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At Samhain go to a beech tree and cut a small chip – if it's dry, winter will be warm.
Traditional

Hey ho for Hallowe'en,
When all the witches are to be seen:
Some in black and some in green,
Hey ho for Halloween!
Traditional British song

This is Hallaeven,
The morn is Halladay;
Nine free nichts till Martinmas,
As soon they'll wear away.
Traditional Scottish song

The superstitious observances of this night ... are fast disappearing.
William Hone, The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, William Tegg and Co., London, 1878; 1825-26 edition online

My wife to France, from whence set forth in pomp,
She came adorned hither like sweet May,
Sent back like Hallowmass or short'st of day.
Shakespeare, Richard II, V, i

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness.
John Keats, English poet, born October 31, 1795, 'Endymion', 

Upon the honeyed middle of the night.
John Keats; 'The Eve of St Agnes', vi

Ever let the fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home.
John Keats; 'Fancy', 1 

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
John Keats; 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'

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Life in a Medieval Village

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Astro pic of the day

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Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Religion, Literature & Art (Seyffert)

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Cafe Diem!

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Poor Richard's Almanack
By Benjamin Franklin

Photo of the day

Mother Earth Spirituality

Wheel of the Year

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

The Survival of the Pagan Gods

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Out Of The Broom Closet Day

"Named by the Pagan Pride Project in 2001 as a day to support and encourage followers of Pagan, Heathen, and other earth-based and ethnic religious paths to publicly declare and support their chosen religion to those who they encounter in everyday life."

Source: Earth, Moon and Sky

Halloween folklore

Originally a pagan festival called Samhain (pronounced sow-wen – sow as in pig), the name of November 1 was Christianised by the tenth century abbot of Cluny, St Odile, to All Saints' (or All Hallows') Day, hence Halloween, the evening before.

Festival of Pomona
At the end of October and early November, the ancient Romans celebrated the Festival of Pomona, the goddess of fruits, because fruits like apples and nuts were plentiful in these months. It is from this practice that Halloween games like chestnut roasting and apple bobbing are derived.

Nutcrack Night
An old name for Halloween is Nutcrack Night, so named because today is associated with many customs including cracking nuts. Bobbing for apples, and finding one's future lover through certain rites are also Nutcrack Night traditions, the former having been passed onto today's Halloween customs.

Second sight
Scottish tradition says that those born on Halloween have the gift of second sight, or clairvoyance.

Jumping nuts
Here's an old Irish Halloween custom. When young women wanted to know if their lovers were faithful, they used to put nuts on the fire grate, naming the nuts after the two lovers. If a nut jumped or cracked, it meant the man would prove unfaithful. If the nut burned, it meant he loved the woman. If both nuts burned together, it meant the couple would be married.

Salted herring
In an old Halloween custom from the Isle of Man, a girl would eat a salted herring tonight, including the bones, without drinking or speaking. She would then go to bed backwards, following which a man would appear in her dreams bringing her a drink. The man would eventually be her lover.

Green arrow
In an ancient British Halloween custom, girls used to tickle the inside of their noses with leaves of the yarrow (called colloquially nose-bleed) in order to know their boyfriends' romantic intentions. They recited the verse

Green 'arrow, green 'arrow, you bear a white blow,
If my love love me, my nose will bleed now;
If my love don't love me, it 'on't bleed a drop,
If my love do love me, 'twill bleed every drop.

This practice is recommended only for confirmed celibates and the very healthy.

Love charms
Many old British customs from Halloween were associated with love prognostication. Young women sometimes would cut bracken fern above the root to divine the first letter of the name of their lover-to-be. Another method was to blow the fluff off a dandelion, with the number of blows equalling the number of years the girl would have to wait for love.

In another charm, a girl went into the garden at midnight and plucked twelve leaves of sage. She was then sure to see the image of her lover-to-be in the shadows.

Around the churchyard
In old Lancashire, England, girls on Halloween used to walk twelve times around a churchyard on Halloween in order to see a vision of their future husbands.

Apple bobbing
The familiar Halloween custom of apple bobbing goes back centuries. In the north of England another Halloween game was to bite an apple that was stuck on a hanging beam; the player had the hands tied behind the back. On the other end of the beam was stuck a lighted candle. When the beam rotated, the trick was to bite and not be burned.

Balancing act
In the north of England, an old Halloween game had a person balancing on a pole laid between two stools. At the end of the pole was a lit candle, from which the player had to light his own without falling into a tub of water beneath him.

Cabbage pull
In old Scotland, on Halloween, young people used to determine the shape of their spouse-to-be by pulling cabbage stalks (or, runts) and examining the size and shape.

The top pickle
In old Scotland on Halloween, a young woman would pull stalks of corn. If the third stalk wants the top pickle (ie lacked the grain at the top), the lass's husband-to-be would not come to the marriage a virgin. 

Mirror, mirror
In an old Halloween custom from the west of Scotland, a woman wanting to know about her hoped-for lover would eat an apple at a mirror, while combing her hair. Her lover's face would appear in the mirror over her shoulder, or, so it is said.

Hemp seed, hemp seed
In an old Scottish custom, on Halloween a person should sow at night a handful of hemp seed, saying Hemp seed I saw (sow) thee, hemp seed I saw thee; and him (or her) that is to be my true, come after me and pou (pull) thee. Looking over one's shoulder will reveal one's future lover, pulling up hemp.

Shirt omens
In order to divine her future husband's identity, a Scottish girl of old on Halloween would dip her left sleeve in a burn (creek) when three lairds' (lords') lands met. The girl then would lie awake by the fire drying the sleeve, until the apparition of her future husband would come and turn the sleeve to dry the other side. Or, so it is said.

Halloween omen
A Scottish Halloween custom of old involved a person taking three dishes, one empty, one containing clean water and one with dirty water. A young person was led blindfolded to the hearth where the dishes were. If he (or she) dipped the left hand in the clean water, the future spouse would be a virgin. If in the dirty dish, he or she would be a widow; if in the empty, there would be no marriage at all. This was done three times.

Thanksgiving
In Moray province, Scotland, Halloween was a thanksgiving festival for the safe in-gathering of the harvest. The entire European tradition of this day, in fact, derives from the location of Halloween exactly between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice, which is the natural time for harvest festivities.

Torch running
In the town of Logierait, Perthshire, Scotland, on Halloween an old custom is for a man to run around the village bearing on his shoulders a torch made of heath, broom and flax. 

Halloween bonfires
At Callander, Scotland, in ancient times, bonfires were always lit on Halloween. When the ashes were cold, they were arranged in a circle, and a marked stone for each person put in the middle. In the morning, any moved stone indicated the death within a year of that person. Magic ceremonies were then performed by Druid priests to counteract the evil of witches and demons.

Welsh Halloween
In old Wales, on Halloween, boys and girls used to seek out a sprig of ash. The first to find one called out Cyniver. The first of the other sex that found a sprig would answer the same, and these two were eventually to marry.

Welsh bonfires
In North Wales, on Halloween, an old custom was for a large fire, called a Coel Coeth, to be made near each house. Villagers used to run through the bonfire, escaping from an imagined black, short-tailed sow. A white stone for each person was marked and thrown into the fire, then, after prayers before the fire, the people went to bed. If any stone was missing in the morning, it was a sign that the person for whom the stone was marked would not live until next October 31.

Nutty prosperity
In an old North Welsh custom, nuts were thrown into the domestic fire. If a nut burned brightly, it presaged prosperity for the coming year.

Shony
On the Isle of Lewis, west of Scotland, a Halloween sacrifice used to be made to the sea god Shony. One local used to wade into the sea with a glass of ale, saying "Shony, I give you this cup of ale, hoping that you'll be so kind as to send us plenty of sea-ware, for enriching our ground the ensuing year." All returned to the church where they blew out a single burning candle, then proceeded to the fields for a drinking party.

Elizabeth decrees
Queen Elizabeth I of England banned the practice of ringing bells for all Christian souls on Halloween, it being supposedly "popish" and superstitious. Her decree read "that the superfluous ringing of bels, and the superstitious ringing of bells at Alhallowtide, and at Al Soul's day, with the two nights next before and after, be prohibited" [sic].

Halloween bonfires
An old saying is that a Halloween bonfire must not be allowed to go out, or else evil manifestations will be able to enter the home.

Tinley fires
The ancient Irish customarily lit bonfires on the four Druidic festivals of the year, including Samhain, or Halloween. Samhain fires were called Tinley fires, teanlas or tindles. These days, candles are more commonly burned than bonfires.

Oidhche Shamhna
In olde Ireland, Halloween was called Oidhche Shamhna, or the vigil (eve) of Samhain. Peasants used to assemble with sticks and clubs, collecting money and cakes from door to door and reciting traditional verses. Women made candles which were sent from house to house, on the next day being prayed before for departed souls of the faithful. In every house, an elaborate feast was laid out.

Backwards charm
Years ago in Ireland, on Halloween, unmarried women used to throw a ball of yarn out a window and reel it in while saying the Paternoster backwards, in order to see their future husbands' apparitions. Such a phantom was called a 'sith' ('sídhe'; 'sidhe'), pronounced 'shee' (see Banshee).

Lamb's wool
Long ago in Ireland, on Halloween, people used to drink lamb's wool, ale mixed with bruised roast apples. This time of year was dedicated to the angel presiding over fruits, and was called La Mas Ubhal, or the day of the apple, pronounced lamasool, whence the term comes.

Drap glasses
On the British island of South Uist, girls used to play a divination game called drap glasses, in order to determine who their future husbands would be. They dropped some egg white into a glass of water; if it stayed at the bottom it was a bad omen, if it started to float, indications could be read from the shapes. For example, if the egg white looked like a ship, it would predict the husband might have a nautical profession. An old saying has it thus:

Sad am I
At this time of winter
On Hallowe'en night
And I without eggs.

The same custom is also recorded in Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Poland and Russia.

Philippines Halloween
Halloween is known as Undas in the Philippines, where they engage in storytelling about spooks, the souls of unbaptised dead children and the tikbalang, a horse/human form. In a custom called Nangangaluluwa, young people in singing groups collect money. The singers represent souls; one song goes

Ordinary souls we are, from Purgatory we have come
And there we are duty-bound to pray by night and day.
If alms you are to give, be in a hurry please
For the door of heaven may close on us forever.

On Halloween, in the Philippines, kids steal chickens and eggs. They even steal small farm animals and household items – the spirits of the dead are blamed for the theft.

Half-way Halloween
In the Southern Hemisphere, Halloween falls between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice, so may be regarded as the beginning of the Summer season. In the north it has always been regarded as the beginning of Winter. Today is a time to congratulate Mother Earth for her fertility and the renewal of the vegetative cycle.

Holland-tide and snap apple
In Ireland, before the 1752 adoption of the Gregorian calendar, which altered the 'Old Style' of date keeping by 12 days, Halloween used to be known also as Holland-tide or Hollantide (known as Martinmas in England, November 11). After the harvest, it was a time of relative abundance for poor farm folk. Families would gather tonight, and when the elderly people had finally retired to bed, the youngsters would play traditional games that were frowned upon by the clergy. 

In one, called snap apple, an X-shaped frame was suspended from the ceiling, with each arm bearing either an apple or a lit candle. The object was to catch an apple from the spinning frame with one's teeth, without getting burnt.

At this time, people used to divine their futures by pouring molten lead through the handle of a key placed over a porringer of water. The shapes as the lead set indicated the life to come.

People also used to place two beans, representing a young man and woman, on a fire grate. If the two were to be sweethearts, the beans would burn quietly side by side. If the beans popped away from each other, there would be no romance. The southern English had a similar custom with nuts, saying : If he loves me, pop and fly, if he hates me, lie and die.

Irish Halloween courting
In pre-19th-century Ireland, it was the custom at Halloween for the girls to come courting the boys, instead of the other way round.

The apple and the mirror
Here's a divination ritual, the origin of which I haven't been able to ascertain (please let me know if you have any idea). I publish here verbatim as I received it by email from a reader:

"Before the stroke of midnight, sit in front of a mirror in a room lit only by one candle or the moon. Go into the silence, and ask a question. Cut the apple into nine pieces. With your back to the mirror, eat eight of the pieces, then throw the ninth over your left shoulder. Turn your head to look over the same shoulder, and you will see and in image or symbol in the mirror that will tell you your answer.

"(When you look in the mirror, let your focus go 'soft', and allow the patterns made by the moon or candlelight and shadows to suggest forms, symbols and other dreamlike images that speak to your intuition.)"

Dreaming stones
It is said that if you go to a stream that forms a boundary to some piece of land, and close your eyes, then follow these instructions, you will soon dream an answer to any problem on your mind. Next take from the water three stones between middle finger and thumb, saying (in Scots Gaelic) these words as each is gathered: 

Togaidh mise chlach,
Mar a thog Moire da Mac,
Air bhrìgh, air bhuaidh, 's air neart;
Gun robh a chlachsa am dhòrn,
Gus an ruig mi mo cheann uidhe.

If you'd prefer to use English, I suppose you could always try:

I will lift the stone
As Mary lifted it for her Son,
For substance, virtue, and strength;
May this stone be in my hand
Till I reach my journey's end. 

Carry these stones carefully to your home, then place them under your pillow. When you go to bed that night, ask for a dream that will give you guidance or a solution to a problem, and the stones will bring it for you.

Eirack's egg
The Scots on Halloween used to use an eirack's egg – the first-laid by a hen – for divination rites. The egg white was dropped into a glass of water, the future being read by the shapes that appeared as the white floated.

Jack-o'-lantern
Many say that the carved pumpkin lantern's name comes from Ireland, but historian David J Skal disputes this (see below). It is said that because of his miserly nature, a man named Jack was refused entry into Heaven. Neither could he enter Hell, because he played practical jokes on Satan. He was thus condemned to roam the earth forever with his lantern, until Judgment Day.

"Although every modern chronicle of the holiday repeats the claim that vegetable lanterns were a time-honored component of Halloween celebrations in the British Isles, none gives any primary documentation. In fact, none of the major nineteenth-century chronicles of British holidays and folk customs make any mention whatsoever of carved lanterns in connection with Halloween. Neither do any of the standard works of the early twentieth century."
David J Skal, Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween, Bloomsbury, New York, 2002, p. 32

In America, the carved pumpkin was associated with the harvest season in general, long before it became an emblem of Halloween. America's Thanksgiving was in fact a time for jack-o'lanterns – at least in the mind of the author of 'The Day We Celebrate: Thanksgiving Treated Gastronomically and Socially' (1900). The poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 - '92), wrote in 'The Pumpkin' (1850):

Oh!—fruit loved of boyhood!—the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!

The earliest reference to associate carved vegetable lanterns with Halloween in Britain is apparently in Ruth Edna Kelley, The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), Chapter 8, which mentions turnip lanterns in Scotland.

Japanese Halloween?
It is interesting to note that at about the same time as Halloween, there is in Japan (October 23 - 25) a spooky procession called the Iga Ueno Tenjin Matsuri.

October 31 and other nights over the next two weeks, Antrobus Souling Play, Antrobus, Cheshire, UK
"The Antrobus Souling Play is performed at the Wheatsheaf in Antrobus, and in various other pubs, from Halloween onwards over the following two weeks. The company perform a souling, or mumming play, to which they have added some touches of their own, including the Wild Horse and his Driver. The performers all dress up for their parts, which include King George, the Black Prince, the Quack Doctor, Mary, Beelzebub and Derry Doubt. The Wild Horse has a fearsome aspect and snapping jaws, and many lines about him are recited to attract sympathy for his needy condition."   Source

Witches' Remembrance Day, Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotland

The Isia, ancient Egypt, fourth day (Oct 28 - Nov 3)

Ludi Victoriae Sullanae, ancient Rome (Oct 26 - Nov 1)

Goddess month of Samhain commences

Feast day of St Antoninus, Urban (Pope Urban I) and Narcissus

Feast day of St Arnulfus of Novalese

Feast day of St Bega (see also September 6)
"This is another of those problematic saints, mixing fact and fiction and, perhaps, the stories of more than one person of the same name. One Bega is Irish; the other Anglo-Saxon."   Source

Feast day of Blessed Christopher of Romagnola

Feast day of St Erth (Erc) of Cornwall
Erth's feast day in Ireland is November 2. He was the brother of St Uny and St Ia (Ives), and the only person to give homage to St Patrick during that saint's confrontation with the druids on the Hill of Slane. Patrick is said to have written:

Bishop Erc,
Whatever he judged was rightly judged:
Whosoever gives a just judgment
Shall receive the blessing of bishop Erc.

Erth is also said to have trained the young St Brendan the Navigator at his church in Tralee. Erth died c. 512.

Feast day of St Foillan of Fosses, martyr

Feast day of St Quentin (Quintin), martyr
(Fennel-leaved tickseed, Corcopsis ferulefolia, is today's plant, dedicated to St Quentin.)

Feast day of Blessed Stachys of Byzantius

Feast day of St Wolfgang, Bishop of Ratisbon
St Wolfgang (c. 934 - October 31, 994) was bishop of Ratisbon (today in Germany) from Christmas 972 until his death. He is a saint of the Roman Catholic church (canonized in 1052). A modern picture by Schwind is in the Schak Gallery at Munich. This painting represents the legend of Wolfgang forcing the devil to help him to build a church. In other paintings, he is generally depicted in episcopal dress, an axe in the right hand and the crozier in the left, or as a hermit in the wilderness being discovered by a hunter. The axe refers to an event in the life of the saint. After having selected a solitary spot in the wilderness, he prayed and then threw his axe into the thicket; the spot on which the axe fell he regarded as the place where God intended he should build his cell. This axe is still shown in the little market town of St Wolfgang which sprang up on the spot of the old cell. (This article incorporates text from the Catholic Encyclopedia, which is in the public domain.)

Reformation Day, Germany, Latvia, Estonia and other places (and generally in Protestant churches)
Today is a day on which Protestants commemorate the anniversary of the day in 1517 on which Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church, thus sparking the Reformation.

Independence Day, Antigua
Independence was proclaimed in this Caribbean island state on this day in 1981.

Houdini Day, or, National Magic Day, USA
Because the great magician and escapologist died on this day in 1926, magicians commemorate today.

National Magic Week, USA  (Oct 25 - 31)

UNICEF Day
The work of the United Nations International Children's Fund is commemorated throughout the world today.

Youth Day, Iowa and Massachusetts, USA

Singing masses in the Roman Catholic Churches</