Book Chick City’s annual halloween event, All Hallows Eve, runs for the entire month of October and celebrates all things that go bump in the night – from werewolves to demons, vampires to ghosts, and of course not forgetting zombies!!! ;D There will be lots of reviews, guest authors and yummy giveaways! And, as it’s now tradition, BCC’s Giveaway Bonanza, which will be posted on the 31st… Halloween itself! So join us for a month of fun and fright… but of course, only if you dare… mwahahahaaa ;D

Today I’m excited to welcome, Juliet Blackwell, to Book Chick City and All Hallow’s Eve. I read (and reviewed) the first book in Juliet’s Witchcraft Mystery series, ‘Secondhand Spirits’ and really enjoyed it.

Juliet Blackwell is a nationally bestselling author and writes the Witchcraft Mystery series (Secondhand Spirits, 2009; A Cast-off Coven, 2010; Hexes and Hemlines, June 2011; Obsidian). If Walls Could Talk launched the Haunted Home Renovation series in 2010; Dead Bolt, the second in the series, comes out in December. As one-half of the sister duo dubbed Hailey Lind, Blackwell wrote the Art Lover’s Mystery Series–including Agatha-nominated Feint of Art and the most recent, Arsenic and Old Paint (September; Perseverance Press). A former anthropologist and social worker, Juliet has worked in Mexico, Spain, Cuba, Italy, the Philippines, and France, and is now a painter in Oakland, California. She served two terms as president of NorCal Sisters in Crime.

Secondhand Spirits (Witchcraft Mystery #1): Out now

A Cast-off Coven (Witchcraft Mystery #2): Out now

Hexes and Hemlines (Witchcraft Mystery #3): Out now

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All Hallows’ Eve, Samhain, Day of the Dead, the Witch’s New Year… this time of year goes by many names. No matter how you slice it, though, it’s an exciting time if you’re a witch (or a connoisseur of candy, or a lover of costumes…)

Not that I am. A witch, I mean (as to being a lover of candy and costumes, most definitely!). I write about witches, though, and the more time I spend with witches and magical folk of all ilks, the more Halloween – and its many incarnations – means to me.

Here in my big old haunted house (oh yes, it’s haunted all right, but I’ll save that for another blog post) my friends and I are madly preparing for our annual Halloween costume party. Last year’s theme was Zombie Apocalypse; this year we’re holding a Haunted Carnival, because seriously, what’s more frightening than a scary clown? I began hosting these parties long before I started writing my Witchcraft Mystery series; the parties started because I moved into a rambling old house that just seemed to demand ringing in All Hallow’s Eve with a rowdy group of costume-bedecked revelers. But now that I write about witches and witchcraft and ghosts, I started to wonder… how do self-described witches celebrate Halloween?

I sent out a slew of inquiries to the witches I’ve met, interviewed, and observed while researching for my Witchcraft Mystery series.

My friend Bliss, a member of a local Wiccan coven, tells me: “Samhain is a Celtic word that literally means ‘summer’s end’. It has long been seen as a fire ritual, and is often celebrated by gathering around large bonfires. But for my coven, we see Samhain as the time when the veil thins between the worlds of the living and the dead. We gather to remember our ancestors, our beloved dead, and all those who have crossed over. For Witches, this is a sacred season, when we honor our ancestors and our Beloved Dead, and our New Year, affirming the renewal of life.”

What about candy?  I ask.

“Sure,” she says with a smile, “but don’t forget to offer some to the dead, first.”

Jonquil, who is a believer in Feri – which is a pagan, nature-loving belief system but is not considered Wiccan – suggests putting together an altar with an apple and a pomegranate, plus pots of soil, and feel free to decorate with autumn leaves, nuts, pumpkins, and the like. This altar is to be used to remember the dead, and to welcome the end of summer and look forward to the resting time of winter, and the renewal that will come with the spring. Jonquil also suggests that people gather and drink and eat a lot, welcoming the harvest time with bounty.

“Costumes?” I ask.

“Hmm,” murmurs Jonquil. “We wear all-black, and some wear robes. But this isn’t the time to pretend you’re a vampire.”

I know two witches-for-hire, both solo practitioners. They each describe this time of year as especially good for divination and knowledge from the beyond – they take the “thinning of the veils” between our worlds quite seriously, and make themselves ready to communicate with those who have passed.

This time I don’t bother to ask. I’m guessing there aren’t a lot of costumes and candy at their contemplative divination rituals.

A gypsy witch, or cho’vani,  tells me she and her extended family and special friends get together, dance and play music, and then communicate with their dead at the family altar. And a local group called the Reclaiming community is holding their 32nd annual Spiral Dance in San Francisco, where they set up altars, read off the “names of the Beloved Dead”, and invite the public to “come dance the spiral that renews the world.”

Personally, I grew up celebrating both Halloween – as in Trick or Treat - and Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. One of my favorite aspects of the Latino celebration is that Death is seen as an actual character and, depending on your cultural heritage, fancifully-decorated skeletons are considered to be either Death making fun of the living, or the living distracting Death by offering him much prettier skeletons than we could ever be (so he’ll bypass the living). People bring offerings of food, alcohol, and marigolds to cemeteries, and spruce up the graves to celebrate their dead. In Mexico, this is the time of year countless Monarch butterflies return to the shelter of Mexico’s oyamel fir trees. The Aztecs believed that the butterflies bore the spirits of their dead ancestors. Check out this page for more info.

Oh, and by the way… Day of the Dead is celebrated with lots of costumes, sweet bread, and candy.  The ubiquitous, colorfully decorated sugar skulls are my favorite. (Recipe)

So come All Hallows Eve, I’ll be dancing in costume, eating copious amounts of candy, and enjoying a sort of Day of the Dead/Halloween bash.  And thinking of the dead, of course, as well as the living.  How about you?