The month of romance is here. After a week of love-filled festivities, the big day will be celebrated on 14 February. Valentine’s Day holds great significance for those in love and people express their affection for their significant other on this day. While most of us celebrate this day with fancy dinner dates, flowers and gifts, let us take a look at the origin of this day.
History
It is believed that Valentine’s Day has its origin in ancient Rome, when the feast of Lupercalia was celebrated from 13 February to 15 February. A goat and a dog were sacrificed by men on these days and women were whipped with the hides of the sacrificed animals as it was believed that this will make them fertile.
During the festival, a matchmaking lottery would also be carried out. Men would draw names of women from a jar and would couple up with that woman for the duration of the festival, or even longer.
While the feast of Lupercalia was a commonly ritual, it was in the 3rd century A.D. when Valentine's Day got its name. Emperor Claudius II had ordered Saint Valentine, a priest who helped Christian couples in getting married, to be executed. Emperor Claudius II was against the marriage of single men and ordered that Saint Valentine should be beheaded. The execution happened on 14 February. It is also said that while St. Valentine was imprisoned, he took care of the jailor’s blind daughter and even wrote her a card which said ‘from your Valentine’.
In the 5th century, Pope Gelasius expelled the pagan rituals of Lupercalia and combined it with St. Valentine’s Day. Once the pagan rituals were gone, St. Valentine’s Day celebrations grew more romantic in nature. The festival became all about love and intimacy. Popular poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare also began to popularise this day by writing sweet things about love and passion.
Self-made cards were exchanged as a token of love and appreciation. The tradition made its way into the 19th century and the industrial revolution made it possible to produce a number of cards for the occasion. Since then, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in affectionate ways by exchanging cards, gifts and flowers to express love to a beloved.

The Moon is a celestial body that is said to influence many areas of human life. There is evidence to suggest that the Moon can affect our moods, our temper and can even send some pregnant women into labour. So, there is certainly an argument to be made that the Moon has a hidden power and influence.

As such, many people look to practices like Moon rituals to aid in their everyday lives. Moon rituals are about harnessing the unique power of the Moon at key points in the lunar cycle to help in manifesting your desires. It all sounds a little bit witchy, but really it's just about wishing for the things that you want and taking action to achieve them.

What does manifesting with the moon mean?You may not be aware of is that you can actually harness the power of the Moon to influence your attitudes, relationships and energy levels. A fresh start is summoned, and in turn, manifesting with the Moon comes into play. So what is manifesting and where do you start? In the simplest terms: manifestation is putting your intention towards something that you hope will happen. If you think it in your mind you can create it in reality.  It’s about understanding what it is that you want for your own life experience, and then creating those outcomes.

The New Moon symbolises a new cycle; an energy of new beginnings where you plant seeds and ask for what you want. The Full Moon represents releasing what no longer serves you; clearing and cleansing. When you manifest with the Moon each month, you’ll start to see your intentions come to fruition, given you maintain the rituals diligently. The end results are going to reflect the ongoing work of truly surrendering to the process.

What are the benefits of being aware of the Moon’s cycle and pull?Being aware of the New Moon and Full Moon cycles have an abundance of benefits. It serves as an opportunity to take some time out for yourself, particularly given most of us are living highly demanding lifestyles where hyperconnectivity is on overdrive. Allocating this as self-care time for yourself each month is as beneficial for you energetically as it is mentally; it’s simply using your time to create space and check in with yourself.

What can Moon rituals help you achieve? If you look at the habits of successful people and high performers, you’ll see a common trait in common; they all work on themselves, whether it’s self-development, mindfulness or spirituality. This is exactly what harnessing the power of the Moon can help you achieve. Moon rituals enable you to learn about yourself as a human being, while also assisting in self-reflection - they become a regular part of your life.

How powerful can it be?In today’s modern world, there is still tremendous power in harnessing the energy of the Moon as it serves us to stop, whether it be alone or in a group, and breathe new life into any area of stagnation or place in your life where you would like to impact positive change. Although there are many myths about the Moon, it has been up there as long as evolution has been taking place, and lunar rhythms are embedded in the life cycles of every organism. The Moon impacts time, tides and light, and for many animals the Moon is essential for migration and navigation, so there is no surprise it has mood-altering powers?

When should you undertake a Moon ritual?Roughly every 30 days we experience the New Moon. This period is essentially the beginning of a lunar cycle and takes place when the sun, Moon and earth are more-or-less in a line, so the sun almost completely covers the Moon. This cycle of the new Moon is dedicated to new, fresh beginnings, and serves as the perfect time to reflect on the previous 30 days, which we call the past Luna Moon cycle.

The New Moon aids us in setting new goals and intentions for the weeks or even months ahead, while also being a great opportunity for starting new projects, taking actions and coming up with fresh new ideas. We then experience the Full Moon roughly two weeks after the New Moon, when the earth is positioned between the sun and the Moon. Whilst the New Moon is dedicated to setting intentions, showing gratitude, coming up with new ideas and starting projects, the Full Moon is particularly powerful in letting go of negative energy that doesn’t serve you. During this cycle it’s a great time to say goodbye to things that no longer serve you, including people, experiences or toxic patterns that keep coming up.

How to celebrate a full moon:. 

1. Take a bath with sea salt to clear your field of any negative energies, or have a shower.
2. After you cleanse yourself it’s important to cleanse the space with sage, which is a herb used to clear space and make it sacred for ritual. Light the end of the sage and blow on it until there is a smouldering glow. Use it around your own body, and in the space of your ritual.
3. Now it’s time to clear your mind with meditation, using music or just quieting down in your cleared, sacred area. Light a candle, focus on getting present and letting go of everything spinning through your mind. Spend a few moments thinking about what you want to release, and what you want to call in.
4. Next write down and be clear with your intentions for the New Moon. 
   1. What do you want to accomplish?
   2. What do you want to focus on this month?
   3. What are your intentions?
   4. How do you want to show up?
   5. What actions steps will you take?

The secret to manifesting isn’t just visualising and creating a mood board, it’s taking inspired action steps towards your desires: showing up monthly for yourself to create intentional change.

Halloween is among the oldest traditions in the world as it touches on an essential element of the human condition: the relationship between the living and the dead. The observance evolved from ancient rituals marking the transition from summer to winter, thereby associating it with transformation, which is still a central theme of the holiday.

Every recorded civilization has created some form of ritual observance focused on what happens to people when they die, where they go, and how the living should best honor those who have passed or respond to the dead who seem unwilling or unable to move on. Countries around the world today celebrate Halloween in one form or another, from Mexico's Day of the Dead to China's Tomb Sweeping Day. The modern-day observance of Halloween in countries such as the United States and Canada – where this tradition is most popular – share in this ancient tradition, even though some aspects of the holiday are relatively recent developments, and can be traced back to the Celtic festival of Samhain.

​Halloween traditions in the West date back thousands of years to the festival of Samhain (pronounced `Soo-when', `So-ween' or `Saw-wen'), the Celtic New Year's festival. The name means “summer's end”, and the festival marked the close of the harvest season and the coming of winter. The Celts believed that the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead were thinnest at this time and so the dead could return and walk where they had before. Further, those who had died in the past year and who, for one reason or another, had not yet moved on, would do so at this time and could interact with the living.
THE OBSERVANCE OF SAMHAIN INCLUDED STOCKING UP SUPPLIES FOR THE WINTER, SLAUGHTERING CATTLE, AND DISPOSING OF THE BONES IN “BONE FIRES”.Very little is known of the rituals of ancient Samhain because the Church Christianized it – as with many pagan festivals – and what information is available comes from Irish monks who recorded the pre-Christian history of their people as well as other Christian scribes denigrating pagan rites. It seems, however, that the observance included stocking up supplies for the winter, slaughtering cattle, and disposing of the bones in “bone fires” which, in time, came to be known as bonfires. There were gatherings of communities for feasting and drinking while this was going on, but there was also the awareness of the “thin time” of the year and the possibility of otherworldly visitors showing up at the party.
Departed loved ones were expected – and welcomed – and the practice of setting out favorite foods for the dead may have originated as early as 2,000 years ago (though this is unclear), but many other kinds of spirits – some which never had human form – could also appear. Elves, fairies, the “wee folk”, sprites, and dark energies were just as likely to pay a visit as those one longed to see again one last time.
Further, there was a very good chance that the spirit of a person one may have wronged would also make an appearance. In order to deceive the spirits, people darkened their faces with ashes from the bonfires (a practice later known as “guising”), and this developed into wearing masks. A living person would recognize the spirit of a loved one and could then reveal themselves but otherwise remain safe from the unwanted attention of darker forces.