Wiccan group celebrates holiday, remembers the dead

By By Courtney Hagen

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Ghosts and the dead will be a fixture for one KU student group this week, but for celebration rather than for spooky stories.

The Wiccan Pagan Alliance will celebrate the Wiccan holiday of Samhain this Saturday. The holiday is celebrated annually on or about Halloween in remembrance of those who have died.

Since Samhain is the night when the doorway between this world and the next is at its thinnest, there have always been those opportune spirits who come forth to cause mischief.

-Rebecca Kershner, WPA member and Overland Park junior

Rebecca Kershner, WPA member and Overland Park junior, said Samhain was believed to be the day when the dead were able to pass into the living world to communicate.

“Samhain is a celebration of the turning of the year, so technically this is our ‘New Year,’” Kershner said.

It is the time when the distance between the living world and the dead is at its thinnest, she said, which allowed the dead to join the living for celebrations.

Samhain is one of eight holidays in the Wiccan religion, Kershner said. The holiday is held in between the fall equinox and solstice.

“Since Samhain is the night when the doorway between this world and the next is at its thinnest, there have always been those opportune spirits who come forth to cause mischief,” she said.

People originally wore masks to scare away bad spirits in their villages and to keep their homes safe from mischief and evil Kershner said. As time progressed, children assumed the role of dressing up, which developed into the holiday of Halloween.

“It became more of a festival than a necessity to drive away malicious spirits,” she said.

Sean Manning, WPA president and Overland Park senior, said the group held a “dumb feast” dinner every year to celebrate the members’ loved ones who had passed away.

Manning said that the meal was held in silence and that participants in the dinner would leave food for the dead to show their dead loved ones that they were still a part of their lives.

Though the holiday was intended to be inviting to the dead, Manning said participants didn’t normally try to communicate supernaturally with those who had passed on.

“It is more about commemoration than communication,” Manning said. “Most of what we’re doing has to do with remembering.”

Manning said the dinner was only open to WPA members, but that the organization invited anyone to attend its weekly open-door meeting at 8 p.m. tomorrow in Alcove A of the Kansas Union.

Kansan staff writer Courtney Hagen can be contacted at chagen@kansan.com.

— Edited by Nicole Kelley

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