Challenge 2: Breakfast and visitors from all over – Once we made it to Tockholes in one piece, the next thing on people’s minds was breakfast. Cue scene inside nice warm cafe serving nice warm breakfasts (at the typical student breakfast hour of 11.30am!). We also met up with some old Pagan Soccers who came in for planned or surprise visits.
We finally found a spot, actually, it’s another Pagan Soc favourite – one of the places we tend to camp in during our end of year camping trip. We settled in first with a little of the history of Samhain, and what we were going to be doing during the ritual itself. This is the bit where we started to think we may lose our battle against the Met Office, as it started raining a little, but quickly eased off again before the ritual itself began, which nicely brought together some Heathen and Druid aspects of Samhain, allowing people to pay their respects to loved ones who had passed away this year, and drinking lots of mead, finishing off with a feast and a bit of a sing-song before ending the ritual. What more can you ask for?! (also – Pagan Soc 1: Met Office 0!)
Challenge 5: Pub! Yes, even in the middle of the woods we can end our meetings with a pint in the pub! We spent an hour in the pub warming up again before thinking about heading home.
Challenge 6: Getting home - To get home it was a case of following the fuzzy moon (and conflicting signs that told us to get to Preston in differing ways once again, but we made it home in one piece).
A huge thanks again to John Newton – Pagan Soc extraordinaire for putting together the ritual, and to Mark the Minibus Driver – HAIL!