Halloween
Today is Halloween, a day that most of America celebrates with trick or treating and costume parties. In the New Age community, Halloween is often thought of as the Wiccan New Year, though there is little anecdotal evidence to support this view. As I grow older, I find myself looking at the older traditions of All Hallow’s Eve, and despite my Wiccan background, partially rejecting the idea that Samhain is the new year.
Like most holidays, Halloween did not start out as a holiday for costumes, trick or treating, and the like. In earlier cultures, Halloween was a bit more somber. It marked the last day of harvest for the year – no crops were harvested after this date, but were left in the fields. In some cultures it was traditional to leave part of the harvest untouched, so that the poor could come to the fields and have some sort of food through the winter.
It was a time of preparation for the winter to come as well. The days are getting shorter and the weather growing colder. It was evident by this time whether there would be enough food to last through the winter, both for the people and the animals. It was less a time of celebration than preparation, a time to be concerned about survival depending on the bounty of the year’s harvest.
It became a day of remembrance also. This is still seen today in certain modern cultures, such as Mexico’s Dia de Muerte – Day of the Dead. It was traditional to cook a nice meal, and to have an extra place at the table that is not filled, to remember loved ones that have passed on. After the meal, a plate of food was put outside the door, to provide for any wandering spirits that might be hungry, and to protect the inhabitants from being visited by wayward spirits. The tradition of trick or treating traces its roots back to this practice.
Costumes actually served a far different purpose as well. When the idea of spirits roaming the street for a night became widely accepted, there were those who felt the need to protect themselves. This was likely caused by having wronged someone deceased during their life, or worse and were concerned about potential retribution, Thus the custom of costumes, in which spirits were not able to take revenge on the living because they could not recognize them. This idea has obviously long fallen out of vogue, though costumes are more popular than ever.
This Halloween, as in the past, I will spend it by myself by choice. When the sun goes down, I will do my version of a spirit supper, complete with empty plate. Once the spirit supper has finished, I’ll do my Samhain ritual, remembering those that have gone on before. This year I’m going to try and make it more of a celebration, though it will doubtless still be a fairly somber affair.
Lastly, this will be the last Halloween I spend by myself. It’s time to start some new traditions, but like the black belt test, I’m just not quite ready for that yet. Even if it’s just going to a party, next year I will spend some time around other people, and hopefully withdraw less into myself. I was invited a few happenings all of which I turned down particularly the pagan events – I don’t really want to do circle work with people for the first time on this night of all nights.
For my dog Tawny, my cats Puffy, Miracle, and Bandit, who was me in a cat body, and my beloved Marion – all of whom preceded me to the Summerlands.
By seed and bud, by root and stem, by leaf and flower and fruit, by life and love, in the name of the Goddess, I take thee to my hand, my heart and my spirit, at the setting of the sun and rising of the stars. Nor shall death part us; for in the fullness of time we shall be born again at the same time; and in the same place as each other; and we shall meet, and know, and love again.