Halloween traditions & party alternatives
Soul rising:
Increasingly, in this age of health & safety and the tendency towards Americanisation of our high days and holidays, the English tradition of bonfire night and the 5th of November is no longer “remembered” and has been well and truly usurped by Halloween celebrations.
Flesh & blood:
The early Christian feast of all hallows was a vegetarian holy day, with the faithful abstaining from eating flesh and the tradition of bobbing for apples, toffee apples and feasting on colcannon, corn, cider, jacket potaoes, potato cakes, pumpkin & many other Autumnal favourites, lives on in today’s festivities.
Trick or treating:
As part of the old religion’s pagan harvest & summer’s end festival of Samhain (pronounced Sowin), bonfires were lit to cleanse and divine and “punkies” the original carved mangel wurzel lanterns were lit to guide the “guisers” who went out to imitate the malignant spirits and by doing so ward them off.
Soul cakes are said to be one of the origins of trick or treating, where children & often the poor would go door to door offering prayers & songs for dead. Each small round, spiced sweet cake given and eaten in reward, represented a soul freed from the purgatory.
An uneasy alliance developed between and the Christian All Saints’ holy days and many of the old rituals were reborn with a Christian gloss influencing the rationale behind them.
As both Wiccans & Christians and just about everyone else knows it’s a great excuse to throw a brilliant party. Nights are drawing in and we could all use a shot in the arm to ward off the end-of-summer-blues.
At Rare we are never afraid to wander off the beaten path and can offer spookily fabulous menus, drinks and entertainment.
We can off darkly, delicious canapés such as the:
“Who killed bambi?”
and
“The Blair sandwitch project”
and devilish drinks like:
The Exorcist aka “Your mother sucks cocktails in hell”
Another unusual idea is a tequila-fuelled Dia de los Muertos party, complete with colourful banners, street art décor, authentic Mexican dishes, costumes & adult face painting, plus a rousing Mariachi band to get the party dancing around their hats.
Don’t leave it too late. To ensure your party Halloween is an absolute scream, get in touch.
