half of the year, relinquished her light to the Crone, the dark half of the year. The crone thus came into her power, and everyone’s candle was extinguished as darkness arrived.

lighting the fire

After a moment’s silence, Grant’s son Ananda, representing the firebearer, lit the central fire, followed by Peter Blasdale spinning fire to raise the group energy again. Lanterns and candles were relit, and in the flickering firelight, Roger Sanders told a traditional Armenian folk story about the underworld. “Everyone was captivated,” said Grant. “People were then invited to share anything they wanted. One sang a powerful song about the Goddess, another recited a poem by Yeats. A potluck feast was brought up. We had Eastern European/Celtic folk music, and more by Huckleberry. People danced until the end.”

story telling

Grant’s ardent hope is to get a good core group together to hold festivals regularly, “not for myself but for the community. I feel really strongly about people’s reconnection to the earth and to themselves.”

oak queen and fire bearer

fire majician

labyrinth dance

the crone and the oak queen

the gate keeper to the other world