Many (most?) of us celebrate Halloween and move on. Maybe we celebrate the whole day of October 31. Maybe we only do something special in the evening. Maybe we turn off the porch light because we already ate all the candy and watch old Halloween episodes of old shows on TV.
Many of us don't realize how the days of Halloween (Oct. 31), All Saints (Nov. 1), and All Souls (Nov. 2) have been linked traditionally. Perhaps it's my training as an English major, but I hate that modern traditions minimize the medieval aspects.
Medieval people would have seen this three days as one of those "thin places," the time when the separation between worlds was much thinner. It's a belief rooted in pagan times, about parts of the seasonal year when souls from the other world might slip back. In a world lit only by fires, one can see where it would be easy to be spooked this way.
In our fear of any beliefs that don't mirror our own, many churches have banned the Halloween aspect of this three days. And we've sanitized the other two days.
In this blog post, the Rev. Laurie Brock reminds us of the roots of the All Saints feast day: "Lest we think All Saints is only a lovely, elegant holy day where we pray the litany of saints and sing the song of the saints of God, we are remembering people who were martyred (church lingo for dying an often painful and unpleasant death). Early commemorations of this day involved venerating relics of the dead. So imagine going to church and praying with a mummified foot or remnants of a skull of a saint on the altar. Or going to church and praying the names of ones who had been martyred who were members of your family or close friends. So while it is a day of prayerful hope, sadness and tears weave the hope together."
And in more ancient times, the Feast of All Souls is the day after the Feast of All Saints. All Souls is the feast where we remember the ones who have died in the past year. Even our most liturgical churches have lost the idea that we're observing two very different kinds of celebrations.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to live in modern times, not medieval ones. But I do envy other cultures who have much more vibrant grieving customs. Our culture seems to expect us to grieve for 3-5 days, if we get bereavement leave at all, and then it's back to work.
Medieval people would have seen this three days as one of those "thin places," the time when the separation between worlds was much thinner. It's a belief rooted in pagan times, about parts of the seasonal year when souls from the other world might slip back. In a world lit only by fires, one can see where it would be easy to be spooked this way.
In our fear of any beliefs that don't mirror our own, many churches have banned the Halloween aspect of this three days. And we've sanitized the other two days.
In this blog post, the Rev. Laurie Brock reminds us of the roots of the All Saints feast day: "Lest we think All Saints is only a lovely, elegant holy day where we pray the litany of saints and sing the song of the saints of God, we are remembering people who were martyred (church lingo for dying an often painful and unpleasant death). Early commemorations of this day involved venerating relics of the dead. So imagine going to church and praying with a mummified foot or remnants of a skull of a saint on the altar. Or going to church and praying the names of ones who had been martyred who were members of your family or close friends. So while it is a day of prayerful hope, sadness and tears weave the hope together."
And in more ancient times, the Feast of All Souls is the day after the Feast of All Saints. All Souls is the feast where we remember the ones who have died in the past year. Even our most liturgical churches have lost the idea that we're observing two very different kinds of celebrations.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to live in modern times, not medieval ones. But I do envy other cultures who have much more vibrant grieving customs. Our culture seems to expect us to grieve for 3-5 days, if we get bereavement leave at all, and then it's back to work.
Let us spend some time today thinking about those who have gone before, whether we knew them personally or knew them from a larger cultural sense. Let us think about the ones who have modeled good (saintly) behavior. Let us think about the world we are creating for those who will come after us and remember us on these feast days.
Here's a prayer I wrote for today:
Comforter God, we give thanks for all the saints who have gone before us. Give us the wisdom, courage, and faith to follow in their footsteps. And when the time comes that our earthly light will be extinguished, allow us to rest easy in the sure knowledge that we will be welcomed into the company of all the saints.
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