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Samhain Sabbat (also known as Halloween, Hallowmas, All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Eve, Festival of the Dead, and Third Festival of Harvest) is celebrated annually on October 31. Traditional ritual herbs: acorns, apples, broom, deadly nightshade, dittany, ferns, flax, fumitory, heather, mandrake, mullein, oak leaves, sage, and straw. Altar decorations traditionally include a jack-o'-lantern, apples, candles in the shapes of Witches, (as well as ghosts, black cats, skulls, etc.), photographs of deceased loved ones, tools of divination, a small statue or figure representing the Triple Goddess in Her aspect of the Crone. Traditional Sabbat incense: apple, heliotrope, mint, nutmeg, and sage. Sacred Sabbat gemstones: all black gemstones, especially jet, obsidian, and onyx. Sabbat deities: the Goddess in Her dark aspect of the Crone, Hecate, (ancient Greek goddess of fertility and moon-magick, and the protectress of all Witches), Morrigan (the Celtic Goddess who presides over death), Cernunnos (Celtic fertility god), and Osiris (an ancient Egyptian deity whose annual death and rebirth personified the self-renewing vitality and fertility of Nature.) Candle colors: black and orange. The traditional Pagan foods of this Sabbat are apples, pumpkin pie, hazelnuts, Cakes for the Dead, corn, cranberry muffins and breads ale, cider, and herbal teas (especially mugwort).
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