All Hallows’ Eve.
Welcome to a fantastic day or rather night of costumed ghouls, fun and exciting games, and “trick or treating” children with bucketfuls of candy. For me the best part of Halloween is getting dressed up and handing out non candied treats to the kids such as pencils, stickers, pretzels, play dough etc.
Halloween is the day before All Hallows Day, or All Saints Day, a time to remember.
It is a great festival of pomp and celebration enjoyed by many in different cultures over a three day period of October 31 through Nov 2 known as Allhallowstide. Samhain ( literally Summers end in Gaelic) is the festival marking the end of the harvest, and symbolically denoting the beginning of winter or rather the darker half of the year which is halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.
Dating back to antiquity the dead are remembered as they struggle to make their way to the heavenly realms. The significance is forgotten and lost amongst the commercialization of costumes, candy and treats and decorations of ghastly fake monsters to portray the scariness of the season when in fact it is a far gentler festival to be enjoyed and rejoiced with love and affection.
There are many traditions that are uniquely particular to Halloween yet are replaced with the rituals of pumpkin carving, trick or treating and the dawning of costumes. The fear of halloween has been portrayed in movies and television depicting that the “evil ” is out to get us. And in return so many of us wear masks to either scare off the ghouls or at least not let the nasties see our face and so move on with their business. Yet the ore balanced we are within, we innately are able to see past the masks and look into the hearts of others. The ancient idea that on this one night the veil between good and evil is so thin that evil can cross over and walk amongst us is legendary. The “sense of evil ” is what in fact lies within and is acted out by us when we succumb to our darker nature of our human spectrum and it is not something lurking behind tree trunks on the sides of every road as depicted on the big screen.
Yet the spirit of Halloween is a time of reverend remembrance to the ancestors of old who have passed and wishing them success on their journeys. With love, respect and ancient rites and offerings they may pass to the other side comfortably. The magic of the Halloween is the same as the magic of Christmas that is on its way. It is in the believing in something bigger than who we are as individuals and recognizing the existance of our future as spiritual beings just as those who came before us.
Wishing you a happy haunting.
A haunting of love.
………………….
I love you
