It started from a festival or feast to celebrate the abundance of food saved/ stored/ grown over a successful spring and summer. With ancient peoples looking at a few months of cold dark long nights. They would ration and have a gratitude for what they had. They called it Samhain, then came modern religion who wanted to get involved and instead of eradicating it, try to get involved and attempted to include their own festival to celebrate the deceased, hence the inclusion of the darkness and death. The first day celebrated would be on the last day of Autumn, October 31st . They called it ‘All Hallows Eve’, then ‘All Saints Day’ and finally ‘All Souls Day’. Continuing on the first day of winter for the latter two days. Through the evolution of the English language, the term ‘Hallow’ referencing of the phrase holy person or saint, gave rise to the abbreviations, All HallowsMas, All Hallows Day and Halloween for All Hallows Eve. Catholicism being the main denomination of Christianity to celebrate and observe the festival.
It is worth noting the hysteria surrounding the 15/ 16 & 1700s regarding witches, witchcraft, interaction with the devil and devil worship. To be fair, it hasn’t gone away and we still have an irrational fear and use it to describe our level of ignorance.
As a result many Women were killed, murdered in fact for being disagreeable, midwifes, for wanting their torture to end, for being Women with no support network family or friends, for being Widows, any other rubbish excuse they could get away with, simply because they were Women.
If ever there was a reason to be fearful, it is to be fearful of those poor souls who suffered harshly. That first hour on the 1st November is the time we remember and acknowledge them and what they went through and invite them back to celebrate with us, as we ask for their forgiveness. This is our journey on how we attempt to make it right as we travel to October 31st, destination midnight.
