Tuesday 25 October 2022

Halloween. Shorter days. Longer nights. Darkness. Death. Autumn. #Halloween #Samhain. The Day of the Dead.

Monday (Moon Day) 31st October '2022'. Here we are again. Halloween.

Treats, costumes, lanterns, spiders, bats, blood, horror, death, ghosts. 

'Halloween' has its origins in the ancient, pagan, pre-Christian, Celtic festival known as Samhain ("sah-win"). The Feast of the Dead. A time when humans had much less knowledge of the world around them. Later, hijacked and assimilated by the religious ceremony of All Hallows Eve & All Saints Day. A day to celebrate the onset of Winter. Look it up. It is a celebration of the end of the harvest season, a recognition of the lengthening nights, worsening weather and the harsh winter season running up to the winter solstice ( Dec 21st aka Christmas. Here ). It represents the point in the calendar when livestock were moved to lower level farmland from the higher, summer feeding grounds and when animals were slaughtered for the winter larders.  In the northern hemisphere, the reduced daylight, winter temperatures and sparse food supply meant that our ancient, pagan ancestors felt the icy grip of winter tightening and closer to their (made up) spirit world, disease and death. The coming of the Light. Humans have always feared the things that they hadn't worked out.

Monday 10 October 2022

Mon 10th October '2022' - Canadian 'Thanksgiving'. Thanks be to nature.

The second Monday of October (10th -2022) in Canada is Canadian Thanksgiving', their fixed celebration of seasons, harvest and plenty. Based on ancient, pagan, seasonal celebrations, now, high-jacked for religious / political gains, it wasn't always a fixed date.(1879). For millennia, early peoples would have been aware that the summer growing season was over and their journey in to winter was beginning and food stores would have to last