We started off our session with the game bat and moth, learning about echolocation and developing our senses.
The festival of Samhain
It was a festival not unlike the modern New Year’s Day in that it carried the notion of casting out the old and moving into the new. To our ancestors it marked the end of the pastoral cycle – a time when all the crops would have been gathered and placed in storage for the long winter ahead and when livestock would be brought in from the fields.
As the last day of the year, usually fairly stable boundaries between the Otherworld and the human world became less secure so that puka, banshees, fairies and other spirits could come and go quite freely. There were also ‘shape shifters’ at large. This is where the dark side of Halloween originated.
Samhain or Halloween spread to America. A lot of Halloween celebrations in Ireland have changed from the old original games. Today we played the old games.
Snap Apple
Bonfire Jumping and Potion Making
Making Ghosts
Oak gall ink on cotton.
Leaf masks
Celebrating our last session together
There was lots of variety in what the children chose to focus on for their last session.
