What the heck is Halloween anyway?

🖤 Big Love & Death & Holiness 🖤

HALLOWEEN began as the festival of Samhain (the end of the harvest season & the coming of the darker months of the year). 

At the end of summer, the Celts believed the barrier between our world and the world of ghosts and spirits became very thin. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home whilst harmful spirits were warded off.
They lit bonfires and wore costumes & masks to ward off the harmful spirits.
The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into a communal fire, household fires were extinguished and started again from the bonfire. 
Food was prepared for the living and the dead.
Food for the ancestors - who were in no position it eat it - was ritually shared with the less well off.

Later, as it evolved and the Pope got his hands on it, the day became known as All Hallows' Eve - the day before All Saints' Day on 1 November.
As we know, Hallows refers to Holy.

So, today as we remember that all is hallowed, that all life is holy, we could perhaps take time to honour our ancestors and share our abundance with those who are less fortunate than us...