The Belated Halloween Post

I know this post is a bit late.

Well ok, a LOT late. Every other blogger on earth has done their Halloween post ages ago, done and dusted. But not me...

And although you're all probably focused on Thanksgiving (for my US readers!) and Christmas by now, here's what happened on Halloween in our little part of the world.

Halloween in Australia is not big at all. It's becoming more popular but only because we are more and more influenced by American culture. Trick or treating is slowing gaining popularity, mainly as a means for kids to get extra rations of lollies for no particular reason.

Now being pagan, Halloween, or Samhain (pronounced Sow-en) does have meaning for us. It's a traditional Autumn agricultural, earth based celebration going back to the mists of time (ok maybe that bits a little exaggeration!).

My problem is this - IT'S NOT AUTUMN HERE!

Just because Halloween is celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere in their Autumn, people in the Southern Hemisphere who have no real idea of what they're celebrating follow along just because of the calendar date.

We should be celebrating Springtime.

But being the wonderful mother that I am, I don't want to deprive my kids of the fun of trick or treating for a bag of sugar and additive laden lollies. So we celebrate a modified version of Halloween on the evening of 31 October.

This year the big boys couldn't wait to introduce Charlie to the fun of trick or treating. Even though he was ill, I relented and let them take him out for a short time.


Kaiden as the boy from ET, Charlie as a Magician, and Corey as a skateboarding demon type creature.


At first Charlie wasn't quite sure about this whole dressing up thing.


"I'll sort of smile just to humour you, but I really don't get what this is all about."


"Lollies and treats you say?"



"Ok then, let me just adjust my cape. Let's roll!"

I think the older two boys benefited from having a cute little brother along with them, and their stash of good stuff was definitely bigger than last year.

And that's when Charlie realised he was onto a good thing.


Enjoying the spoils, and the subsequent sugar high.


Secretly, even though my older two are getting to be big boys now, I still think they love the fun of getting dressed up.




Not that us adults would ever enjoy anything like that......


Being a sexy witch... please don't laugh!

I had at one point intended to write about the origins of Halloween, and how here in the Southern Hemisphere it's Spring and we celebrate Beltane, but I'm a little over it all now.

But we did celebrate Beltane on 1 November. Halloween = death, followed by Beltane = life. This is how I justify celebrating Halloween out of season, the circle of life, death, life and so on.

Beltane is an old agricultural festival that celebrates the start of summer, the crop, pasturing season and fertility. It's a fun celebration of life.

This year we didn't do much for Beltane, I had wanted to make a mini Maypole for us to dance around and to have a little feast but circumstances conspired against my good intentions. I did decorate my besom (broom) though.



It's my witch's broom that I made recently from twigs gathered from the trees at the park across from our home. I plan to decorate it for each Sabbat (Holy days). I don't have much time to plan out big celebrations for each Sabbat, but I do what I can and in my heart I celebrate it in all it's glory.

Happy belated Beltane/Samhain to you all!