Haunted History

Happy Halloween, dear readers! How will you be celebrating?

The UU Pagan blogger Jason Pitzl-Waters, at The Wild Hunt, has a terrific round-up of Halloween stories.

He mentions “It’s Better than Christmas,” a Montreal Gazette article that describes how Halloween is currently celebrated, and gives a glimpse into its religious history. I found this excerpt particularly intriguing:

In the Middle Ages, Catholics observed the holidays with solemn masses for the dead and processions to the graveyard.

Rich people doled out food to the poor in return for prayers for the dead and young people played tricks on unpopular neighbours, like stealing crops or setting their horses loose. Young women burned nuts in the fire to divine who they would marry.

Spooky!

As for the modern day meaning of Halloween, Wiccan author Deborah Lipp writes:

On Halloween (also known as Samhain), Wiccans honor the dead.

We might grieve, or we might be at peace. It can be a solemn celebration, or a joyful one. We can honor our ancestral dead, our predecessors, our loved ones, our pets, friends, or heroes. The veil between the world of the living and the realm of the dead is thin at this time, and we can communicate with the other side. We can share a feast, make merry, weep, or simply remember. Tomorrow the veil will thicken, but once a year we walk the worlds together.