Its that time of year again where the shops are full of ghouls, goblins and all many of scary things, and people are putting up cobwebs.  That shows a serious lack of planning to my mind – a little forward thinking would surely have enough cobwebs – or is that just my home?   Pumpkins are being ritually destroyed and soon some will come knocking at our doors crying ‘trick of treat’.
I confess in my home, they will be greeted by a hysterically barking dog and a ‘we don’t do that in our house’ – so we run the tricking gauntlet.

Yes it’s nearly Halloween.  Where the religious and the pagan meld together and many people have no idea what is actually happening but it’s a heck of a good excuse to dress like a zombie.  And more power to you.

But here’s what it is for me, with a little history attached.

Halloween takes it name from the shorten version of All Hallows Eve, or all holies.   The version that is commercially understood and practiced now is a blend of the Celtic Samhein, and the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Samhein, the Gaelic word for the end of summer was a time recognised as the end of the year, and the souls of all those who had died in the year past were thought to be particularly restless on this night.  Fires were lit to keep away those of ill intent, masks and disguises worn to trick the ghosts so they would not know who to hang around.  This is much the same as the Day of the Dead traditions too.
It is not hard to see how this has transformed over time into what we see today.  The festival made its way to the US with the many Irish immigrants and didn’t really take hold until well into the 19^th century.

There is another side to this.  In approximately the 8^th century, CE the newly constituted All Saints Day was moved from May to November 1^st in an attempt to supplant the essentially pagan festival (nothing new here – certainly that is how Easter came to be where it is…but that’s another story).  Thus All Saints, and it’s companion All Souls became a religious tradition that tends to be more prevalent in the catholic style of churches.

So that’s the history – but here is what it means to me.
I admit that my faith tradition is strongly influenced by the hearth and home, earthy practice of the Celtic traditions where God is in all things and can be connected to in our daily living by loving intent in all that we do.