Acorn Hollow PNW Winter Nights!

It’s that time of year when the evenings get longer and the chill in the air signals the coming Winter.  Our ancestors celebrated these Winter Nights with bonfires and stories of their ancestors.  Today, as modern expressions of our ancestral kin, we too celebrate in a similar fashion.  We light candles on our altars as a beacon for the spirits of our Folk, and we light jack-o-lanterns outside for a similar motive.   Then we do things that are not necessarily “ancestral”, but are traditional, such as Trick-or-Treating and dressing silly.  This was how Acorn Hollow celebrated our Winter Nights, a blend of ancestral and traditional in our modern world.

This year we had a special treat, Acorn Hollow had the distinct pleasure spending our Winter Night’s in the home of Dave and Juleigh Hobson AOR and family.  Each year we have a different flavor of Winter Nights with some more action packed than others.  I must say it was nice to have a close family atmosphere to celebrate and honor our ancestors.  There was much good food and plenty of tasty sweets.  This year we dressed up in a clown theme.  Mostly everyone was some sort of creepy clown.  It was Great!  The kids all worked hard to have the most unusual costume, as did the adults!

The evening began with some old fashion socializing.  We had time to get to know new friends and reconnect with old friends.  The kids had a blast in the Hobson’s huge toy room.  They were able to just hang out and be kids. Soon after we had dinner and a special birthday song for Rowan, whose birthday lands on Halloween!  Juleigh made him an awesome cake that resembled a grave yard.  It really made for a nice birthday.

Next we ventured out into the streets of Beaverton for our trick-or-treating.  Being the Northwest, we never stay out too long because it is so cold in the evenings that the kids usually only go out for about an hour.  Asrekyr and I are from California, so trick-or-treating was a several hour adventure, but then it IS California!!  At any rate, after the traditional ToT,  we enjoyed some birthday cake.

After cake, we started the games.  There was a rousing game of bobbing for apples.  Hakon and Ian were neck and neck in the fastest grab.  I believe Ian won!  Next up was tape the balloon nose on the clown.  Hakon was the victor.  The kids had a blast.

We ended the evening with our traditional Sumble.  This was the first group ritual for a couple people and was a nice introduction the spiritual side of our celebration.  As with previous years, everyone poured their heart and souls into the Well and in turn released it for our ancestors to hear.  It is by far the most special part of Winter Nights.

Another turning of the wheel and still as special as the first time we had Winter Nights those many years ago!

FFF

Hyndla OR

Tags: Acorn Hollow PNW, diary, winter nights

Category: 2009 Diary, AH Diary