Greetings …

Thursday 31 October is Halloween.  Even if it’s not a festival you celebrate, its hard to look past it, with gardens and houses decorated, children knocking on  your door and special programs on the television.  I don’t remember Halloween having the focus it used to, and was interested to discover a little more about it.

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic people and their festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).  Living over 2000 years ago, the Celts celebrated their new year on November 1.  This day marked the end of summer and the harvest, and the beginning of the dark, cold winter.  Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.  Huge sacred bonfires were lit, from which people re-lit their hearth fires, to help protect them during the coming winter.

By 43 CE the Roman Empire had conquered much Celtic territory and their festival of Feralia which commemorated the passing of the dead became part of the celebration.

It was not until 609 CE that Pope Boniface IV established the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day.  Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs.  In the year 1000 CE, November 2 was designated as All Soul’s Day, a day to honour the dead, following All Saint’s Day celebrations on November 1.  All Saint’s Day was also known as All-hallows (from Middle English Alholowmesse) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic tradition, cam to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

So whether it’s Halloween, All Saint’s Day or All Soul’s Day, I wonder how we might honour those people of faith who have gone before us and live into the legacy that they have left us?

Blessings – Rev  Heather Hon (she/her).