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Well... this may be a little later, seeing that it Halloween is today, but that's too bad, because I just got the idea to post this now (being all dressed up and in the mood) and there's even some people that celebrate tomorrow anyways, so here you have it.

Samhain, Pronounced "Sow-in", for those of you who wish to sound Gaelic (otherwise, you can pronounce it however you wish) roughly means "end of summer" and takes place on the final harvest of the year.

Seeing that this is a trick and treat thread, I wont bore you with a bunch of history and the point of it (I trust you to look that up for yourself wink ) I'm just here to tell you that this Sabbat is a celebration of food and magic.

Some say that trick or treating came about as children begging from one doorstep to the next. The children would either sing, or offer corn husk dolls in return for food. Back then, most people knew it was a bad idea to deny food to little children at this time of year, because it would probably come back to haunt them (literally) hence the Trick.

Now, any good Pagan knows that the veil between the worlds is thinnest at dusk and dawn. Now if you thought of the seasons like one long day it would follow this order.
Spring = Dawn,
Summer = Noon,
Autumn = Dusk,
and Winter = Midnight.
So, following that logic means this day is a whole solid day of dusk, and that means you usually had a bunch of superstitious towns folk running around protecting their children and homes, and making sure all the spirits were nice and happy. If they weren't... then you'd probably be dealing with sour milk, "possessed" children, infestations of mice, ect ect ect. Because supposedly, this was the easiest day for spirits to walk among us unnoticed... and you could never be sure if the little begging child was a human, or a fairy, or a ghost.

So, here's what we used to do (and still can do) to make the spirits happy, and protect our home and family.

Most people would hand a bunch of lavender at every corner of their house to keep away bad energy. Plus, it made the rooms smell a hell of a lot better.

Dust a bit of salt along windowsills and doorsteps, to make sure nothing gets in without your permission. And something silver or copper above the doorway was always a surefire way to keep away troublesome fairy folk.

Jack-o-lanterns... you can think of these like spirit scare-crows, if you put the right intentions into your carving, and add a little protective symbol under the lid (so the candle flame can heat it up and carry it out with smoke) you have a nice and convenient way to ward off unwanted spirits, plus you get a bunch of lovely pumpkin seeds to roast and salt and eat like popcorn. I like putting Brewers Yeast on mine ^_^ (NOT baking yeast)

A fun thing to do on this day is walk out your door backwards, grab some dirt by your house, fold it into a tissue, put it in a pouch, and sleep with it under you pillow. Now, this either lets you dream of the future, love, or it simply protects you through the night.

Dress up! The trick about this was fooling spirits into thinking you were one of them. (Ha! >.<) But hey? Why not? At the very least it was supposed to confuse spirits, so they didn't really know WHO you were.
Be sure to wear bells, this attracts good spirits and keeps away bad.

Now that we're all protected, we can make the good spirits happy.
Most people left out something baked, and something sweet on their doorstep. Usually bread and honey, and sometimes milk. It would all be gone the next day, which means it made someone happy, and that's good enough for most people.
And throw out some seeds for the birds! When the animals around your house are happy, then the spirits are happy too ^_^

Blessed be, and Happy Halloween everyone!

I always adore your threads.