Samhain: Cross Quarter Day

Bob Haozous

in exhibit at the Wheelwright Museum, 2018-2019.

This year, 2019, has passed through the seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall with the touches of Winter already felt here in the high mountainous desert. As the nights cool, some downright cold, the next cross quarter day, Samhain, is quickly approaching.

Samhain (aka Halloween) is one of the 4 cross quarter days. These days fall between equinoxes (when the sun sets due West) and solstices (when the sun sets at its most northern or southern point on the horizon). Halloween, the spookiest cross quarter day, is derived from a sacred festival of ancient Celts and Druids in the British Isles known as Samhain. It arrives as days grow short and nights grow long here in the Northern Hemisphere. 

Halloween, celebrated on October 31, occurs more or less midway between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice here in the North Hemisphere. And for our neighbors to our South, Day of the Dead is celebrated around at this time as well. At this time of the year the veil or boundary between the living and the dead is the thinnest allowing us to connect with our dead ancestors and honoring them for their influences on we the living.

 Giant Wing Katydid (Microcentrum rhombifolium)
crawling about on one of our two lamps on either
side of our garage door on a sunny day in early October.

On Samhain, aka All Hallows' Eve and Halloween, and/or Day of the Dead, may we honor all creatures: small and big, living and dead, and