Happy Beltane to the Southern Hemisphere…

BritMumInNZ

or Samhain, popularly known as ‘Halloween’, to all those in the Northern Hemisphere.

Unfortunately, the majority of folk in New Zealand seem to lose sight of what season we’re in on 31 October every year and follow the Halloween celebrations. However, up in Northland ‘The First Church of Ancient Crafts‘ has the right idea with their ‘Beltane Festival of Love‘.

Trying to explain all this to the children isn’t easy, when the television, media and folk on the street bombard them with people dressed up in spooky costumes and parade around doing ‘trick or treat’. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind Halloween, it’s just plain wrong to be doing it in our spring!

Despite all this, we did take the girls down to Capital E’s ‘Big Halloween’ party in Civic Square. Every year Capital E put on a marvellous ‘party’ and the theme changes with the year. This year it was a pirate theme and the show was very entertaining.

Big Halloween 2009 at Capital E

Big Halloween 2009 at Capital E

After the show we headed home, in glorious sunshine, and it made me very happy to see my Beltane fairies stopping for a bit of rolling in the grass…

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They sure know it’s spring!

There’s a great post ‘Beltane Vs Halloween‘ on Mystic Medusa

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9 thoughts on “Happy Beltane to the Southern Hemisphere…”

  2. Wellington sure knows how to put on the entertainment….just loved the pictures and seems a great time was had by all….just lovely!!

      Yes, Wellington is amazing at putting on events and this time of year there is something on every weekend. It was much fun and the girls certainly had their ‘fix’! x

  3. Well yes.. the wrong season here for the harvest festival of Samhain, and equally the wrong season when we celebrate Easter. That’s what happens when northern hemisphere festivals are imposed on a southern land. Short of changing everything around, it’s best just to accept the paradox, and go with the flow.

      Thanks Phil. Easter dates are of course fine – as it’s a religious festival, same with Christmas – can’t go changing those dates around. However the pagan festivals revolve around the seasons, so true followers go with the seasons and ignore the commercial hype. I do a bit of both – let the children have a bit of fun with the Halloween hoo ha; but also teach them the old traditions too and encourage a bit of dancing in the grass and celebrating spring/summer. 🙂

  4. Seems to me that Chez Lee needs little excuse to party! Great post, for the first I’m I actually stopped to realise how such autumnal festivals make no sense down under.

      Yes, party on whatever! x

  5. Halloween and Easter down under make no sense. Let’s lobby the Warehouse to switch their commercial crap to the proper seasons for us!

      Oh, I would never suggest changing Easter – impossible! It takes a while to get used to it being Autumn at Easter time, having grown up with daffodils, chicks and lambs, but of course the true celebration of Easter has nothing to do with the seasons. I enjoy the symbol of eggs for birth and use flax from the garden to make crosses. I did chuckle at your suggestion of lobbying the Warehouse!

  6. Id probably vot for making Christmas in winter as well 🙂 For no reason other than I like it being in winter and I just cant feel “christmassy”.

    Its nice though that there are a lot of people here in New Zealand who are aware of the old festivals.

    Stonehenge Aotearoa usually holds “festivals” at the equinoxes and soltice – though the lastest one wasnt very good by all accounts.

      Hi Avalon, I always have a yearning to hang up some fairy lights in mid-winter too – I like the way a lot of people here celebrate the Winter Solstice with a big roast dinner and a ‘pseudo’ Christmas.

      I also love that we now have a ‘Stonehenge Aotearoa’ to honour the old ways at the right time of the year to coincide with the seasons.

  7. I don’t have too much trouble with Halloween in spring, and I’ve even grown used to Christmas summer BBQs, but Easter in fall is very, very wrong!

      I’m loving Christmas in summer now. There’s nothing nicer than having a lighter meal and delighting in berries galore. Can’t wait! 🙂

  8. Hi Sarah, Thanks for your comment on my blog. I’ve never lived in the southern hemisphere but have a couple of friends in different parts and have often thought this very thing! (I went over to read Mystic Medusa too.) You seem to have found a far more sensible way of celebrating the passing of the seasons, so Happy Beltane to you and yours, with a little bit of spookiness thrown in!
    Janice.

      Many thanks Janice 🙂

  9. The Trick or Treating round is done in tuktuks here initiated by the American expats but many Europeans (French, German, Swedish etc) get right into it too the funny thing is that rather than a ‘harvest’ festival (while rice is harvested much of the year round ironically the biggest harvest IS now right at the end of the wet season)Halloween in Asia is really a connection with the dead and the supernatural. Just like the Celts many Asian cultures believe the passage between the dead and the living is thinest at this time of year (here P’Chum Ben, Teng Chieh for the Chinese and Yue Lan or Festival of the Hungry Ghosts which the Singaporean Chinese and Hongkongese celebrate, the Japanese celebrate the Obon Festival, the Koreans Chusok etc) all to honour the deceased relatives and keep them happy for the coming year. So there is huge precedent for the spooky part of this time of year to be now in NZ (a part of Asia Pacific, ASEAN etc)even if it is warm and the nights long.

      Thanks Tanya for your wonderful information. I am very aware of those festivals. I’m just an old pagan at heart (tee hee) and prefer to honour Samhain at the end of NZ’s summer. There’s a multitude of cultures and people with various beliefs living in New Zealand and there’s nothing wrong with having an eclectic blend of celebrations throughout the year, whatever the season. It is up to the individual to partake, or not, as they see fit. I think I might find myself a May pole and get the girls dressed up and dancing round it next Beltane (in NZ’s October/Nov) – though I’ll leave out the tradition of ‘jumping’ over the fire! x

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