Holiday Dishie Blocks- Pagan Style! Samhain!

Awhile back I wrote up some patterns for Pagan Day of the week dishcloths. I’m at it again, Sabbat style! I will be posting a new pattern once a week for the next 8 weeks, which will include a dishcloth for the next Sabbat in line. First up, is Samhain. Pronounced “Sow-in” with the Sow being like Cow, not sew, Samhain is a very important pagan holiday.

It is a time for remembering our beloved departed, our ancestors, and a great time for communicating with the dead. The veil between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead is at its thinnest, which makes communication with other realms much easier than other times of the year.

A typical Samhain for us contains a bit of Ritual Theater, where we enact one of the great underworld stories from pagan history. Stories involving traveling from the underworld, to the world of the living such as in the Persephone/Hades tale for example. Or the story of the 3 fates, with a focus on Atropos, the elder fate who cuts the thread of life, ending the tapestry in perfection. It’s a beautiful ceremony, no matter which story we enact.

We typically begin the ritual practice in June, and practice several times a month leading up to Samhain. We’ve had anywhere from 15 to 100 people show up to watch and partake. After the theatrical element, we invite our witnesses to come forward and speak the names of their loved ones. We encourage them to tell a story about them or share a memory. We have a belief in our ways, that there are 3 deaths that a person undergoes. The first, is the death of the heart. When signs of life cease to more forward. This is clinical death. The next happens at the funeral when a person is buried or cremated and spread. The last and final death, is the moment when the last person who knew them speaks their name for the last time. That is the final death and that is why we believe it’s important to remember our dead each year. Speak their names, tell their stories. In this way, they live on through us, until it’s time for reincarnation.

After we close the ceremony, we spend the evening drumming and dancing around a raging bonfire, feasting and making offerings to our dead, communicating with them, and performing divination for each other. We read Tarot, Geomancy, Runes, Tea…it’s such a wonderful evening filled with memories, laughter, and even some tears. It really is my most favorite Holiday. I will be posting my Samhain dishcloth shortly, and will make it available for free download.

Blessed Samhain everyone! If you would like to offer a gratuity for my work, I am always humbled and thankful. Cashapp $loveofthedark

Pattern instructions:

With worsted weight cotton yarn, using a us 2.5 needle,

Cast on 37 stitches. The first and last 3 stitches of each row will be k,p,k.

Work in seed stitch (k1, p1, across row) for 3 rows.

Begin pattern by following chart. On right sides, empty stitches are knits, and black stitches are purls. On wrong sides, Empty stitches are purls, and black stitches are knits.

I bind off in the standard way, but feel free to play with it.