Samhain Games.

Hello there my dears, I hope you are all well. This next post is on Celtic Samhain games, I hope that you all enjoy it.

Samhain was the night during which the veil between this world and the Otherworld was at its thinnest- spirits roamed the streets and magic was at its most potent. (I actually did a post on Samhain a while ago, available here). It was fairly standard to stay at home, avoiding malevolent spirits and danger. As a result, games were a popular way to spend one's time. Of course what with it being Samhain, divination games were a favourite activity. I thought it would be fun to share some of them with you!

Divining the weather was quite popular. If you stepped outside your house at midnight and the moon was covered in clouds, it meant that there would be a lot of rain in the coming months. In fairness, I doubt they needed to look at the moon to figure that one out, it's ALWAYS raining here! ;)

A cloud covered moon meant rainy times were ahead
Click for source, Labelled for reuse under Creative Commons.

There was also a fondness for predicting health, marriages and luck. One practice was to throw nuts into a fire. If they burned brightly then you would definitely be alive in twelve months. If they flared brightly then you would find yourself married in twelve months!

Rocks were marked with one's initials and thrown into a fire. If they could not be retrieved or were damaged then this spelled (hehe pun) bad luck for the thrower. 

The tradition of bobbing for apples originated from Celtic times apparently. Apples would be set floating in water and young unmarried folk would attempt to ensnare an apple with their teeth. The first to take a bite would be the next person to marry. It also brought good luck! 

It was also commonplace to melt lead into a cup and to interpret the resulting shapes as signs and/or omens of things to come.

On a Halloween related note, check out my make-up bag. I'v had this since I was ten but have only started using it as a make-up bag today. I don't know why I never thought of it before! :)

Some house-keeping stuff. After dwelling on it for a while I changed my URL from gothicireland to gothicphantomcat.blogspot.com. It hasn't caused me any problems and my content and followers remain unaffected, does anyone know of any issues which may arise further down the line? Is there something I'm missing? I know I have broken links but I can live with that. I'm going to change the title from The Phantom Cat's Guide to Gothic Ireland to 'The Phantom Cat's Otherworld'. I decided that it was a bad idea to limit myself with the original title, I just wanted to say it here so that people still know it's me.

:)