Samhain Chronicle of Free Public Halloween Witch Rituals | Coven Oldenwilde's Wiccan Website: Witches and Witchcraft in Asheville, North Carolina

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The First Samhain Ritual, 1995: Weaving the Web

The Second Samhain Ritual, 1996: Lament for the Dead

The Third Samhain Ritual, 1997: Dark of the Moon Dance

The Seventh Samhain Ritual, 2001: Witches Ride — Pagan Pride Procession

The Eighth Samhain Ritual, 2002: A Gypsy Masque-Revel (Commentary on Xtian protestors)

The Ninth Samhain Ritual, 2003: Wiccan Woods

The Tenth Samhain Ritual, 2004: Samhain X (Music Playlist) (Burning the Anti-Fortunetelling Law)

The Eleventh Samhain Ritual, 2005: Bones & Roses

The Twelfth Samhain Ritual, 2006: Creatures of the Night

The Thirteenth Samhain Ritual, 2007: Triskaidekaphilia/The Unseely Court (Photo Gallery)

The Fourteenth Samhain Ritual, 2008: Masked Divination & Dancing (Photo Tour)

The Fifteenth Samhain Ritual, 2009: Mystic Romance (Photo Essay)

The Sixteenth Samhain Ritual, 2010: The Mast Beast (Photo Gallery)

The Seventeenth Samhain Ritual, 2011: Flash Rite Pub Moot with Mummers' Play

The Eighteenth Samhain Ritual, 2012: Love is the Law: Mass Handfasting

The Nineteenth Samhain Ritual, 2013: Witches Gone Wilde!

The Twentieth Samhain Ritual, 2014: Full Circle

CREATE YOUR OWN Public Samhain Rite!

Public Ritual Pointers
Contact Coven Oldenwilde for help and advice.

As Witches, we do not preach our religion, we experience it. Just as our Pagan ancestors taught the mysteries of life and death through great public rituals in which all who honored the Old Religion were invited to participate, so we seek to revive public Samhain mysteries in our corner of the world. Samhain (Hallowe'en, Oct. 31) is a Wiccan "Greater Sabbat" and Celtic New Year. It is the time when the veil between the world of the living and the realm of the dead is thinnest -- when Witches honor our Ancient Wise Ones who have lived and died before, and divine future events.

Our Samhain rites portray a different theme each year, but always focus on a traditional aspect of the dark time: death and rebirth, divination, etc. They are free of charge and open to reverent participants.

In these pages we describe each year's ritual and the various challenges we've had to overcome to see them through -- facing down Christian protestors, negotiating with city bureaucracies, handling unexpected media publicity and solving logistical problems. In the pages for the first Samhain ritual you will see the press release that generated an avalanche of news coverage in the weeks before the rite. We have included some of that coverage, along with our critique of the media trends and biases it reveals. For Witches who want to organize public rites in their own towns, we offer a page of advice gleaned from our experiences and those of others we know who have conducted large Wiccan rituals.

In North Carolina, it's illegal to disrupt a Pagan Ritual