2 McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes set for Samhain observance, invite customers to honor loved ones

The day after Halloween holds a special place in many traditions. Nov. 1 is the Mexican Day of the Dead, All Saints Day in some Western Christian faiths and Samhain for pagans.

“It is a time to let go of the past, to celebrate the end of harvest, and prepare for winter,” Shelby Fairweather said explaining Samhain, adding that it is also considered the time of year to remember loved ones who have died, either in the past year or before.

Fairweather and Lori Fisher have stores next to each other among McHenry’s Riverwalk Shoppes. They are inviting customers to visit them from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1, to remember those loved ones as part of a Samhain observance.

They invite customers to leave photos – prints or printouts – or mementos of those loved ones on an ancestral altar they will place between their stores. The altar will include many of the traditional parts of a Samhain observance, honoring those loved ones.

The shopkeepers also will offer a make-and-take simmer pot mix, complimentary cider, oracle readings and make-your-own spell jar during the event.

“It is like the Day of the Dead,” Fairweather said. “We are taking the principles, the main ideas, of Samhain and making it approachable to people. An altar might sound scary, but it is just a different way to celebrate the season.”

“An altar might sound scary, but it is just a different way to celebrate the season.”

—  Shelby Fairweather, owner of Bright Nest at McHenry's Riverwalk Shoppes

The two shop owners discovered this year that they both celebrate Samhain. While their stores and personalities do not seem similar, they actually are.

“We are the yin to each other’s yang, light and dark. We just vibe,” Fairweather said.

Fisher’s store, Preserved Peculiarities, leans to the macabre, offering framed and preserved bugs, owl pellets, animal skulls and taxidermic animals.

“I sell weird stuff,” Fisher said, “oddities and curiosities, alternative stuff.”

Growing up on a farm, Fisher said, she found herself searching for and finding those oddities as a kid and collecting them.

Fairweather’s Bright Nest offers more home goods: water bottles and coffee mugs, candles, essential oils, herb mixes for simmering in pots and a collection of tarot cards.

“I do have spiritual and metaphysical items,” she said.

While Fisher identifies as a witch, Fairweather doesn’t feel the need to define her beliefs, but is a medium.

“I talk to spirits,” she said.

Officials from the McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce, which manages the Riverwalk Shoppes, told the duo they were “the same, but different – a lot of the same creativity, a lot of overlap,” Fairweather said.

Fisher didn’t know what they were talking about, until they opened their stores next door to each other in late April.

“We started chit-chatting. One of us would pop in and we started to talk” and found those commonalities, Fisher said. The two, now close friends, started talking about how they could bring some of their spiritual practices to their shops.

“We are not ashamed to be back to the old ways” of celebrating the fall harvest with pots of herbs simmering on the stovetop, or honoring loved one with a home altar to them, Fisher said.