As I have said before, I do love an excuse for a party/celebration. If there is a chance that I can dress up in fancy dress and act silly, all the better. So Hallowe'en/Samhain is a lovely chance for me to have fun...
Hallowe'en - or to give it its proper title All Hallow's Eve - is a Christian Festival. As with many Celtic or Pagan festivals, the early Christian Church 'adopted' an early Celtic/Gaelic festival, Samhain, which celebrated the end of harvest and also to some extent the advent of the darker, winter months.
[Samhain has been 'readopted' and 'rejuvenated' by other pagan and wiccan movements in this century and these can also be read about on the above Samhain link]
All Hallow's Eve is the night before the Christian festival of All Saints [the 'Hallowed'] Day. The following day is All Soul's Day - the festival of the 'Faithful Departed'
Like other Christian festivals - Christmas and Easter - the 'religious' bit has been largely forgotten and the celebrations and fun have taken over. However every year Hallowe'en gets lots of bad press with not all trick or treaters behaving well and commentators suggesting that those who do behave well but dress up in witch or ghoul costumes are celebrating the black magic or practising devil worship. Obviously such commentators haven't read my links....
I think that apart from the innocent fun that can be had on Hallowe'en [and yes Other Half and I do dress up and go and trick or treat our grandchildren whether they want us to or not. But breaking with tradition we take sweets for them!] the nicest thing about these few days is remembering on All Soul's Day all those we love who have departed from this life. Of course we remember them all year, but an extra thought or so on that day is always good.
I thought you might like to see a photo of my teddy dressed for tonight's fun. He looks much more handsome in his fancy dress than I... So wishing everyone a Happy Hallowe'en/sending Samhain Greetings and remembering all those who have departed.
No comments:
Post a Comment