Celebrations this weekend

This weekend sees a series of events that are particularly relevant to the Pagan Rite of TOTJO but also to the wider Pagan and Christian communities.

Firstly there is the festival of Samhein. This derives from a Celtic harvest festival and marks the start (and end) of the Celtic Year. Celebrated around the 31st October, the correct astrological date (when the Sun enters 15deg Scorpio) this year is on the 8th November.

Samhein marks the start of Winter and therefore the beginning of the \"dark times\" when we draw togather as a community and rely on the energies and provisions that Summer provided in order to get us through. Although this is not so relevant nowadays given our non-reliance on our own land to provide food, we can still honour the connections of our communities and tribes.

Samhein is one of the two festivals when the veil between the world is said to be at its thinnest. The corresponding festival of life, fertility and summer's return is Beltane (in May) and Samhein is the opposite - celebrating ageing, death and that which we have lost. So it is a time for comtemplation and for honouring the spirits of those who have passed to the Force. As such, October 31st has been designated as Pagan Rite Recollection Day and offers the opportunity to express thanks for the times that we have shared with those that we love and for the experiences that have brought us to this place.

As you can imagine, a festival that celebrates the spirits of the dead attracted attention from the Christian communities that moved into pagan territories and they decreed that November 1st was All Saints (Hallows) Day, honouring all those who have \"attained the beatific vision in Heaven\". This in turn reduced Samhein to the status of All Hallows Eve (or Halloween) but that is a political discussion for another day! TOTJO promotes the peaceful co-existence of all traditions and so we are pleased to include this Christian liturgical date in our celebrations this weekend.

TOTJO also celebrates October 31st as Jedi Youngling Day - a time when we honour our younger members as well as \"to celebrate the pleasure of unfettered laughter and the spirit of happy childhood\". So why not celebrate by spending time with family members, goofing around, laughing, living without fear, or thanking those that gave you the gift of life.

If you would like to take part in celebrating Samhein, we will be holding a series of events. To add your energies to a healing ritual, see the information in the following post:
http://templeofthejediorder.org/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,96/func,view/id,30272/catid,54/

I will also be conducting a ritual in Chat at sunset where I am in the UK on Saturday November 6th (this being the closest weekend to the astrological date of Samhein). This corresponds to the following time:
4.30pm GMT
12.30pm EST
11.30am CST
9.30am PST

All are welcome to attend. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

For further information about some of these festivals, try:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints%27_Day

MTFBWY

I will probably be unavailable this weekend (as I will be celebrating!) so I wish you all a very merry Samhein / Halloween / All Saints Day

MTFBWY

Here, at my abode, we celebrate Halloween.... I myself was not around as much over the last week due to our prepreations for our Halloween Event....

We put it on for the children, of course.... maybe a little for ourselves, but, there are not many houses on our street that give out candy and I got tired of buying candy and no one coming by....

About 9 years ago, when we moved into this house, I was bored waiting for kids to come by... I turned the lights out, turned spooky music on, hung a drape in the front entrance to kinda hide any ambiant light behind me, dressed in black with a strobe light behind me, removed the screen from the door.... and waited....

When children came up, they would push the doorbell, or just say trick-or-treat, to the door..... I waited for a few extra seconds, about the time they would look at each other and shrug their shoulders and figure I wasn't there, (although I was three foot away, right in front of them).... then suddenly, reach through the door and grab at them....

Had a few, run away screaming, most 'jumped', but waited for their candy... of course....:laugh:

That started what has now become a production in my yard.... We have now grown to a graveyard walkthrough, and spooky 'room' I build in a collapsable tent, and this year, we had 6 monsters roaming our territory...

What went from a 1-person, 1-strobe light, 1-drape.... has now taken on quite a life... I take the week off of work to set it up, and we work and talk, and plan... all year long....

First year, 10-20 kids, last year, 100 kids, this year 160 kids..... That... is what I'm talkin' about......



I hope this picture shows.... (I'm not good at this part)

Happy Halloween.... Only 364 till Halloween 2011....

A small portion of the inside.....