Some thoughts on Halloween by a soft and slightly flaccid Pagan

If I get this posted on time it will be Halloween tonight. Also known as Samhain, this is a festival (or “holiday” as the Americans call it despite no one being on holiday) which has been pretty much perverted by the passage of time. But, like Easter and Christmas, the signs of its real origins are still there. Samhain is the festival of the dead. The night where we remember those who have died during the year, not in a sombre and depressing way (and certainly not in an attempting-to-raise-them way either) but in a respectful way. Remembering the joy and also contemplating death’s part in the wheel of life.

Paganism – a broad creed of which my semi-lapsed faith, Wicca, is part – concerns itself with the wheel of the year. Time is not point A to point B – time is point A to point A via B to Z on the way. The Earth goes through its yearly cycle and doesn’t stop to mark off another box on its calendar. It simply goes round and round. Things are born, they grow, they take, they mature, they die and they give back. Then they are born again and the cycle repeats itself. So it is with plants, animals and people. The number of “years” the cycle takes varies widely but the cycle remains. Birth, growth, taking, maturing, dying and giving back. On Samhain we remember that death is a vital part of this cycle because with no death there is no life. We are entering the darkest part of the year – the Sun God dies at Samhain and only the faintest trace of his power lingers in the two months he spends in the land of the dead. For He will be reborn at Yule (December 21st, the original Christmas) and the cycle of life continues.

The message of this festival of the dead is that death is part of a circle. Those who die will rest for a while before being reborn. Their bodies will become merged with the earth and their souls will return in a new guise with a new life to live. Darkness may have fallen upon the land but it is not evil. Death is not evil (killing is evil but death itself is not) and Samhain is not evil. Mainstream religions teach that death is bad. Death is the end and death is the judgement by a god who will punish. Because death was inevitable, the churches used this power to control the frightened masses. Only by seeing death in context can the enormity of it be understood and accepted.

It is two years since I became Wiccan. It was something that drew me to it and although I don’t practice as much as I would like to, certain things remain. It wasn’t a fashion thing though I freely admit I had never heard of Wicca until it was mentioned on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Their use of the term ranges from incorrect to downright offensive but it would be hypocritical to deny the show’s small role in my conversion. My first Sabbat (celebration) was Samhain 2001. Coming a few weeks after 9/11 it was a very poignant occasion. It could’ve been so much worse – my parents were flying into New York that day and were on one of the first planes to be refused entry to US airspace. It would only have taken a slightly different plan… well it doesn’t bare thinking about.

I found aspects of Wicca weren’t working for me. Not because they were at fault but because I was. So much of its life enriching power comes from the positive energies that we have and that we give out. My headfuck doesn’t leave me much positivity. Try as I did, celebrating life when I really wanted it to end smacked of the forced jollity of more mainstream religions. People repeating prayers that they didn’t believe or didn’t understand. So I took a step back and concentrated on the meditational and self building side before working back up to the proper Witchy things. I feel I’m making progress but that’s for another time.

The tacky ghosts and ghouls side of Halloween doesn’t bother me as much as it has done in previous years. It’s still crap – neither one thing nor the other. The Americans do it properly, we hadn’t used to bother at all. Now we have desperate shops trying to make us care and gangs of grotty thuglets marching round (sans costume in most cases unless dressing like an American teenager counts as costume) and demanding sweets in exchange for protection. Which is, at least, a change from them demanding your mobile phone I guess. There is almost no fun to be had from the British Halloween. I expect the Blue Peter gang will enjoy themselves but that’s about it. I’ll be locking the door and ignoring anyone who knocks. If the postman is reading this and wonders why I didn't take my parcel off him, why the heck didn’t you call earlier?!?

31st October 2003