Halloween ideas galore – getting witchy with it on Hallows Eve

Also known as Samhain or Hallows Eve, Halloween veers from pagan ritual to party nights and trick or treating. See spiritual ways to celebrate October 31.
Have you visited Mookychick’s Halloween Zone yet? Bookmark it for browsing in the 13th witching hour. From trashbag costume ideas and zombie makeup tutorials to important ways to worship your ancestors on Samhain, our features dedicated to the spirit of All Hallows Eve are full of dark delights. Explore some of our favourite spiritual celebration ideas below. It’s time for the thinning of the veil to begin…
Samhain and Witchcraft Celebrations
It’s time to connect with the ancestors…
- How to make your own Ouija board and use it to contact spirits (not evil spirits, ideally).
- Halloween tarot reading – with thoughts on drawing the Death card
- How to hold a Day of the Dead dinner and celebrate the quick and the dead with friends. Prayers for the dead can take many forms.
- How to honour ancestors beyond your own family tree
- Get active with your witchcraft this Autumn
- Pagan Halloween – 4 ways to celebrate Samhain. From burying apples to leaping tiny bonfires, you can celebrate this key pagan time of year wherever you are. Rural and urban witches unite!
- Take a moment to honour and reflect on what Hallowe’en means to you.
Halloween costumes and makeup tutorials
This is your night to shine, dear hearts. Go forth and be splendid. Wear what you will.
- Zombie makeup tutorial created for us by SFX makeup artist Ellie Yermakova
- Earthy Halloween costume ideas for nature lovers
- Halloween hairstyles for witches, vampires and vintage movie stars
- The pros and cons of All Hallows’ Eve when you’re a goth
Halloween decorations to inspire
From recipes to babybat decorations for the home, see what you could do. Consider that witch’s familiar rubbing round your ankles to be a help, not a hindrance.
- Make a Halloween wreath – a how-to guide with photos
- 8 DIY Halloween decorations to turn your home into a cave
- Halloween party tips for haunting chills and thrills
- Pumpkin carving ideas – if only we could have a pumpkin Shelob’s cave all year round.
From pagan ritual to party night
This time of year is traditionally a time for not only quiet reflection, but also a chance to use noise and colour and riotous behaviour to drive evil spirits away. If you’re throwing a Halloween party this year, here are some clever things you can do to enthrall your guests. Get out the jack o lanterns, go bobbing for apples… eat, drink, dance and be merry.
- Cheese witch fingers recipe (suitable for vegetarians)
- Recipe for Hecate’s black tart
- Halloween party tips for haunting chills and thrills
Unusual things to do for Halloween
Honouring your ancestors, celebrating the period when the spirits are closer to our everyday reality… these are our everything. But what of unusual activities done for the sheer love and entertainment of it?
- How to make a DIY horror film with cheap special effects
- 10 ghost hunting tips for rookie ghost hunters
- Adopt a black cat – embrace your dark side
- Watch 3 horror movies by women writers/directors
- Planning a spooktacular Halloween wedding? Some ideas…
Originis of Halloween
The roots of this occasion run deep. Ancient Celts celebrated the arrival of the new year and the end of harvest time with the festival of Samhain (pronounced “s’ow-in”). They would erect giant bonfires, don costumes, and bestow gifts to the dead, who were said to return to visit the living on the night of October 31.
The Gaulic Celts knew this time as Trinouxtion Samonii, translating as “three nights of the end of Summer”. This is when their Samhain celebrations took place, around what we now call October/November. They saw it as a time of endings, with the leaves falling and the land (and Gods) slipping into a state of death, to re-awaken in spring.
Samhain was seen essentially as a time of ending, blood (it was a time to slaughter the most expendable members of the herd to feed the tribe over winter), fire and light in the darkness, and communication with the spirits and the dead.
So how did this death festival become aligned with Christian celebrations?
‘Hallowed’ means ‘holy’ or ‘sanctified’. The Church would hold a vigil on All Hallows’ Eve when worshippers would prepare themselves with prayers and fasting prior to the feast day of All Saints Day celebrating all the saints in Heaven. Over time, the Christian festival of All Saints Day, when the saints are commemorated, took on some of the key rituals and trappings of Samhain, such as visiting ancestral graves at cemeteries. The evening before became known as All Hallows Eve, later being shortened to Halloween.
Learn more on Samhain and the origins of Halloween.