Today is the ancient festival of
Samhain which marks the last day of the Celtic year and the beginning
of winter. The Celts and Druids believed that in the night before the
New Year, the wall between the living and the dead was open, allowing
spirits of the dead, both good and bad, to mingle among the living.
Some of these spirits were thought to possess living people, cause
trouble, ruin crops, or to search for passage to the afterlife and
many of the rituals performed in order to placate these evil spirits
are best left shrouded in the mists of time. Halloween, as it´s now
called, is a sanitized child-friendly version of that pagan festival,
now mostly practised in the USA. We would certainly rest uneasily in
our beds if we knew exactly what the Celts regarded as suitable
tricks and treats. I know I wouldn´t like to spend this evening, or
any evening, in THIS room! (although it was fun putting it together.)
To quote an an ancient Scottish prayer,
From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-legged beasties
And things that go bump in the night
Good Lord, deliver us.
Amen to that.
