Nos Calan Gaeaf

[potia]

I raise a toast this night for
• our ancestors of blood and family
• the ancestors of the place we live in
• the gods of our tribe.

Blessings to one and all.

[potia]

This year the toast is with a cup of tea but the sentiment is the same.

I drink in remembrance of the beloved dead.

[potia]

You may have read elsewhere that I usually make a pot of tea at the dark moon to share with the ancestors.

It's something I have found to be a soothing practice.

[Heron]

So to turn our thought to Winternights ....

[dumnorix]

I suppose this is for next year already, but some of you might find it interesting...

While child sleeps and demon creeps
Let druid keep silent watch;
Something escapes from Annwn...

Here a few posts I've been making on the Iron Age Britain facebook page in an attempt to explain the background myth of this particularly liminal time of year...

SAMONIOS: The Ancient British festival of the Dead. The root meaning of the word is simply "end of Summer"; Samonios marks the end of Samos (Summer, "the Light Half"), and the beginning of Geiamos (Winter, "the Dark Half"). At this time, as at Belotanisa (Mayday, "the Bright Fires"), the Lords of Summer and Winter do battle for the hand of Cridiolata (Creidylat, the Spring Maiden, whose name means "Heart-Longing"); unlike at Belotanisa, this time, the Winter King wins.

According to Welsh tradition, the Lords of Summer and Winter are Gwythyr ap Greidawl, and Gwyn ap Nudd, respectively. Now Nudd was King of the Tylwyth Teg (the "Fair Folk" or Elves), who was himself the son of Beli Mawr, an ancestor-god whom Julius Caesar compared to Roman god Dīs Pater - that is Pluto, or Hades. The three therefore comprise an important Otherworldly dynasty. It is thus perhaps possible to compare Cridiolata to Persephone/Proserpina, the Spring Maiden of Greek mythology, who was kidnapped by Hades but allowed to spend the Summer months in this world at the orders of Zeus. In Brythonic mythology, it seems that it was as the result of a battle that her fate was decided. At Mayday, Gwythyr wins, Criedylat returns to This World, and Samos begins; at Hallowe'en, Gwyn wins, and she must return with him to the Otherworld, bringing the beginning of Giamos.

The festival should be celebrated by a three-night feast with some of the first fruits of the harvest, the driving of your cattle between two big bonfires outside the village to cleanse them, a ritual battle between two actors, one as Gwyn and one as Gwythyr, and a few sacrifices to placate Gwyn for supporting Gwythyr at Belotanisa. According to the Coligny calendar, the festival (uelis) of Samonios was celebrated on the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth evenings of the month of Samonios. However, in a modern context, it is best to have the first night of festivities on the 31st of October. Coincidentally, this year that will bring us neatly to the First Quarter of the Moon on the last day of festivities: the first day of the month in the Gaulish calendar.

Gīamos will fall when the Antlered Hunter raises his head in victory.

There is to this day in Brittany a tradition which speaks of the Horned One laying down his antlers at this time of year, and they make antler-shaped cakes to commemorate this. In this context it is also worth pointing out that the name "Gwyn" has two possible etymologies: 1) *uindos, "white, holy, fair"; 2) *uēnios, "hunter". So, it looks like Gwyn is the same as Herne/Arawn/Cernunnos, at a different time of year; with the antlers of a stag he roams our world during Samos, and returns to Andūmnos for Gīamos.

It gives a whole new relevance to dressing up with devil-horns doesn't it...

Arawn Gwyn has overthrown his foe. He puts aside his antlers: the great rut is over. Gaeaf has fallen. He takes Creiddylad his lover by the hand, and leads her to the gates of Annwn. Through all the long dark tonight, on the Eve of Gaeaf, the Veil between This World and That is at its thinnest, to allow passage to the Lord of Annwn and his Queen; shades too may pass between. And for just one moment, the moment when Gwyn and Creiddylad cross the threshold, the Veil parts completely. And every year, at this moment, something special escapes from Annwn...

Happy New Year/Samonios/Samhain/Calan Gaeaf/Hallowe'en everyone!

[megli]

Gwyn < uenios, while ingenious, is problematised by the fact that the final consonant is frequently doubled in older Welsh (-nn from -nd, in *Uindos); also Irish Fionn (also from Uindos) can't come from uenios, and it's been plausibly suggested that Irish Fionn and Welsh Gwyn(n) have certain similarities---not least a patrilineal connection to Nodons/Nuadu/Nudd---in the medieval literature, highly suggestive of some kind of common origin. So--I like it a lot, but I don't wholly buy it.

[potia]

Whether it be Samhain, halloween or Nos Calen Gaeaf you are going to be celebrating in the coming days may it be a peaceful time filled with loving and joyful memories.