Folks who are magically-minded and/or interested in the unseen as well as the seen recently celebrated several important holidays. October 31st popularly known as Halloween or All Hallows Eve here in America is regarded as a time for fun and frolicking. We put on neat costumes and go out into the streets promising to play tricks if we are not treated with candy, money, or other delightful gifts. However for others Halloween is more appropriately celebrated as Samhain (Sow-when), one of the major holidays in the Ancient Gaelic, Irish, and Brittany calendars. In societies centered around agriculture Samhain was the traditional time for the slaughtering of meat animals, notably pigs. It was the third harvest of the year (proceeded by Lughnasadh, the harvest of fruit at Summer's height and Mabon the harvest of wheat and cereal crops as Summer gives way to early Autumn); and especially important as meat was usually quite necessary to make it through Winter. Ancient Romans equated the festivities in the Celtic countries at this time of the year with their own feast honoring the dead, Lemuria. In some ancient calendars Samhain is actually not a single day, but an extra month composed of 3-7 days, it marked a specific designation of time wherein games were played, deals were struck, and the veil between the mundane and the metaphysical was especially thin.
Just South of us, Mexicans and indigenous peoples of Mexico, South and Central America celebrate and feast their dead ancestors during the popular festival known as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Those folks who have grown up in Southern California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas may be familiar with this colorful (and delicious!) feast where family members take flowers, crafts, and favorite foods to the graveyard, lay out blankets directly on top of their family members' graves and eat, drink, and make merry. Ancestors are remembered, familial bonds are strengthened, and a sense of continuity, connection between the present, the past, and the future is re-established and re-vivified. Those of us who do not live where family members are buried can honor our ancestors by building special altars for them that include flowers, favorite foods and even vices (like cigarettes).
Many of the traditions that we participate in even now during Halloween point to the sense found across the world that at this time of the year, what is usually unseen is much more visible than at other times. Jack O Lanterns are actually wards meant to drive away demons and dangerous spirits that receive a temporary reprieve and get to come back into the world for one night only. Ancient Celts believed that Faerie folk came out from underground to the topside world and created mischief, caused grief, and occasionally granted wishes during this time of year. Farmers to this day in certain countries consider any food crops that have gone unharvested by the morning of November 1st to be forfeit. They are no longer fit for human consumption but are offerings to the little ones and the natural wildness that they represent.
Certain times of the year are especially appropriate for considering fertility, birth and youth. Other times are especially good for contemplating old age, decay, and death. In modern society we tend to eschew the latter in favor of the former and this has created numerous fractures in our physical, emotional and psychical selves as evidenced by our attitudes about death, aging, and the manner in which we treat our elderly. Most people have at least one older person that they could be in better contact of, more aware of, more generous with. This is a wonderful time to consider those people in our lives who have watched us grow and change and to let them know that we appreciate their presence and the witness they bear to our lives. Considering death does not have to be a morbid or gothic fascination, asking ourself what death means to us, what our personal death signifies should point us towards our life--how we live it and how we may need to change it so that it is the kind of life we are proud of living and sharing with others.
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