#allhallowtide

Presenting the round-up of Sheydmade's 2025 Halloween, Samhain, & Autumn Holidays & Rituals articles and pieces. Have a look through and consider bringing some of these traditions into your own holiday season! Happy Haunting!

A Soul! A Soul! A Soul Cake!: Traditional Spirit Offerings for Allhallowtide, Samhain, & Halloween — Explore the origins, purposes, and variations of soul cakes around the world, and enjoy a collection of soul cake recipes.

An Cailleach: the Queen of Winter — An Cailleach comes into her half of the year during the dark season, with many marking Samhain as the beginning of her time. This is a broad exploration of an Cailleach and the many roles she plays in the world of witchcraft and in the practices of her devotees.

Dining with the Dead: the Supper — a guide to hosting a Dumb Supper/Silent Supper as a method of communicating with or honoring the dead.

the Dumb Supper Divination Rite — Learn all about the original Dumb Supper, a folk divination ritual performed on Halloween, New Years, and other significant dates.

Hollers, Haints, & Hocus Pocus: Halloween in Southern Appalachia — an adoration of Southern and Southern Appalachian Halloween traditions, customs, superstitions, and lore.

Samhain: an Introduction — the history and origins of Samhain, a collection of traditional Samhain customs, and ways of incorporating historical Samhain traditions in contemporary practice.

🍂 Allhallowtide 🍂

As Halloween creeps up on us, let's talk about the triduum, Allhallowtide. These 3 days consist of All Hallows' Eve (Halloween), All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day.

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All Hallows' Eve (Oct. 31st)

This holiday is a time for preparation as it is the Eve to All Saints' Day. It is the day to meditate on the themes of life and death.

An Irish custom of this day is to carve Jack-O-Lanterns (traditionally, they were turnips, not pumpkins). The legend of the Jack-O-Lantern is as follows:

"There once was an old drunken trickster named Jack, a man known so much for his miserly ways that he was known as "Stingy Jack," He loved making mischief on everyone -- even his own family, even the Devil himself! One day, he tricked Satan into climbing up an apple tree -- but then carved Crosses on the trunk so the Devil couldn't get back down. He bargained with the Evil One, saying he would remove the Crosses only if the Devil would promise not to take his soul to Hell; to this, the Devil agreed.

After Jack died, after many years filled with vice, he went up to the Pearly Gates -- but was told by St. Peter that he was too miserable a creature to see the Face of Almighty God. But when he went to the Gates of Hell, he was reminded that he couldn't enter there, either! So, he was doomed to spend his eternity roaming the earth. The only good thing that happened to him was that the Devil threw him an ember from the burning pits to light his way, an ember he carried inside a hollowed-out, carved turnip."

Another All Hallows' Eve tradition is baking Soul Cakes and giving them away. A popular saying kids would say is:

"A Soul Cake, a Soul Cake, have mercy on all Christian souls for a soul cake!" Or "Soul, soul, an apple or two, If you haven't an apple, a pear will do, One for Peter, two for Paul, Three for the Man Who made us all."

Foods

• Soul cakes

• Roasted pumpkin seeds

• Cider

• Nuts

• Popcorn

• Apples

Activities

• Host a bonfire (to guide spirits home and to represent Jesus being the light in the darkness)

• Go trick or treating/souling or give out the treats

• Tell scary stories

• Decorate with Memento Mori themed decor

• Play bobbing for apples

• Carve Jack-O-Lanterns

• Reflect on and feel sorry for the souls of the damned

• Visit a cemetery

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All Saints' Day (Nov. 1st)

This is a day to honor all saints, canonized and unknown. This is a time to find inspiration from our siblings in Heaven.

Foods

• Chestnuts

• Pumpkin

• Ceci con le costine

• Pane dei Morti

• Huesos de Santo

• Toffee apples

• Sweet potatoes

Activities

• Attend Mass

• Dressing up as your favorite saint

• Ask for the intercession of saints

• Tell stories about saints

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All Souls' Day (Nov. 2nd)

This is a day to focus on the themes of Purgatory and to pray for the souls there. It is a perfect day to remember our loved ones.

Foods

• Soul cakes

• Pan de muerto

• Pandulce

• Barmbrack

• Frutta martorana

• Calabaza en tacha

• Ossa dei Morti

• Chickpea and pumpkin soup

• Canavese soup

Activities

• Praying for the souls in Purgatory

• Visiting the graves of loved ones to clean and decorate with candles and flowers

• Share memories of loved ones

• Leave a spot open at the diner table for deceased loved ones

• Create a shrine to honor loved ones

• Give away soul cakes in exchange for prayers

Happy Hallowe'en!

❤️☕🍞🧈

Thank you; God bless you; I love you!