Photo was taken during the week at Altamount, Millstreet, Co.Cork (Irl)

I hope you have a lovely Happy Halloween

Thought on Sunday – November – 31/10/2021

‘Halloween is an ancient druidic holiday, one the Celtic peoples have celebrated for millennia. It is the crack between the last golden rays of summer and the dark of winter; the delicately balanced tweak of the year before it is given over entirely to the dark; a time for the souls of the departed to squint, to peek and perhaps to travel through the gap.’ ~Jenny Colgan

Some say Halloween is silly nonsense, a commercial opportunity and a waste of money. But Halloween has a lot to offer. Children love it and always will. For adults it brings back childhood memories of snap apple and other simple games that still survive.

I personally think it is a lovely time of year. With the clocks going back an hour last night we really get a sense of less light and much more darkness. Halloween puts us in touch with the mystery of life and that some things in life are often clouded in darkness. It puts us in touch with the struggle between light and darkness and the struggle between good and evil. It puts us in touch with the passage of time and the cycles of nature which we so often take for granted.

The spiritual writer Joyce Rupp talks about how as the years have gone on, she has become more comfortable in making friends with her inner darkness. In other words darkness is something that will always be with us. It is part of everyone’s story and we can’t hide from it. When we become more comfortable with darkness we are actually in a better place to see the light and embrace it.

So while Halloween may have pagan origins, the Christian message is wrapped around it. It’s a simple Halloween message that God is with us through all the light filled moments of our lives. Importantly we are reassured that God is also with us when we struggle with darkness, evil, mystery and the unknown. It is a time of year to reassure us that light and hope are never too far away, even when it seems they are lost.