 Hello people! I'm Ginny Metherill. I'm a fourth generation Irish descendant witch and today's video of course is all about that was wonderful and glorious of Sabbath's Halloween otherwise known as Soun. So 31st October which is just around the corner is considered quite a big deal by the witch community. It is of course Halloween. There are so many rituals, rites and traditions associated with Halloween that today's video is going to give you a little overview of the main ones that a witch of traditional descent might celebrate on this most auspicious of days, the 31st of October. So according to the Irish language pronunciation website Soun is how this word is pronounced and it means November. So what the 31st of October is actually celebrating is Soun Eve the night before November. Now this is witches new year. It is the summer's end, the end of the period of light and the beginning of the period of darkness. I am going to refer to it throughout this video as Halloween only because I can pronounce it better. I'm not even 100% sure that I've got the Soun pronunciation completely correct. Lots of other people say Soun, Soun, Soun, lots of Irish accents going on here anyway. I'm going to call it for this video Halloween. Now as I said Halloween is therefore the celebration of the end of the year of light and the start of the darkness. The oldest most pagan form of celebration this day is to destroy your fire to put out your hearth. People from all around would congregate on top of a hill and watch the bonfire that would support them through the winter be lit. It is from this communal bonfire that everyone would take a light and set it to the newly laid and swept out hearths that they had in their homes. It's a lovely tradition this you know the whole people of the community would get together lighter bonfire each of them would take a light from that communal fire to light their individual hearths which would be then kept going throughout the period of darkness. It symbolises the start of the new year and so is a hugely important ritual for everyone in this community so of course a bonfire is a must have at Halloween. So the bonfire should be lit by either the striking of a flint to make a spark or the rubbing of two sticks together however it should be lit was from scratch however from today's mind I think a box of matches is absolutely fine. So one of the things that I like to do is to take the light from that bonfire that we have lit on Sam and Eve and use the light to light the fire in my hearth. I'm therefore dedicating my hearth to my home for the rest of the winter. This will ensure that your home is bright, light and warm. It's a sweet spell that one. I really recommend that spell just to do it anyway but it's like a ritualistic hearth cleansing and if you don't have a fire at home where you can take the light from your bonfire from your communal bonfire I would suggest take light to your candle and put it inside your pumpkin. These are all good stuff families and friends would bring the light from the communal bonfire to those who are too sick and infirm to come dancing and singing and leaping through the frames of the bonfire all took place on this night. In the old pagan times the ancient Britons were said to be able to see on the top of each hill almost like a beacon the bonfires of sorrow and burning. It's a very special time one of the high points of the year. So this is a lovely ritual and one that is old as the hills it was something that all our ancestors would have done and it's a great way of connecting with those ancestors on Halloween. This is the time when the veil is at its thinnest and the living and the dead can communicate with each other so to practice something that our ancestors did will bring them closer to us. Now of course Halloween is when as I have just mentioned the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest and the spirits of the dead can cross over the bridge of swords and visit the living. This is one of the well-known traditions of Halloween and it is the reason that we carve our incredibly scary pumpkins and put them by our doorsteps to scare off those evil spirits. November is really known as the month for the dead. Celebrating November's Eve or Halloween is celebrating the time when the veil starts to thinn. They can come and do the dance of the dead amongst the living through the whole of November but the start is Halloween. Now you may have come across the old tradition of leaving food out by your half for the dead to eat. This was again to advert the evil eye from you. If the spirits of the dead are too busy eating the food that you've laid out for them then they will not disturb you in your peaceful enjoyment of your own home. It is also honoring your ancestors because your ancestors will come too. Traditional food was always bread and of course that food of the dead, the apple. Spirits for some reason love an apple and so leaving one by your half with a newly baked loaf of bread is also highly important to your Halloween rituals. These things should be left for the spirits to eat and enjoy and so stop them haunting you. I do like this witch legend. It's something that you can do with your children. You can get them to place the bread and the apples by the stove in the morning. If they're still there take the bread and the apples and bury them in the garden and that'll ensure that the spirits are kept at bay. It is also important on this night to make sure your doors are unlocked all night so that spirits can come and go freely. You don't want to bar them from your house. You have put these keep away evil pumpkins to you know prevent them from entering if they don't wish but they would be bit cross if they were an ancestor and they thought it doesn't apply to me this horrible face. I'd like to come in and they found the door locked. It's very important for you to leave the door open and unlocked that night. In the UK at least Halloween was known by many names and one of them particularly in the north of England is Duck Apple Night. This is because of the prevalence of the Apple theme throughout the Halloween night. Duck Apple Night is where apples were suspended in a large bowl of water and all those single people who came to your festivities would all have a go at trying to get a bite from the apple and it would be the first one to do so. It was said to marry. There are other versions of this game so here's a little ritual that I'm going to give you for your festivities on Halloween night. I want you to thread some apples on a piece of string and suspend them up high. So during your party get all of your single guests including your children because you've got them at different lengths. Have the apples hanging at different lengths because it will help the game. But everyone puts their arms behind their backs and tries to take a bite from the apple. The first person to do so is the one that will marry the soonest. Now it could be the child. It could be the adult who knows. It's quite a fun thing to do. Once the game is over I want you to take the apples and place them just outside your door for your ancestors to enjoy. And if they're still there in the morning take them, bury them in the garden. It was a really common practice to give a large polished apple to your friends and family at Halloween because this brought them prosperity and luck for the new year and in fact in Cornwall they're called Allentide apples and the shops would display these you know the finest specimens of apples in their windows for people to buy and give as a charm for the new year. If you don't have any large polished apples do you know what's just as good is a toffee apple. Give those to your guests and friends at your Halloween festivities. Make sure they eat them because this is a simple charm for luck and prosperity and everybody loves a toffee apple apart from those with lots of fillings like me. Apples are traditionally used for divination on Halloween and here is little divination spell I'm going to give you to celebrate this particular Halloween. It should work particularly well because you have the light of the moon. At midnight on Halloween sit down in front of a mirror make sure that the only light that's coming into the room is either moonlight or a candle. I want you to take your hair brush and an apple and brush your hair whilst eating the apple. Looking at yourself in the mirror and over your left hand shoulder you should see the vision of your future partner. I do know people who've done this spell actually and have seen some visions. Alternatively take the apple that you have received at Halloween and leave it underneath your pillow. That night you will dream prophecies of love and life. In the morning take the apple and eat it to ensure if you want to those prophecies come true. If you don't like the prophecies don't eat the apple. Both of those spells are old Gypsy spells and they loved a bit of divination especially losing an apple. They were great at them so have a go. Halloween is the time after all to see your future love life. Of course the other thing that you want to serve for your guests is pumpkin seeds because they also bring a lot of prosperity and I'll put the pumpkin seed video up here for you to watch which is part of my Halloween shorts videos so you can enjoy those traditions as well as these ones. The 31st of October this year is a full moon. It happens every 18 or 19 years I think that you have a full moon on Halloween and so we're not going to have another one until 2039 I think I looked it up as. Full moon normally brings prosperity and luck and it's great to do spells underneath the full moon or get married. Traditionally amongst the ancients Halloween was the time to get married but of course the new year starts as soon as the sun has set. The sun has set the bonfires would be lit and the marriage ceremony would take place at the very beginning of the new year and so today it's also extremely propitious for a marriage date because you've got the full moon. Ancients would love to get married under the light of a full moon. It has always been said that marrying under a full moon would bring fertility for wealth and success. So to get married on Halloween just as the sun has set and your bonfire has been lit and the moon is beginning to rise that's the time. This year so propitious. I wonder maybe you are already married perhaps you'd like to renew your vows and that's a great ritual you could do in front of your friends and family with your loved one. Renew your vows on the night of Halloween just after sunset. Obviously you would serve apples to everybody at this party and lots of toffee apples because quite frankly they're delicious. So I really hope you enjoyed this video. If you did let me know in the comments below what particular tradition you're going to use for your Halloween festivities because I'd be really interested to know. You might have a family tradition that I don't know about which would be marvellous to hear about. Put it in the comments below I will ask you I promise. In the meantime please give me a like and a subscribe. I'll see you in my next video.