Halloween is the witch's favourite holiday, so there's no better time to enchant your dinner guests with a spellbinding meal. Here, white witch Titania Hardie - author of Hubble Bubble: Titania's Book of Magical Feasts - explains how to conjure up a magical atmosphere
Halloween actually marks the old Celtic New Year, and the onset of true winter. This day celebrates the preparations for an old-style 'New Year', and includes traditional games and divinations that help you see what the new year will bring. The Celts called this Samhain (pronounced sow-wane), which means 'summer's end'.
Nowadays, your Halloween supper could be the conclusion of a night out on the town or a simple acknowledgement of the onset of winter and the marking of the earth's season. In either case, invite friends, have fun, and see what you can expect in the coming year.
Titania Hardie's guide to celebrating Halloween
The evolution of Halloween - festivals of fire and light
Decorations for Halloween are widely known: the pumpkin (or originally turnip) lanterns, the ghoulish masks - parodies of the witches and demons who were supposed to stand guardian over the kingdom of spirits - the bonfires, and the fancy dress being the most famous.
Less well known, perhaps, are the truly celebratory aspects of the Pagan new year - fireworks and beacons, laughter and parties. In Britain, the celebration of Guy Fawkes' night stole considerably from the new-year feasts of Samhain and Halloween. So for making magic, we should restore the ancient celebrations of fire and lights - with fireworks and bright colours - which are preserved in some festivals around Britain.
Click here for Titania's guide on how to be a domestic witch
Titania Hardie's Hubble Bubble: Titania's Book of Magical Feasts (Quadrille £14.99) is available from amazon
Over the page: Pumpkins, masks, witches and bonfires
Witches' dance
At these new year celebrations, the ghouls had their share of partying. The revellers who wanted to commune with the ancestral spirits learned herbal and gem lore from these ghouls, returning the knowledge to the community. These were the witches, who had second sight, for whom this feast period was a doorway between worlds and wisdoms.
So if you choose to dress as a witch, you have a great responsibility to share your knowledge, wisdom and healing with others.
Laying the table
The feast tables were laid for the ancestors and the spirits of the Earth, who brought forth the bounty. This is an honouring of the divine, so lay your table with care.
Decorate your home with great pottery or earthenware vases, and fill them with fruiting stems of plums or gooseberries. Remember that apples were sacred to the goddess Aphrodite (when cut in half crosswide, they have her 'star' in the centre).
Also, the colour red celebrates life force and energy - so red apples may well be the perfect choice for a table centrepiece. If you're lucky enough to have access to rowanberries, they too are a perfect colour celebration of the season.
Spray apples golden and leave a leaf attached. This ensures gold in your purse, and life stemming from it. Place them in a glass dish or bowl, to make the connection with the fire through which the glass has passed. As you decorate, sing songs - or simply visualise success (though not monetary).
Over the page: welcoming your guests
Titania Hardie's guide to celebrating Halloween
Welcoming your guests
Make a little 'invitation' to benevolence for callers at your door: create a beautiful wreath (the emblem of open house) with bunches of blueberries or currants tied in among the foliage.
The frosty days will preserve your wreath wonderfully - and some people like to think of the berries and currants as 'fairy food', bestowing little blessings on the dwellers in the house.
A basket laden with apples, melon, plums and quinces, placed at porch, door or hall, will invite an uplifting smile from your guests - and also a gesture of luck from the earth and divine spirits who appreciate your gesture of thanks.
Adding autumn colour
Pumpkins are a vital symbol of the autumn harvest and Halloween. These wonderful, warm-coloured squashes have a heart, it seems, and make delightful shapes when hollowed out and carved. Fill with candles (use safe night-lights) and place in windows, on porches, steps or in gardens.They also look fabulous tottering off a garden wall or balcony, stacked in piles of different varieties and sizes.
For decoration at your winter/new year feast, scoop most of the flesh out of a large pumpkin and fill with chrysanthemums. The sight will completely lift your soul and honour every essence in nature - either conventionally religious, pagan, or just Wordsworthian.
Or find little nugget pumpkins and tie a name card to each of their stems - they will make wonderful place settings for your Halloween feast table. If you want to do this year after year, varnishing the pumpkins would be time well spent.
Good luck
Titania Hardie's Hubble Bubble: Titania's Book of Magical Feasts (Quadrille, £14.99) is available from Amazon.co.uk.
Get more tips on planning a Halloween celebration.