It might be cliché, but it is my favorite time of the year. So, how can we celebrate this time of the year? Because it is a time of year where the veil thins between the worlds of living and dead we can honor those that have passed away.
A cemetery visit could feel like the right thing for you to do and there are many ways you can honor the spirits at their gravesites.
~Meals a large thing during Samhain as it signifies the end of the harvest and the turning of the weather. Have a Dumb Supper at the cemetery with soul cakes (recipe: https://www.learnreligions.com/make-a-soul-cake-for... ) as a traditional offering, apples, fall vegetables, and game meat. Set a table or picnic area with a black cloth, plates, cutlery, and napkins. Candles, black, should be your only source of light. If you cannot obtain all black dinner wear, you can do a combination of black and white.
What is a Dumb Supper? Dumb refers to being silent, therefore no one should speak once the dinner has begun. A formal Dumb Supper is performed by casting a circle, smudging, and shutting off all electronics. A place should be set for each guest as well as one for the departed you are honoring. The Host(ess) should be seated across from the spirit chair. From the moment you and your guests enter the cemetery (you can perform this in a dining room as well), they are not to speak and they should each bring a note, kept confidential, to the table. They will each stop by the spirit's chair and offer a silent prayer. Guests will then sit and hold hands, offering a silent blessing for the feast and will be served from youngest to oldest. No one should eat until all guests and the spirit are served. When the meal is complete, each guest should go up to the spirit chair one at a time, focus on the contents of their note, and then burn the note in a candle's flame and return to their seat. After everyone has completed this ritual, they should again join hands and offer a silent prayer to the dead. As everyone leaves the room in silence, they should stop at the spirit chair and say a final goodbye.
You can vary the ritual, as with most things, to suit your needs better.
Simpler methods to honor the dead could involve a headstone clean up, creating an altar on the gravesite, and/or bringing fall flowers and soul cakes or sweet bread to leave for the departed.
Thank you for reading! ~The Wiccan Witch
I took these pictures on a camping trip, I found the graveyard eerily beautiful.
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