'Shout out shout out the witches are about....'
When I was growing up in Canada this is what we said on the door steps of homes in the hopes of being given some treats. In the USA we said trick or treat'. Tonight is a festival dating back centuries with pagan origins. Halloween or 'All Hallows' Eve' was traditionally a time to remember the dead including saints, martyrs and the faithful departed and is linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain or 'summer's end'.
It marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of the 'darker half' of the year. As such it was considered a mysterious time when the lines between this world and the otherworld were thinned and to ensure crops and livestock survived the winter the spirits were given offerings of food and drink. It is also a time for powerful divination using the smoke and ash from bonfires, mirror gazing and scrying.
Halloween today means costumes, the more outlandish and ghoulish, the better. Traditionally the mummers and guisers (dis-guised) going from house to house "personified the old spirits" of the winter, who demanded reward in exchange for good fortune. They recited verses or sang in costume in return for food and drink. It's thought that dressing up as creatures that at one time caused us to 'fear and tremble' was a way of poking fun at Satan while bringing the wearer good luck.
Ever wondered the origin of a jack o lantern.
Walking home after a night's drinking, Jack encounters the Devil and tricks him into climbing a tree. A quick-thinking Jack etches the sign of the cross into the bark, thus trapping the Devil. Jack strikes a bargain that Satan can never claim his soul. After a life of sin Jack is refused entry to heaven when he dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to let Jack into hell and throws a live coal straight from the fires of hell at him. It was a cold night, so Jack places the coal in a hollowed out turnip to stop it from going out, since which time Jack and his lantern have been roaming looking for a place to rest.
This night I invite you to pause and thank all your ancestors, even those you do not know for without them you would not be you. Also pay particular attention to dreams, signs and coincidences as they may indeed hold clues to your future.
Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen, voices whisper in the trees, tonight is Halloween. Dexter Kozen