Dana in Geeksville

Celebrating Samhain in Second Life

I don't know about where you were on Halloween, but here in sunny California it rained all of Halloween day and night. No trick-or-treaters came a knockin'. But that's ok. I had a blast celebrating this Hallow's Eve in Second Life from morning till past midnight!

The day begin with a fun Sun Microsystems hosted bash in Second life. We had a great time seeing all the creative costumes, dancing, and chatting. The rubix cube  won the costume contest, and it was well deserved as she had made it herself! But I also got a kick out one of our Sun employee who arrived holding her head under her arm. You can read her blog to see a picture of her great costume.

After that I headed over to Stonehenge, where one of the mystics was leading a witches' circle to celebrate the day, explain the history of Halloween, and to welcome us into the new year.

This day we celebrate with crazy costumes and candy used to be a very important festival to the Celtic peoples, which was called Samhain. They celebrated the end of harvest, the coming of the new year, and felt on this day the division between the material world and the non-material was thin, allowing them to honor their ancestors directly. The Celts built bon fires and created protective circles to keep out evil and welcome passed loved ones. In addition, they cast protection for themselves from the long, dark, cold days to come. Later, this festival was driven down by the Christians, who tried to turn it into a day to honor martyers and saints, and the orignal festival was misunderstood and portrayed as one of spooks and evil, the name changed to All Hallow's Day, which got shortened to Halloween.

I attended a few dancing parties, which were great fun, then ended the day with what else but a fun and wonderful seance!

In spite of the rain in the real world, no one was discouraged in Second Life from celebrating this fun festivity, and it was great and eye full to see the avatars decked out, attending parties, dances, and metaphysical activities. Can't wait till next year!

Posted at 10:00AM Nov 03, 2008 by dananourie in Virtual Worlds  |  Comments[0]