Predictably, it is pouring rain this weekend. No fun for the trick-or-treaters, and it means I can't get out into the garden to finish putting it to bed for the season.
The Pacific Northwest maritime climate is usually mild enough that winter gardening is worth doing. (This year the predictions say that may not be the case, but in general, cold-hardy vegetables do well here year-round.) I, however, follow the old Celtic tradition and stop my harvesting at Samhain, leaving the garden to rest until Yule. Celtic folklore variously says that food left in the fields after Samhain is for the Faeries/fair folk/Old Ones, or that malevolent spirits will spoil the food so there's no point in trying to eat anything harvested after that. But from a practical standpoint, leaving something behind in the fields to decompose through the winter is pretty good agricultural practice, since the composting vegetation will nourish the soil. Samhain is a time to listen for messages from our ancestors and those who have gone before. Sometimes, those messages are embedded in the cultural traditions handed down to us.
Consider a pre-scientific world in which people live or die by the annual harvest and pass along successful growing strategies by oral tradition. If farmer Angus picks his fields clean before Samhain, his crops might not do so well next season. Farmer Iain, on the other hand, leaves some of his plants in the ground, maybe even with a little fruit still on them, and plows it all under in the early spring as he prepares to plant. He gets a bumper crop. The obvious explanation is that Farmer Iain found favor with the Fairies by leaving them ample food at years' end the previous year, while stingy farmer Angus was cursed for his miserliness! Now, we can justify this superstitious folk practice with a scientific understanding of how soil amendments improve crop yields. I would offer that many "superstitious folk practices" have similar origins and purposes. Just because our ancestors didn't use the scientific method doesn't mean they didn't observe patterns and document them.
The first salmon ceremony widely practiced by northwest indigenous peoples is an elegant example of this. Salmon is the foundation of diet and culture for most local indigenous groups, and archeological evidence suggests that even in this incredibly dynamic ecosystem, salmon was a consistent, abundant resource for more than 2,000 years. In this ceremony, the first salmon caught in the season is cooked and shared with all the members of the community, and the remains are then returned to the river. Two critical actions, direct and symbolic: sharing the salmon by everyone having the symbolic taste shows everyone that salmon is a valuable resource to be shared and stewarded, and that sharing it strengthens the community. Further, Western Science has finally figured out the value of returing salmon carcasses to the river--they provide food for the invertebrate species that form the base of the freshwater food web and in turn feed the baby salmon the following year.
This ceremony embodies the cultural/environmental wisdom that informs cultural practice: Salish people knew that the salmon skin and bones must be treated in a particular way, which involved returning those nutrients to the natural system from which they came. No salmon remains were burned; that was considered taboo. It was an insult to the Salmon People, who would withhold their bounty if so treated. As it happens, where salmon carcasses are not returned to the stream, the salmon population declines. These ceremonies were more than entreating the powers of nature to be kind and provide well, as superstitious folk practices are often portrayed. On the contrary, they actually helped the ecosystem.
Some folks might look at me askance when I tell them I won't harvest the last squash and kale in my garden because I'm leaving it for the Fairies (in the form of myriad decomposers), or they might consider the First Salmon Ceremony as it is practiced today quaint relic from native cultures. I think there is probably a lot more value in many of the traditions and practices passed down to us by our ancestors than we might find at first glance. Something to consider as we listen for their messages this season, in a world where traditional practices are disappearing on a daily basis. Blessed Samhain.
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