Pumpkin tealight lantern, painted ceramic

Harvest Thanksgiving - Autumn harvest festival - Equinox.

Among the Germanic peoples, the harvest festival lasted for three days from September 21st to 23rd. They held a large feast and drank mead. The gods were thanked for the harvest. They left a bundle of grain in the field so that Odin’s horse, Sleipnir, would also have something to eat. A wreath was woven from the last of the grain harvest. As an offering, people also liked to leave the last apple hanging on the tree.

In some cases, a harvest fire was lit for this purpose, and it was partly customary to throw a small fruit offering, grain kernels, and other gifts into the fire.

Samhain (so-called Halloween) is one of the four great Irish-Celtic festivals and takes place on the night from October 31st to November 1st. It is a festival of the dead, during which ancestors are remembered. During this time, it was believed that the souls of the dead returned to their homes. The festival also celebrated the end of summer and the bringing of livestock into the stables.

Customs and traditions differ or overlap in various cultures. Samhain and the autumn harvest festival are of pagan origin, partly persecuted by the Christian church, reinterpreted, or used/misused for their purposes.

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