🎃 Halloween is Bullshit — It’s Beltane, Not Samhain 🌸

In the lead up to October 31st, supermarkets fill with plastic pumpkins and skeletons and on the night kids run door to door for lollies. “Halloween” has become an annual ritual of costumes, sugar and

consumerism. But here’s the truth:

Halloween is bullshit—especially for us in the Southern Hemisphere.

Why? Because what the Northern Hemisphere calls Samhain—the sacred Witches’ New Year—simply doesn’t align with the land beneath our feet.

🍂 The True Time of Samhain

As the southern seasons shift into the cool embrace of May, we arrive at the real threshold of Samhain. This sabbat falls on May 1st here, marking the end of harvest and the descent into winter.

It is not about plastic skulls and fear. Samhain is a time of:

🌑 Death and dormancy, as part of the eternal cycle of rebirth

🕯 The veil thinning, allowing us to commune with ancestors

🌙 Releasing what no longer serves—identities, habits, stories

🌾 Preparing for winter’s stillness and deep inner reflection

Samhain is about reverence, not horror. It is the sacred pause where we honour endings and step bravely into the dark, trusting that rebirth will come again.

👻 From Sacred to Spooky

Over time, the sacred roots of Samhain were overlaid by Christianity, superstition and eventually consumerism. What was once about honouring ancestors and the mystery of death was twisted into fear of spirits, demons and monsters.

By the time it reached modern America, Samhain had been repackaged into “Halloween”—a mash-up of folklore and mass marketing. Costumes, lollies, fear, plastic decorations.

And when that version of Halloween was imported here to the South, the disconnect grew even wider.

Because on October 31st, when people celebrate “Halloween,” we are not entering Samhain at all.

We are standing in Beltane.

🌸 Beltane — The Great Festival of Life, Love & Abundance

October 31st in the Southern Hemisphere is the height of springtime. The land is bursting with blossoms, the days are warming, the air is alive with vitality. This is Beltane—the sacred midpoint between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice.

Beltane is about:

🔥 Fertility, creativity and passion

🌹 Blossoms, sensuality and union of energies

🌞 Abundance, joy, and celebration of life

🌿 Dancing, fire rituals, flowers and feasting

It’s the season of vitality, when the Goddess is radiant in her fertile aspect and the Earth calls us to bloom alongside her.

Where Samhain teaches release, Beltane invites creation. Where Samhain is about endings, Beltane is about beginnings.

🌏 Why This Matters

When we celebrate “Halloween” in October here in the South, we create a profound spiritual dissonance. We try to grieve in the middle of a birth. We attempt shadow work when the land is bursting with light. No wonder it feels off.

The Wheel of the Year is meant to be lived in rhythm with the land you stand upon. To walk this path authentically, we must align not with imported dates, but with the living Earth around us.

✨ Reclaiming the Wheel

So this year, let’s call Halloween what it is—bullshit for us here in the South. Instead, we can:🌸 Honour Beltane on October 31st with flowers, fire, love and joy🍂 Honour Samhain on May 1st with remembrance, release and reverence

By returning to the true rhythm of the seasons, we root ourselves back into balance, belonging and the sacred cycles of life.

Samhain is not about fear—it is about remembrance. Beltane is not about consumerism—it is about life bursting into bloom.

Let’s step away from plastic pumpkins and imported fear. Let’s return to the wisdom of the land beneath our feet.

This October 31st, light a fire, weave flowers in your hair and celebrate Beltane. And when May comes, honour the ancestors at Samhain—as it was always meant to be.