I do not really do Halloween. This time of the year when all the shops were full with Halloween decorations, costumes ans sweets all I am thinking about is where this tradition comes from?
When it comes to holidays and celebrations I have always liked to look deeper into why this day is chosen and how people’s traditions have changed over the years.This is one of my passions in life -History.History has the ability to answer many questions or at least gives you a point of view , so you can make up your own mind.
When I was a history student we were thought, that there is no History, there are only historians, points of view and so on. This understanding has been with me ever since and it has helped me to do and enjoy my journey into vegan-ism and natural nutrition. I like to question everything that someone said and I always look for the truth within me, because the what is true remains regardless of who said it.
The tradition of Halloween goes back to an ancient Celtic custom. As far back as the 5th century B.C. Celtic tribes in Ireland believed that the spirits of the dead were allowed to come back to earth once a year on
October 31st. The Celtic New Year began on November 1st and the belief was that, on the night before the border between the world of the living and that of the dead became blurred. The spirits of the dead would then be able to cross over for this one night into the world of the living.
This also corresponds with the ancient Iberian Fire Spirit called Erce or Erge, Greek Sacred Fire Feast called Chalceia, in honour of a Fire Spirit Hephaestus, and with the great ancient Egyptian Sacred Fire Feast of the Dead, when the slaying of Osiris was commemorated, and when gardens of barley were planted in confident anticipation of his resurrection.
People were afraid of what the spirits may do to them, so they started to dress up to disguise themselves. They would roam the streets in these disguises trying to fool the spirits into believing that they weren’t living beings.People would wear rags and smear ashes on their faces to disguise themselves and keep the spirits of the dead away.
November 1 is the Celtic feast of Samhain. Samhain, Gaelic for “summer’s end,” was the most important of the ancient Celtic feasts.In the cycle of our lives, the NW represents old age and death. We sense the coming darkness (end of the year), aware at last of our own mortality and impermanence of all things, and make our final decisions about what we are content to leave behind, and what we will carry with us into the darkness. Aware of our frailty, and the long road that lies ahead, we know we must choose only those things we value the most.
So there you have a Samhain Blessing for you:
A year of beauty. A year of plenty. A year of planting. A year of harvest.
A year of forests. A year of healing. A year of vision. A year of passion.
A year of rebirth. A year of rebirth. This year may we renew the Mother Earth.
Let it begin with each step we take. Let it begin with each change we make.
Let it begin with each chain we break. And let it begin every time we awake!
Sending Blessings and Love ♥
