Samhain — or Halloween — is the best known of the ancient Irish fire festivals that mark the changes of the seasons.
I delved into the origins of Samhain (pronounced “Sowen”) for a previous post on Halloween: the meme that reinfected Ireland.
This year, I have no more noble goal than to share a picture of our dog, Layla, in her skeleton costume. She’s either active or sleeping, so it was hard to get good photos of her on the night.
By the magic of Photoshop, surely a work of modern witchcraft, I’ve transposed Layla into a seasonal setting.
Samhain’s a fun festival in Ireland, and Layla loves to greet the trick-or-treating kids as they make their rounds.
We’ll be away on Halloween this year, visiting our soon-to-be home in the UK. Even as I write this, the spiders have stretched their webs over a few of the neighbours’ houses. The next two weeks will see witches and pucas in windows, and gravestones rise in front gardens with bony hands crawling out.
The pumpkin lanterns will come out last — except for the plastic ones. In the days after, they’ll be broken up across the forest where I take Layla for her morning walk. Apparently, the woodland birds and creatures love them, even with the insides scooped out.
As the title says: Happy Halloween.