Samhain Activities List

The following challenge is designed to help you develop a relationship with your Ancestors, to help out your community and have a little Halloween fun!

Over the month of October, choose one prompt to complete each day. Document this journey on Instagram, or keep it private - the choice is yours. There are over 50 different ideas to try that are organized into five categories. 

If you do share your adventures on Instagram, be sure to tag me @blackandthemoon and use the hashtag #batmsamhainchallenge

Ancestors:

• Build an Ancestor Altar or cleanse your existing one.
• Begin a family tree. 
• Research your surname. 
• Clean up family graves and monuments and replenish offerings and flowers. 
• Start a daily ritual for Ancestor and Spirit veneration (daily candle, offering, tarot).
• Share an interesting story about one of your Ancestors.
• What do you know about your Maternal Lineage?
• What do you know about your Paternal Lineage?
• Outline your funeral plan (cremation, headstone, wake, flowers).
• Cook a family recipe.
• Understand your Ancestral traumas and make a plan for how you will help heal this (spells, therapy, etc).
• Call or visit a relative and ask them questions about their life.
• Start a family photo album
• Write a letter to your ancestors.
• Write a letter to your future descendants.
• Create your will. 

Acts of Service:

• Clean up your local cemetery. Don’t remove peoples offerings or mementos, but do clean up litter and debris. 
• Donate or buy a Halloween costume for a child in need. There are many places you can get involved with such as Weendream and the Spirit Halloween Children’s Program.
• Clean up your local park.
• Hand out candy or donate candy to someone to hand out.
• Donate PPE to your local shelter. 
• Donate to bat conservation.
• Donate to programs that house black cats. 
• Support small businesses. This can mean buying from them, a shoutout, or even a good review.

Witchcraft:

• Collect graveyard dirt. Check out this episode of my podcast where I discuss Cemetery safety and collecting Graveyard Dirt.
• Create an Ancestor altar jar (graveyard dirt, herbs, coffee, etc).
• Research and perform some blood magic.
• Start a Book of Shadows.
• Hang a broom above your door.
• Honour your familiars. Cook them a feast or buy them a new toy!
• Create a Spirit incense blend.
• Perform a cauldron releasing spell. Write down things you want to release and burn them.
• Hex or bind your enemies.
• Perform a spirit door spell. You can find mine here.

Divination:

• Four Guardians of the Spirit World Tarot Spread:

1. Message from the Snake - Guardian of Fire: Pull a Tarot or Oracle card.
2. Message from the Hare - Guardian of Earth: Pull a Tarot or Oracle card.
3. Message from the Toad - Guardian of Water: Pull a Tarot or Oracle card.
4. Message from the Raven - Guardian of Air: Pull a Tarot or Oracle card.

• Find and do a Halloween Tarot Spread. Here is mine. 
• Perform a Tea Leaf reading.
• Use a Spirit/Ouija Board (do your research).
• Cleanse your Tarot decks.
• Start a Tarot journal. 
• Take your Memento Mori Oracle Deck on a field trip to the cemetery!

Halloween Fun:

• Share your favourite Halloween memory.
• Carve a Jack-o-Lantern.
• Learn about your local cemetery.
• Uncover some Halloween folklore. What traditions did you learn about?
• Watch a Halloween movie from your childhood. 
• Share your favourite ghost story.
• Find three interesting epitaphs. Who are the people behind them? Do your research!
• Go a paranormal investigation. 
• Go on a ghost tour in your hometown. 
• Try and capture an EVP.
• Host a Dead Dinner.
• Cemetery Scavenger Hunt - Find the following symbols on a headstone: skull, hand, ivy, hourglass, column or pillar, heart, key, oak leaf, rose, urn. Bonus: find a headstone with your birthday.

 HAPPY SAMHAIN 2021 EVERYONE.

Special thanks to Tegan aka Cosmic Creeper who helped me brainstorm some of these ideas.