Hallowe'en/Samhain 2024

On Thursday the week before last (31st October) it was Hallowe'en and Samhain. I celebrated by carving a pumpkin, putting up decorations and making some food and drink. Unfortunately I wasn't well on the day itself, so I had a slightly delayed celebration! 

I put the decorations up on Hallowe'en (I like to decorate then and keep them up until the beginning of December!). And I made my favourite Demon's Blood drink  (ginger beer mixed with apple juice and orange juice), which is a recipe from The Real Witches' Kitchen book by Kate West.

Then the next day when I was feeling a bit better, I made the food and drink. I baked gingerbread skeletons and made some potato salad (one of my favourite types to make, which is based on a recipe from the book The Kitchen Witch by Soraya).

I normally use spring onion and chives for the potato salad rather than rosemary which is in the recipe, since it's quite strong. But this year I decided to use rosemary for a change. It was quite nice, I didn't use too much. I didn't take a picture but if I make it with rosemary again next year, I'll take one then. :)

I had the potato salad with some buffet type food from the supermarket (cheese and pineapple, paella arancini balls, halloumi fries etc.).

Here's a picture of the pumpkin:

 

I also set up my "Hallowe'en altar" which I've had for the past few years. There were a couple of new decorations this year, paper bats from Morrisons and orange glow safe tealights (battery operated) from the Co-op. I also had a white candle because they're easier for me to get at the moment. Here's a pic:

 

For the gingerbread I used the same recipe as last year, from OK! magazine: https://www.ok.co.uk/lifestyle/halloween-skeleton-biscuits-you-can-31260130

I made some skeletons and a couple of round biscuits ("screaming faces"! lol) and used ready-made icing to decorate them again. They got a bit burnt but the second batch came out better. Here's a photo:

 

I think next year I'll go back to my favourite recipe, a Flora one in an old issue of Closer magazine.

I'd also planned to make some Witch's Brew hot chocolate, which is a recipe from Mix and Mama: https://mixandmatchmama.com/2017/10/witchs-brew-hot-chocolate-slow-cooker/

I didn't in the end because I wasn't feeling well, but I'm just going to make it randomly soon! 

For Samhain I normally go up to my local nature reserve around sunset (usually the last time I do it during the year before it gets too cold!). However, as I mentioned in this year's Madron post, I've been going to the park instead for the last few months because it's easier for me to get to right now. 

I had planned to go to Hove Park the day after Samhain (1st November) but didn't feel like it and the weather wasn't great. The weather has been quite dreary for the past week or so, but it finally brightened up, so I went today! I would have preferred to go the other week but never mind.

There was quite a nice sunset but you couldn't see it much from in the park. It was good to see the lovely autumn colours though. They really start to come out in November, here in Sussex. Here are a couple of photos:

You could see the sunset more from this angle.

 

Zoom in to see the red on the trees! :)

 

So now we're in November. The days are getting darker and shorter, more noticeably since the clocks went back just before Samhain (Sunday 27th October). And it's getting colder, about 13C (55F) during the day and 5C (41F) at night currently. 

The next sabbat will be Yule/the Winter Solstice in December and the start of winter. And then Christmas will be here! I will do a post about my Yule celebrations. :)

Hope you had a good Samhain! (Or Beltane if you're in the Southern Hemisphere.) And I hope that you enjoy the last two months of the year. :)