(Samhain)
Hallow-een… “All Hallows Eve”… the night before the day of all the holies (hallows)… which is All Saints Day in the Christian calendar, and by some wild co-incidence falls on the ancient festival of Samhain when the doors between this life and the next are “open” (Spooky!)…
There are many cultures where this is a major high day, in some cases, days, celebrating and remembering (or communing/communicating with – depending on belief) our dear departed.
Best known of course is the Mexican Day of the Dead, where one’s ancestors are held to be the guests of honour at feast and party.
It is a shame perhaps, that we do not make more of this ancient night, instead trivialising it with children’s costumes and (shudders) “trick or treat” (Guising ! in Scotland it’s guising! and it’s next week).
In our culture, it seems, the divide between this life and the next has become a stark gulf, while in the past it was seen as but a veil. While one could argue this is about secularisation v’s religion, my own thought, is that it goes further. I think we actively divorce ourselves from our past, determined to be our “own people”, acknowledging no, or little debt, to those who came before.
Certainly, if your Great-Great-Grandfather founded the family mansion with the money he made from his time in the Klondike gold rush, you might remember him as a “founding father”, but I think, more generally we are fiercely determined to be “self-made”.
Regardless of what you believe, and I speak as an anti-social grumpy old man, particular of my society, I don’t think you can completely escape your origins. Perhaps if we could celebrate (with) our ancestors, even if only once a year, we might enjoy a more comfortable relationship with our past, whether you understand that as a spiritual intervention, or personal reflection. I suspect we might be the better for it.
Next week on IaDL: Penny for the guy?
Dalmallyfest the Asylum 