Terence

Our summer’s over, winter’s here
‘tis time to start another year
if you go out you must be wary
but you won’t meet an evil fairy

instead, as death’s veil waxes thin
the spirits, with their dev’lish grin,
will move among us, interfering,
playing tricks and then fleering

you’ll find the folk are all hobnobbing
casting their fate to apple bobbing
to see who’ll be the year’s first bride
and whose true love will be denied

while other’s measure apple peel
to see how soon the gods will steal
their lives into the other sídhe
becoming a wailing banshee.

tonight we’ll relight our hearth fire
with help from the high priest of Tara
to bless our crops that bloom in spring
as we give praise on this Samhain

but in two thousand years – who knows
they’ll celebrate this All Hallows
by dressing up and having fun -
not knowing how it all begun.

JolieH

Nice Terance,
You captured a true spirit of Halloween. The apple peels and bobbing create a nice mix of culture with end of season/ beginning November celebration. It is a wonder if we will still celebrate in 2000 years, so many people today are against Halloween celebrating. All that candy is bad for the kid’s teeth anyway, but I enjoy the spooky spirit that's built into innocent playtime. The decorations are fun and the costumes give us all a time pretend. Both children and adults have one night a year to dress as monsters, movie stars, rock stars, princess's and princes, anything they can imagine.

zaac

this is amazing and an incredible write. not many poems pull me in like that. quite nice i would say

zaac

Terence

Hi Jolie,

Thanks for your comments. I used to love getting dressed up for Halloween and now have to leave it for the kids. I'm not such a killjoy that I would ever oppose it and shame on those that do.
I think you picked up that this poem was written from the viewpoint of 2000 years ago. Legend has it that the Druids celebrated the end of the year, on Oct 31, and the divide between the living and the spirits of the dead was at its weakest. So you can see where today's festivities came from. 2,000 years from now is more like 200 years at today's rate of change and I think there will always be the traditionalists, if not the Wiccans, to continue Halloween.

Terence

Terence

Thanks, zaac,
I'm pleased to see you liked it that much. Means a lot.
Terence

nomadicrhymer

Terence, I love this poem! It reminds me so much of all my favorite reads, especially anything to do with the Druids, who are such a mystical people...and I love reading about magic and the celebration of Samhaim and although some of it is rooted in evil stuff, they say...I feel that it can also be an innocent time to do something fun with our kids and have them play "dress up" as it were.

Very, very captivating poetry!!

Nomad

Terence

Hi Nomad,

That was such an interesting part of our history with the science and engineering - Stonehenge, the burial mounds in Ireland, and so on. And of course the superstition but, then, who can fault them for believing in "something out there".

Thanks for your thoughts, enjoy the celebrations with your kids, Terence

JolieH

In San Diego The Gaslamp District puts on a huge Halloween costume bash for adults.
Here's a link if you want to have a look,

MySpace.com - Monster Bash - 22 - Male - US - www.myspace.com/gaslampmonsterbash

Beth Castillo

A treat to read on Hallow'd Eve ... thank-you for sharing.