Pumpkin-shaped tealight holder, ceramic, hand-painted

Thanksgiving - Autumn Equinox Festival.

Among the Germanic peoples, the Thanksgiving festival lasted three days from September 21st to 23rd. They held a great feast and drank mead. The gods were thanked for the harvest. They left a bunch of corn in the field so that Odin's horse, Sleipnir, would also have something to eat. A wreath was braided from the last cut of corn. As an offering, the last apple was often left hanging on the tree.

Sometimes a harvest fire was also lit for this purpose, and sometimes it was customary to throw a small fruit offering, grains of corn, and other offerings into the fire.

Samhain (so-called Halloween) is one of the four major Irish-Celtic festivals and takes place on the night of October 31st to November 1st. It is a festival of the dead, where ancestors are commemorated. During this time, it was believed, the souls of the dead also returned to their homes. The festival also celebrated the end of summer and the housing of livestock in the stables.

Customs and traditions sometimes differ or overlap in various cultures. Samhain and the Autumn Equinox Festival are of pagan origin, sometimes persecuted, reinterpreted, or used/abused by the Christian church for its purposes.

It is up to us to revive the old customs in their original tradition...