Samhain Celebration in The Deep Deep Woods

The Deep Deep Woods in one of the homesteads that comprises The Clockworks Collective. This past October our tribe gathered to celebrate Samhain, an ancient Gaelic seasonal festival marking the end of the harvest season and the start of the darker half of the year. We shared a great feast of autumn foods, including vegan pumpkin chili, spinach salad with home-made pumpkin vinaigrette, savory pumpkin pancakes, spicy corn cakes, and a lovely apple-spice cake.

Here, Cynthia guides the children in making lanterns.

Then we gathered the children around the outdoor table to make lanterns. The children used natural water-color paints to decorate pieces of paper, which once dried, were placed between sheets of clear tape and fashioned into small lanterns, which once a LED tea-light was placed inside, were carried by the children to light their path once the sun went down.

Then, the children romped around the yard, collecting small objects they were keen on, while we waited for the sun to set. As darkness fell, a beautiful path into the woods was revealed, lit by a dozen jack-o-lanterns.
 We gathered our baskets of nature offerings, and with lanterns in hand and singing songs, we made our way down the path into the dark woods.Upon reaching the end of the path, we came to an iron bench on which sat The Man of the Woods. He warmly greeted the children, and gifted them with honey and gemstones from the fairies and gnomes of the forest, in exchange for the nature gifts the children had gathered.