Trick or Treat

source: Sniety Grail Photos via Pinterest

Halloween, with Thanksgiving as its precursor (here in Canada, anyway), is my favourite time of year. I love the otherworldliness, the endless possibilities of the imagination, the food, the excitement, the blurring of lines between that which is real and that which is not.

It’s probably the Celt in me. Samhain, All Hallows’ Eve, Hallowe’en – it has been called many things through the ages – is the Celtic New Year, one of the most important festivals on the Celtic calendar.

It was the one night of the year that the Celts believed the lines between this world and the next were blurred. There were warnings about this night, that if you heard something behind you, you were not to turn around, for it was the spirits of the dead. If you looked back, if you saw them, who knew what would happen to you? Probably you would be scared to death, dragged back to the spirit world, or driven insane.

People dressed in costume so that the dead would not recognize them, and carried hollowed out turnips, lit with candles, as lanterns to banish some of the darkness.

It was also thought that on this night, one’s ancestors returned to roam the land (traditionally it would still be the family land) and that they may even enter one’s house and sit down to dinner with their descendants. Some would even set a place for them at the supper table or leave food for them on the doorstep.

Today the Daily Prompt asks, if bloggers had their own Halloween and could go from blog to blog collecting “treats,” what would your blog hand out?

At the Silver Leaf Journal, you would get a cup of strong, spiced dark hot chocolate for warmth and courage, a traditional jack-o-lantern to light your way, pomegranates to remember Persephone’s trip to the Underworld, a piece of barmbrack to tell your fortune, and other traditional snacks such as salted pumpkin seeds and toffee apples, to keep you well-fed until you made it home safely.

Oh, and a story or two.

Happy Halloween, Happy Samhain!

Trick-or-treating at other bloggers’:

1. Happy Halloween!!! | Jab and Cross followed by Cross and Stitch
2. Trick or Treat | Kate Murray
3. All Hallows’ Eve – Valencia style | Beth Byrnes
4. Treats for Bloggers | piran café
5. milk and cookies | yi-ching lin photography
6. I Would Literally Blow Your Mind | sayanything
7. Daily Prompt: Trick or Treat | Under the Monkey Tree
8. Treat | Rebecca Barray
9. Daily Prompt: Trick or Treat | Awl and Scribe
10. Ghost Post 31: Treacherous Trio | writemybrainsout
11. Daily Prompt/ treat at sweetwildflower’s | sweetwildflower
12. Halloween Treats For Bloggers | Tony’s Texts
13. Daily prompt: TREAT | I Spy with My Little Eye…
14. The Light is ON, Come Knock on the Door! | Not a Punk Rocker
15. Hotmyzhsk of Belgorod Region, Russia. October 23, 2011 | Bright Moments Catcher
16. Milkweed Pods (Treat) | photo potpourri
17. DP: Trick or Treat! | The Deepwater Goldfish
18. Evening | Nature Activities
19. Daily Prompt: Trick or Treat | The Story of a Guy
20. I’ll be handing out… | Hope* the happy hugger
21. Let Them Eat Cake Or Candy | The Jittery Goat
22. Daily Prompt Halloween Special! | aliceatwonderland
23. Sticks and Bones | CurTales
24. FOR EVERYONE, A PUMPKIN | SERENDIPITY
25. My Life is a Trick and Treat « MID-DAY SPRITZER
26. Halloween’s Treats | Flowers and Breezes
27. Bowtie Beau! | Not the Family Business!
28. Daily Prompt; Your Halloween treat | sixty, single and surviving
29. Trick or Treat | A mom’s blog
30. Poor Old Paul the Pumpkin… | EW Brown
31. Daily prompt – Halloween!!! | Just some random thoughts
32. Halloween: 11th anniversary of living in Ireland! | Daily Prompt: Trick or Treat | Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me
33. Trick or Treat | Kansa Muse
34. Trick or Treat? | puncta lucis
35. Daily Prompt: Trick or Treat | Rewired and Retired in Nicaragua
36. Treats | Fruit Salad
37. Daily Prompt| A Visual Treat For You | The Lovely Photog
38. Daily Prompt: Treats | My Atheist Blog
39. Here’s a Halloween Treat for You.. | mostlytrueramblings
40. S. Thomas Summers | Happy Halloween!
41. This ‘N’ That Halloween! | Haiku By Ku
42. Vote for Top Dog! | Farfetched Friends
43. HALLOWEEN PROMPT | hastywords
44. “Trick or Treat” | Relax
45. Daily Prompt: Trick or Treat | Pretty Pleasures
46. A Poem: Trick or Treat? | I Hope You’re Taking Notes
47. Daily Prompt: Trick or Treat | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
48. Daily Prompt: Trick or Treat | A Mixed Bag
49. Trick or Treat? | Journey to the Centre of My Heart
50. Ain’t no Sunshine when she’s gone | I’m just Super Saiyan
51. When the Veil Between Worlds Drops | An Upturned Soul
52. Likes and follows | Life is great