From: "sarah mcdougal"
hi all,
(so this is a (probably not as long as i would like, since it's late)
description of samhain (pronounced sow-een), which is the
pagan new year. )
so on tuesday night, virginia, joanne, and nathan and i went to
watch the samhain procession on the royal mile in edinburgh's
old city. it was amazing :)
samhain is one of the 8 major holidays of the pagan calendar - it
symbolizes the end of summer and the beginning of winter, and
is also time to say goodbye to those who have passed away
during the year. basically the summer king and his entourage
have a big party while the winter king and his entourage patiently
sit in the corners, masked, waiting for their turn. after a while, the
winter king steps forward, and challenges the summer king, and
they fight. the winter king kills the summer king, and then
basically goes - oh, man, that was silly - he is my other half, and
now we won't have summer.. eit! but luckily the spirits who
oversee the whole ceremony step in, and revive the summer
king, and send him off (with his entourage) to the corners and
the winter king takes over. this is the promise that summer will
come again (and the whole ceremony repeats in reverse in may
(more or less)).
the procession started at the castle esplanade, with jugglers
and musicians in the summer king's entourage, all dressed in
bright colors, and the winter king's entourage all masked and
quiet, and in black and white. we got to see them set up and get
orgainzed in the procession, which was waaay cool.
the summer king was dressed in full highland regalia, and his
skin was painted green. he was carried on a throne by
(originally 4) men, but he prooved a little heavier than they had
anticipated, and they asked for volunteers from the crowd to help
carry the king down the royal mile. that was rather cool, in my
opinion. :)
they proceeded about 1/4 down the mile to parliment square, led
by the musicians and lots of drummers. in the square they had
a stage set up, so that we could all see (which was very useful,
since there were probably about 2,000 people there (joanne?
virg?). the summer king in his throne sat upstage, and his
entourage performed for him - hands down the coolest were the
4 (very sexy) women who basically were juggling fire - they had
small (few inches in diameter) flaming globes on the ends of
chains that they were whirling around in patterns - it's a chinese
(i think) form of juggling, and creates really cool effects when
used with fire globes. i have a cool picture from someone
juggling like this from festival, which i will hopefully scan in soon.
then the winter king and his entourage came forward, and the
two kings began to fight, in what was an obviously
choreographed and rehearsed sequence. but they were hitting
each other really hard. i could see the summer king's reactions,
and they were hitting each other *hard*. first they used wooden
staffs, and then they put those down, and used broadswords.
and then they put those down (i was thinking at this point - man,
how can they out do broadswords??), and picked up big
shields... and then chains with globes on the ends, about a foot
in diameter that were, you guessed it, set aflame. and then they
started hitting each other with these flaming globes. wow. wow.
eventually the winter king won (to the boos of the crowd, which
kinda disappointed me, since he *has* to win, that's the whole
point... but anyway..), and then realized what he had done and
got a bit upset.. but then the godess unveiled herself, and revived
the summer king, and then danced herself... and then all the
drummers from both seasons started playing (which was about
30-40 drummers, i think), and the crowd controllers let everyone
dance around in the square. and then it began to rain.
we then followed the processioners and others to a club where
we hung out and danced and got to see the impressive
costumes and make-up and schtuff up close. cool party. cool
people. very cool night :)
and another cool thing is that the people i work with, most of
whom are edinburgh natives, hadn't ever gone, and most of
them hadn't even heard of it. so i've been told i need to remind
them to go next year. or to beltane (in may).
all in all it was an amazing procession, and a very low-key
introduction to paganism and scotland's version of it.. i just wish
i could be here to see more of the rituals. hm... i wonder how
much it would cost to fly here for beltane... (just kidding mom :) )
okay.. is all for now.. take care of yourself, and be good to
others, etc etc etc.. know that you are thought of and loved. :)
take care
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Sent: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 00:51:05 +0000
Subject: samhain
-asm
"i'm listening :
music in the bedroom
laughter in the hall
diving into the ocean
singing by the fire
running through the forest
standing in the wind
and rolling canyons......
i will not take these things for granted." - toad
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