The Moon is full at 6+ degrees of Taurus. The Full Moon – any Full Moon – occurs when the luminaries are opposing each other. The Sun in the opposite sign Scorpio is now approaching the mid degrees of the sign. The door to the Otherworld is opening for the souls of the dead to visit our world.

In recent years Finns have embraced Halloween festivities, but originally we celebrated the pagan Kekri. It is also gratifying that the celebrations of our own ancient harvest and New Year’s festival have been revived. In the old days the date of the Kekri feast was not fixed, but slightly varying yearly depending when the work of the year was done. Now the feast is usually held on the first Saturday of November.

In the old agricultural society Kekri was the most important festival of the year. It marked the end of the harvest and the turn of the year. Bonfires were lit. Kekri was symbolically burnt. What was Kekri? He has remained a bit of a mystery. There was a Karelian god, a cattle protector, named Kekri. More likely the feast got its name after a ghost, a spook, or an elf.

Kekri was a communal celebration including abundant eating and drinking. People were looking for omens, and the spirits of the dead were said to wander in this world. The dead relatives were acknowledged as living members of the family, with whom the abundance of the harvest was shared. The spirits were invited to bathe in the sauna, too.

After Christianization Kekri became linked with the Christian holidays dedicated to saints and the dead. In contemporary Finland we light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives. Some of the habits of Kekri blended in with the modern Christmas celebrations.

The old year was ending and a new one about to begin around Kekri time. The beginning of a new phase is always significant. The Sabian symbol for the degree of this month’s Full Moon is Taurus 7, A woman of Samaria at the ancestral well. Dane Rudhyar’s keynote is “The meeting of the traditional past and of the creative spirit pointing to the future.”

Happy Halloween! Happy Kekri!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2012 at 7:07 am and is filed under Full Moon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.