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Wishing you... a thoughtful Halloween!

I have never been very fond of Halloween and all its ghoulishness. I’ve blamed it on the fact that I grew up in Brazil, where it is not celebrated. But perhaps, although I emphatically claim otherwise, I also suffer from our culture’s marked fear of aging, decay and death. On the other hand, I have also had a sense that the emphasis on scariness and evil somehow misses the mark in this celebration of the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

Actually, Samhain was the Celtic New Year, celebrated on November 1, before Pope Boniface IV designated it All Saints Day, in honor of all saints and martyrs and called it All-hallows (or, actually, in Middle English, ‘Alholowmesse,’ meaning ‘All Hallowed = Holy = Saints' Day’) in the seventh century. The night before it, the eve of Samhain, became All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

To the Celts, however, Samhain marked the end of summer and harvest seasons, and the beginning of the dark, cold winter – a time of the year, it is true, also associated with death. In part this was because it was the time when herds were culled – farmers killed all the old, sick or weak animals which they didn’t think could make it through the harshness of winter. But it also marks the beginning of a time when the earth goes barren, when life is buried underground, dormant. Being therefore a celebration of both the bounty of life and of death, and a time “between” seasons or years, Samhain was considered a magical time during which the veil that appears to separate past, present and future is lifted and the boundaries between life and death, between living and dead, become blurred.

Samhain was one of the four major holy days of the Celtic/Druid calendar. It was a three day festival during which, in a society in which everyone knew their place, all social structure and organization was abolished: men dressed as women and vice-versa, tricks were played on farmers and children went knocking on neighbors doors asking for food and treats. But it was first and foremost a time during which the harvest was celebrated in thanksgiving with bonfires, and the dead honored and feasted as sources of inspiration and guidance, as the living spirits of loved ones and guardians of the root-wisdom of the community (rather than as sources of dread).

As I reflected on this aspect of Halloween, I happened upon a little blue zippered pouch tucked away in the back of a cabinet in my workroom. It contained a rubber-banded bundle of my mother’s crochet hooks. Most were rusty, unfortunately, but as I salvaged a few, I noticed the synchronicity of finding these at this particular time. I do not actually remember the time and place I learned how to crochet, but who else but my mother would have taught me? Perhaps she did so with one of the very hooks I just salvaged. I was oddly touched by this thought. My relationship with my mother was for the most part distant, and I know I still carry much baggage on that score – and I don’t just mean a bundle of crochet hooks I had forgotten I had.

It occurred to me then that the baggage we carry from our ancestors can be so heavy that we might not even notice that there are gifts all wrapped up within it. It was my mother, after all, who also taught me how to sew (I do remember that) and instilled in me a lack of fear of creativity, or perhaps, better said, a faith in my own ability to create that’s not hindered by judgements of whether what I’m making is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but as a ‘flow’ to be enjoyed irrespective of outcome. And that is a gift for which not only am I most grateful, but one which blurs the boundaries between past, present and future, as it is a continuous source of joy in my life!

This Halloween I invite you to search your ancestral baggage for a forgotten gift or two stashed (and perhaps wrapped up in something else to protect it) therein. I hope that it becomes for you that small thing which, like the blue pouch with my mother’s crochet hooks, opens up to something quite ‘other’, changes boundaries or lifts a veil bringing you just that little bit more depth and connection in your life this All-hallow’s Eve.