Samhain                                                                      Fallowturn Moon

Geese honking, flying in some direction, no longer always south.  Trucks with rickety wooden sides piled high with split oak come into the cities to sell firewood door to door.  Golf carts head south on flat bed trucks.  Irrigation company trucks haul air compressors behind them to blow out irrigation systems.  Bee colonies board trucks headed for California, Texas, Florida where crops can be pollinated over our winter.  Signs for various aspects of deer processing go up.  County Market near us has been advertising sausage mixes and consultation with experts.

Soon the early Christmas trees attached to the tops of cars will appear on Round Lake Boulevard, cut at the cut your own place north of us.  The skies have already turned gray, the wind chill.  Snow comes first in this month, too.

All Hallow’s today.  In one interesting variation on this theme I found that in some traditions this is the day the souls of those who died in the last year are judged.  Cheery thought, eh?

We have entered, according to my sacred calendar, holiseason.  It stretches from Samhain to Epiphany and includes Samhain, All Souls, Día de los Muertos  Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and Epiphany but also Hanukkah, Posada, Deepavali (Diwali), Advent, Boxing Day, the Mayan 5 useless days at the end of the year and my favorite, my low holy day, the Winter Solstice.

So light those candles, dig out the decorations, crank up the holiday music and let’s party like it’s Holiseason 2012.