Hey Ho for Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite time of year. 

For years when I wrestled with questions of religion and spirituality and sought clarity on what made meaning for me, Halloween stood out as a holiday I could fully and whole heartedly embrace with no uncertainty or feelings of discomfort. Halloween does not invoke the sort of stress that other holidays seem to call forth for me.

Halloween is all fun. Dress up and go out and play with the crunch of leaves underfoot and darkness everywhere.

I had the good fortune of living in San Francisco's Mission District for four years in my young and carefree days and experienced the celebration of the dead, with The Day of the Dead celebrations, procession and rooms. This deepened my passion for Halloween and created a bridge from my Catholic upbringing to the beliefs and values I embraced. It was empowering and awakening for me along with Z. Budapest's Spiral Dances for women at Halloween.  

Twenty years later as a parent, I bring aspects of these celebrations to my children whose ages span from seven to fifteen.

Some favorite songs:

Who are the Witches?

Chorus:

Who are the witches? Where do they come from?

Maybe your great, great grandmother was one.

Witches are wise, wise, women, they say,

There's a little witch in every woman today, 

There's a little witch in every woman today, 

Witches knew all about flowers and trees

How to use the bark and the roots and the leaves,

When people grew weary from hardworking days,

Witches made them feel better in so many ways

Repeat chorus

Women had babies and witches were there,

To help and to feed them and give them some care,

And witches knew stories of how life began,

Don't you wish you could be one, well maybe you can......

Repeat chorus

Some people thought that the witches were bad,

Some people were scared of the power they had,

The power to give and to heal and to care,

Is not something to fear, it's a treasure to share.

Repeat chorus

A fingerplay:

Five little witches sitting on the gate,

The first one said, " oh my it's getting late,"

The second one said, "Halloween is in the air,"

The third one said, "let us take to the air"

The fourth one said,  "when I finish my brew,"

The fifth one said, "my black cat comes too "

The night wind whispered whooooo, whoooo

So they put on the hats
And flew into the air, 

Singing all together, 

Hall-o-ween is here!

A Song:

Hey ho for Halloween!

When all the witches are to be seen.

Some in black and some in green,

Hey ho for Halloween!

Hey ho for Halloween!

In 1973, Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English wrote Women, Witches and Nurses: A History of Women Healers , online and at Amazon. It is well worth the read, still timely and sheds light on healing, medicine, the role of women and the divine feminine.

Blessings!

A Halloween Story

by Elizabeth Thompson Dillingham

Once upon a time a big orange pumpkin was growing just outside a stone wall, far off in a field, all alone. The farmer had gathered all his pumpkins and stored them carefully in his great barn. But no one knew of the big orange pumpkin growing just outside the wall, all alone. The big orange pumpkin was lonely.

"I wish I belonged to some one, " said he.

"Miew, miew! I do, too," cried a little black pussy cat, stretching herself and jumping down form the stone wall where she had been sleeping.

"It will soon be winter," said the big orange pumpkin; "lets go find some one to belong to."

"Yes, lets do," said the little black cat, eagerly.

"I want to belong to a little girl with a sweet face and shining eyes."

"And I, said the big orange pumpkin, want to belong to a jolly little boy who whistles and sings when he works. Let's hurry right away to find them."

"Yes , let's do," said the little black cat.

So off they started-the big orange pumpkin rolling and tumbling along, and chuckling to himself as he went, and the little black cat pit patting along on her soft little cushions, purring because she was happy.

On and on they went, over the fields and through the woods. It began to grow cold, oh, so cold, and dark, too. The little black cat shivered as the wind whistled through the trees.

"See here," said the big orange pumpkin, "you can't sleep outdoors to-night. What shall we do?"

Just then they saw a man coming along the path with a bundle of wood on his back.

"Ho, Mr. Woodcutter!" cried the pumpkin "have you a knife?"

"That I have," said the merry woodsman. "What can I do for you, my fine fellow?"

"Just cut off a piece of my shell where the stem is, and scoop out some of my seeds, if you please," said the pumpkin.

No sooner said than done. "There, my little black pussy cat," said the pumpkin, "when you wish to sleep to-night, you may curl inside and be as warm as a sunbeam."

"But will you not come home with me?" asked the woodsman.

"Have you a little girl with a sweet face and shining eyes?" asked the black pussy cat.

"Have you a jolly little boy who whistles and sings when he works? "asked the big orange pumpkin.

"No, ah. no," said the woodsman, "but I have a pig and some hens."

"Then we'll go on," said the pumpkin, "but thank you kindly."

So on they went, and on, until the stars began to shine. Then the tired little pussy cat curled in her hollow nest, put on the cover, and went to sleep. In the morning they went on again, but before long
it began to rain. The pussy cat's soft fur was soon very wet.

"You poor little thing," said the big orange pumpkin; "curl inside your house and I will trundle you along."

"But it's so dark inside, and I couldn't see where we were going," cried the pussy cat, holding up a tiny, dripping paw.

"Windows!" cried the pumpkin. "Of course, windows! How silly of me! Wait here under this fence, my little friend, until I come back."

Then off he hurried across the road to a carpenter's shop.

"Ho, Mr. Carpenter!" Cried the pumpkin, "have you a knife?"

"That I have," said the jolly carpenter. "What can I do for you, my fine fellow?"

"Just cut some windows for me, if you please."

So the carpenter took a sharp knife and cut four windows-just like a face he made them, two for eyes, one for a nose, and one for a mouth, and he laughed as he did it.

When he finished the mouth, the pumpkin laughed too.

"Ha, ha, ha!" cried he. "What a relief to have a mouth to laugh with! Ha, ha, ha!" And he laughed all the way back in the rain to where the little shivering pussy cat was waiting.

And she laughed, too, and climbed inside her coach, and put on the cover. So on through the rain they went, and on and on. Just as dark was drawing near, they came to a wee, brown house by the side of the road. In the yard was a little boy picking up chips and putting them into a big basket. He whistled as he worked, and then he began to sing:

"If wishes were horses, then beggars might ride;
If turnips were watches, I'd wear one by my side."

Then the door opened, and a little girl with a sweet face and shining eyes stood on the threshold:

"What do you wish, John?' she called.

"Oh," Laughed the boy as he came in with the chips. "I wish I had a pumpkin for a jack-o'-lantern, for this is Hallowe'en."

"And I wish I had a pussy cat to love," said the little girl.

"This is the place for us!" whispered the big orange pumpkin; and he rolled up to the door, bumpety bump!

"Look, John!" cried the little girl, "here's your jack-o'-lantern!

The fairies must have sent it. Isn't it a beauty?"

"There's something inside," said John, snatching off the cover, and out jumped a tiny black pussy cat, straight into the little girl's arms.

"Oh, oh!" they cried.

And when mother came home in the dark, a jolly jack-o'-lantern with a candle inside was shining out of the window at her, and close beside it sat a little black pussy cat.

Snip, snap, snout, my stories told out. 

Elizabeth Thompson Dillingham was born in 1880, in Honolulu, Hawaii. I tried to learn more about her life and was unable to piece together a biography.

Warmly,

Storytelling ~ Sources of inspiration

My sources of inspiration:

Other people telling stories especially at Waldorf schools: kindergarten, parent child group, play groups, nursery programs, Joan Almon, Connia Manson, Suznne Down, workshops, trainings, performances

Books:
Storytelling with Children by Nancy Mellon (do it as a group if possible)
Suzanne Down's Autumn Tales are inspiring simple nature stories
Susan Perrow's Healing Stories for Challenging Behavior

Stories from childhood What stories do you remember hearing as a child? What stories did you tell or act out? What were your favorites?

Nature What is happening in nature now? What is the inner mood or feeling of the season we are in? In autumn, I feel the wind and the leaves, whirling, twirling, falling, pulling in, storing up, reckoning with the need to fan the flame within, light withdrawing, dark increasing, what are the elemental beings doing now?

What is the story line best suited for a child's perspective?
(blog post in the works on what stories for what age and why)

What does my child need? therapeutic stories? What is the picture I wish to make? What will feed him or her developmentally to see the picture I wish the story to carry?

At bedtime Ask for help from the spiritual world. We adults have a guardian angel who will respond to us when we ask for help and guidance. Bring the questions into sleep and pay attention upon wakening and during the day to the answers that just seem to arrive. Also ask our guardian angel to communicate with the child's angel and support us in our desire to meet and nourish the child.

Take a quiet moment and do a meditation. Close your eyes. Picture the child in a situation that you find really challenging and hold that picture while you breathe into your heart, breath love into the picture in your mind and ask for a story to address the challenge.

Most of all play with it, make it fun, not too serious!

Blessings