Bringing Meaning Back to Halloween: Ancestor Altars

Originally posted on BitchBuzz.com.

In case you haven’t noticed, the oh-so-commercial scent of Halloween is in the air. Store aisles overflow with processed candy, while Hannah Montana and Indiana Jones costumes lurk on clothing racks preying upon potential consumers.  All of this and more, which is why many of us are unaware of the deeper meanings and rituals from which modernized Halloween is descended from.

Enter the ancient Celts, who celebrated Samhain (pronounced SOW-in or SOW-een) as a way to honor the end of the harvest and the dead. They believed that on Samhain the veil between the worlds of humans and spirits was at its thinnest. Over time and with the arrival of Christianity, this festival of the dead became known as All Hallow’s Eve and eventually morphed into today’s non-secular Halloween.

Today, some of traditions of Samhain are observed in the Celtic Nations, the Irish and Scottish diasporas, Neopaganism and Catholicism’s All Soul’s Day. Among the traditions is celebrating those who’ve passed. Which brings me to today’s Om Without the Fluff: ancestor altars.

What’s great about an ancestor altar is its focus on honoring ancestors. It’s an equal opportunity practice in that you can give recognition and appreciation to your roots with or without religious ties.

It’s easy to create an ancestor altar. Designate a space in your home where you can place a flat surface (a fireplace mantle, the top of a short bookshelf, a night stand, etc.). Some people drape cloth over the surface, which they can periodically change to reflect the turning seasons, holidays or their own moods.

Items to arrange on the altar should somehow connect to your departed loved one(s). Old photos, personal items, flowers, references to memories, poems, song lyrics, family heirlooms, letters, postcards…just about anything that intuitively feels right. Some people believe in cleansing the space with sage or cedar. For the chemically sensitive, sprinkling the altar area with water containing sprigs of rosemary can be substituted.

Feel free to arrange and re-arrange your altar, as nothing’s set in stone. If you’re feeling up to it, pair your altar making with feasting on favorite foods of the deceased.

Again anything goes. It’s your intention, your memories, your roots to honor.

Image via Wikipedia