Samhain: Ancient Celtic Holiday to Honor the Dead
You may have noticed that I haven’t posted too many Halloween-related things. This was not my intention. However, I absolutely love Halloween the older I get. However, I also have to brace myself, because Samhain brings interesting things.
See, Halloween, or Samhain, or All Hallow’s Eve, is when the veil is thinnest between our world and the spirit world. This means that they can reach out…and we can reach in. Yet, they can’t stay very long, so when they come out, they make it worth their while.
I have lately been troubled by a particularly tenacious spirit.
Your culture has a day of the dead!
I write about Samhain because my people were Celtic (yes, they even lived in modern-day France!), but just about every ancient religion or culture has a day of the dead that is now likely wrapped into a modern holiday. For example, the Church celebrated All Hallow’s Day, or All Soul’s Day, on November 1st to correspond to holidays that honor the dead from the pagan religions. In Mexico, they celebrate the Day of the Dead. Now, we tend to celebrate these days with a celebration of the macabre, looking death and terror in the eye and making light of it. We also let out our inhibitions because we celebrate that life is fleeting. However, all of these things we do have an origin I’m not going not going to discuss in this post.
The spirit
This spirit has a message for someone out there. I’m not going to say who, but he’s insistent that I let you know that everything is okay, that no, you won’t grow up to be like your mother, and even though he was terrible at showing it, he did love you. He understands that you don’t feel the same, and he doesn’t blame you. He’s not looking for forgiveness. He doesn’t expect it. However, as one act of love, he wants you to know that things are getting better, and he’ll be looking out for you until you die, but he’s not going to bug you.
So, you who knows who they are, take heart. Your father has been bugging me for three weeks now to tell you.