Samhain

Here, you can avoid having other people's children annoy you during your well-earned evening by not turning the light on outside the door. This is the signal that you're not going to fuel their habit.

Quite a few of the children came to the programmes wearing costumes today. I get the demons and bats and so forth, but why princesses? What tortured version of anything links princesses with Halloween?
Also, in one class, there was a child called Apple sitting next to one called Coco. How can you not titter?

The Eve of Samhain, the Celtic New Year, end of summer, death of the summer god. Traditionally celebrated with fire, and outside, fireworks are exploding in the sky. A celebration of the non-human, the time when that veil between the worlds is at its thinnest. The time of the Crone, the time of the White Goddess, of women and their spiritual power. The beginning of the darkness.
All Celts had councils of elder women who chose the leaders for the community because of their wisdom.

We all come from the Goddess,
And to her we shall return,
Like a drop of rain,
Flowing to the sea.