Days of Significance- May 1

Rose-Marie was celebrating Samhain.
(Our usual contributors in the Northern Hemisphere refused to contribute to this article because the Spring weather was too nice and they wanted to be outside, lol.)

Samhain is basically the Pagan's Day of the Dead. The three candles on the left represent my important deceased people. I'd like to be able to say ancestors, but this is the first year I've had to make that blue candle. The candle on the right is stuck with animal shaped hat pins. They represent and honour (for what that is worth to the animals involved) the animals we eat and the animals lost due to environmental reasons, such as deforestation.

For Samhain dinner I also eat foods that I associate with the people represented by those candles. For my grandpa, I eat French toast. I cooked French toast for him once, when I was a kid, and he was so enthusiastic about it I can't even describe it. Dear Grandpa could have eaten French toast for breakfast every morning for all I'd know. He was the kind of grandpa who would behave as though it was gourmet fare even if you'd burnt the edges. :) For Grandma we eat apple pie and ice cream. She always had apple pie and ice cream in the freezer, waiting for us to show up. I don't even have a fridge, let alone a freezer, but when I have grandkids, I will buy one. Because I *know* proper grandmas have apple pie and ice cream in the freezer. :) I now also eat watermelon on Samhain because my boy was the watermelon eating-est kind of boy. I would like to post a picture, but I don't think his father would like it, so I'll leave you to imagine a skinny, blonde, 5 year old boy sitting in a perfectly natural pose behind half a watermelon. The posture is saying "this is my watermelon" and the facial expression is saying "this is not *your* watermelon!"




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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...
Her young daughter has Echolalia, dyscalculia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.