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Celtic New Year

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St. John's Cross, Iona
(Photo by Anne-Marie Ellis)

Chant for Samhain (Celtic New Year) 

A year of beauty. A year of plenty. A year of planting. A year of harvest.
A year of forests. A year of healing. A year of vision. A year of passion.
A year of rebirth. A year of rebirth. This year may we renew the earth.
Let it begin with each step we take. Let it begin with each change we make.
Let it begin with each chain we break. And let it begin every time we awake.

The Celtic spirituality is strongly underpinned by elements of Creation Centered spirituality. This is presenting itself more and more as I am discovering how nature and creation lie at the heart of what I could refer to as my soul's language. It might be a good idea to explore this further in my writing and I will definitely be back on this theme.

I was delighted when I found this beautiful chant to be used on the eve of November 1. A couple of days late for the occasion, though,  for November 1 in antiquity was an important feast day for the Celtic people. It is not only the official start of winter but also herald the Celtic New Year which for them was symbolic of new life starting to stir in the seed lying in darkness underground.

I found this interesting information on the website of the All Saints Parish in Brookline.  http://allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic/samhain.html


November 1 is the Celtic feast of Samhain. Samhain, Gaelic for "summer's end," was the most important of the ancient Celtic feasts.
The Celts honored the opposing balance of intertwining forces of existence: darkness and light, night and day, cold and heat, death and life. The Celtic year was divided into two seasons: the light and the dark, celebrating the light at Beltane on May 1st and the dark at Samhain on November 1st. Therefore, the Feast of Samhain marks one of the two great doorways of the Celtic year. Some believe that Samhain was the more important festival, since it marked the beginning of a new dark-light cycle. The Celts observed time as proceeding from darkness to light because they understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed below the ground. Therefore, the Celtic year began with the season of An Geamhradh, the dark Celtic winter, and ended with Am Foghar, the Celtic harvest. The Celtic day began at dusk, the beginning of the dark and cold night, and ended the following dusk, the end of a day of light and warmth. Since dusk is the beginning of the Celtic day, Samhain begins at dusk on October 31. Samhain marks the beginning of An Geamhradh as well as the New Year.
Whereas Beltane was welcomed in the summer light with joyous celebrations at dawn, the most magically potent time of Samhain was at night. Oidhche Shamhna, the Eve of Samhain, was the most important part of the celebration. Villagers gathered the best of the autumn harvest and slaughtered cattle for the feast. The focus of each village's festivities was a great bonfire. Villagers cast the bones of the slaughtered cattle upon the flames. (Our word bonfire comes from these "bone fires.") Personal prayers in the form of objects symbolizing the wishes of supplicants or ailments to be healed were cast into the fire. Many sacrifices and gifts were offered up in thanksgiving for the harvest. With the great bonfire roaring, the villagers extinguished all other fires. Each family then solemnly lit their hearth from the one great common flame, bonding all families of the village together. As they received the flame that marked this time of beginnings, people surely felt a sense of the kindling of new dreams, projects and hopes for the year to come.



Of course, for us living in the Southern hemisphere, November 1 then actually heralds the start of the season of light and warmth. The festival of fertility, summer and renewal which was called Beltane. I found that the chant works well for me personally in this regard also. 

 The discovery of this information coincides with a strong sense of purpose within myself on which I have started to act on November 1. Wherein I am harnessing all my skills, creativity and passion to start laying the foundation for what will be one of the ways the Restory will become viable. It entails a more concentrated effort to develop a range of products in line with what is happening around me and in the seasons. A definite effort in living consciously and in communion with life. 

 I will be writing about it all as I go along and I am looking forward to be extremely busy, enormously creative and totally energized by my conviction about where we are heading! 

 This chant I will keep close and it will be my personal anthem.

 Matilda
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