Halloween

 Halloween, or more specifically “All Hallows Eve” has evolved into a day for costumes and candy. Originally it was more important in the life of the church as the day before all the departed were remembered. Even earlier than Christianity, the feast of Samhain remembered the ‘thin time’ when the veil between this world and the next was open so the dead could return to visit their loved ones.

A similar custom continues in the Latin community in the Americas with Dia de los Muertos—the Day of the Dead. This is a joyful time to honor and remember the ancestors with treats and flowers. The Disney movie Coco is a fun way to learn more about this tradition.

Halloween

 We pause in our series on 33 of the Names of God because today is Halloween. This ancient Celtic festival was adopted or co-opted by the Church into a remembrance of All the Saints of God on November 1. All Hallow’s Eve is the night before, or eve (evening before), the Feast of All Saints. “Hallow” is an old term for Saints. The use of All Hallow’s Even first shows up in the 1500’s in Scotland. In the 1700’s was contracted from All Hallow’s Even into Hallow’s-een and then into Halloween.

Many scholars think that the traditions of Halloween that we are so fond of, jack-o-lanterns, costumes, even trick-or-treat are remnants of the Celtic festival of Samhain, which happened about the same time of year. During this ‘thin time’ souls of the dead can revisit their homes and are welcomed. This custom is found in other cultures, such as Day of the Dead in Mexico where feasts are prepared and taken to the graves of loved ones, as this image shows.

The Christian church’s Feast of All Saints, and the next day’s remembrance of All Souls, dates from the 4^th Century, although the date was not set as November 1 until the 9^th century by Pope Gregory IV. Since Irish monks came to mainland Europe starting in the 6^th Century, one can postulate that their presence influenced the growth of this feast, and the associated activities.  

This is a time of year to remember we are all “Saints of God.” In Deuteronomy we hear, For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:6) St. Paul more specifically states that all are saints when he tells the church in Corinth, those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. (I Corinthians 1:2)

Chosen, holy, sanctified and saints—those can seem like big shoes to fill and big promises to live into. We should remember that the women and men we name as 'saints' were just as human as we are. They had the same struggles and failings we do. And we are reminded that we are never alone in our juorney to being a saint by calling. Matthew 28:20 gives us the promise of Jesus, surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Remembering our loved ones and the lives of the saints can encourage us in our own faith journey. We can emulate where they lived into the love of God and learn from their errors. We can read about the ‘big name’ saints and discover that they were just as human as we are. That can give us inspiration and courage.

Who are your favorite saints? St. Francis, Hildegard of Bingen, Mother Teresa or perhaps your aunt Mabel or cousin Tom?? In a couple weeks, women in the Diocese of the Rio Grande will look at some of the saints, both those recognized by the church, and others who are "Women of Valor and Worth" during our Fall Retreat. You can still register to attend via Zoom. 

Maybe this Halloween will give you time to celebrate the saints in your life. Perhaps you can welcome them into your heart, even if you don’t prepare a feast for them at your table, or at their grave. 

Finding Holy Ground: In Self-Denial

Last week, we tackled the difficult idea of finding Holy Ground in one another, esp. those we don’t really like or agree with, or perhaps even hate or fear. Did you have any luck in looking for Christ in someone you typically have trouble dealing with? It calls for a bit of dying to self to do that, doesn’t it?

With All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween) just around the corner, it is a good time to ponder how exactly we can find Holy Ground in death and loss. Whether that is physical death of a loved one, death of a dream or hope, or just ‘dying to self’ it can be a holy time.

The ancient Celts, whose practices gave birth to the celebration of Halloween, believed that this season of the year was a ‘thin time’. It is a time when the veil between the living and dead is pulled aside and the dead can return to their homes. Other cultures have similar practices. The Mexican Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations are based on the idea that the dead need fed and nurtured at this time of year. Chinese families also leave food offerings for their dead relatives. All these practices recognize that the past, and esp. our ancestors, have an impact on our lives now.

In the Disney movie Mulan, the Ancestors awaken when Mulan takes her father’s place as a warrior. She is willing to put herself at risk to save her father’s life. It is only in letting go of the cultural restrictions that Mulan becomes who she really is. It is not as a woman dressed as a man, but as a woman, that she ultimately saves China and the Emperor from the invading Huns.

Perhaps our forbearers, both familial and in the faith, can help us find the way to Holy Ground, when the veil is thin. Recognition of the thin space between preserving our life as status quo and denying ourselves for the greater good is Holy Ground.

In Luke 9: 23-25, Jesus tells his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?”

It is not easy to follow this teaching. There is so much in the world that encourages us to put ourselves first. This product or that one will make you beautiful or popular or rich or even famous. Jesus’ followers are told to live in exactly the opposite way. To ‘deny themselves’ and love one another. That will almost certainly lead to being counter-cultural. Denying our desires and wants in order to honor the Holy Ground in someone else is not easy. Maybe it’s simply letting someone merge in traffic when you are in a hurry, or allowing another person to get the closer parking space at Walmart. Or it could be standing up for the rights of the homeless, the poor, the sick, the abused and thereby becoming one of ‘those’ radical activists.

Take a few minutes to think about the impact of the faith, or lack of faith, in your family tree. How has Holy Ground been nurtured in your by family or friends throughout your life? Can you recognize times when your family or friends did ‘deny themselves’ so that you could prosper? What one thing can you do this week to ‘deny yourself’?

Wearing a Mask

Once again the circle of seasons brings us to All Hallows Eve or Halloween. Honestly this is not one of my favorite holidays. Too much craziness in the name of ‘fun’ can happen. Plus, I really don’t like people in masks because I cannot see their face. (I also have trouble with people wearing mirrored sunglasses for the same reason-I cannot see their expression or eyes.)

Don’t we all wear masks, though? We put on a persona based on what we think are the expectations of the people we are interacting with. I might put on the mask of educated author when presenting a talk about my books. In my family, I present myself as the ‘good mom’, ever ready to help with homework. At work, the mask might be ‘efficient worker’ and at school I might be the ‘diligent student’. Those are all parts of us, and they help us comfortably hide the parts of our personality we don’t want the public to see.

Even with God we sometimes try to wear a mask, forgetting conveniently that God sees right through and past any mask we might attempt. For God we can be the ‘faithful church worker’ or the ‘daily pray-er’ or the ‘efficient pastor’. Those may all be correct and parts of us. However, what God sees is “beloved child”.

In the First Letter to the church in Corinth, Paul says that all attributes of the church (and of each of us) is important. “Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Corinthians: 12: 15-26)

All of our personality parts are important and valid, and need to be affirmed. It is easy to try to hide the things about ourselves that we don’t like by constructing a mask that is ‘acceptable’. All Hallows Eve (Halloween), All Saints Day and All Souls Day (October 31, November 1 and 2, respectively) is a time to remember the ‘saints’ of the church. ALL the women and men who have gone before us in the faith, not just those who happen to have the title ‘Saint’ attached to their name. You are a saint of God, and I am a saint of God. Let’s celebrate the image of God in one another and try to put down our masks sometimes.

What is your favorite mask? Can you develop a mask that shows you as a beloved child, a saint, of God?

This week try to look beyond the masks others have constructed to see and love the real saint of God. 

Saints of God

Today we take a break from our contemplation of the Lord’s Prayer to consider the witness of those saints of God who have gone before us. There’s a good old hymn, by Lesbia Scott, which reminds us that saints are like you and me. Another blogger weighs in on this hymn here.

I sing a song of the saints of God,
patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green;
they were all of them saints of God, and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
and his love made them strong;
and they followed the right for Jesus' sake
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast;
and there's not any reason, no, not the least,
why I shouldn't be one too.

They lived not only in ages past;
there are hundreds of thousands still.
The world is bright with the joyous saints
who love to do Jesus' will.
You can meet them in school, on the street, in the store,
in church, by the sea, in the house next door;
they are saints of God, whether rich or poor,
and I mean to be one too.

As we celebrate All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween), All Saint’s Day, and All Soul’s Day this weekend, we remember those who have gone before us into Glory. We remember our family, friends, and even those we never knew who were witnesses to faith in God. We follow their leading in each of our individual Christian journeys.

Maybe this little pumpkin prayer (inspired by Oriental Trading, modified by me) will help us remember how to live as a saints of God.

Thin Time-Samhain

We’re looking at Thin Places and Times-places where heaven and earth are very near. This is a spirituality found in Celtic Christianity and in the Hebrew scriptures, and other religions, too. This week there will be “Trick-or-Treaters” in costume celebrating Halloween. Did you know that this tradition comes from the Celtic belief that November 1, the Celtic new year, was an extraordinary time. The veil between the Otherworld and Earth was open and the dead could visit earth (and vice versa, in some Celtic myth).

The Celtic year was broken into seasons that roughly followed the sun’s equinoxes and solstices. Samhain (November 1) marked the start of the cycle because, like the Jewish day, all creation begins in darkness. The Winter solstice (Dec. 21) and then Imbolc (Feb. 1) which was dedicated to Brigid and fertility, esp. of flocks and fields. Then came the Spring Equinox (March 21) and Beltaine on May 1 (a time of engagements). The Summer Solstice (June 21) led to Lughsdaugh on August 1 when the first harvest/first fruits were gathered. The Autumn Equinox (September 21) completed the cycle with the shortening of days.

All fires were extinguished at Samhain and new fire was kindled for the new year. Offerings symbolizing the wishes and thanksgivings of the people were thrown into the fire so everyone could start afresh. The year past was thus purged of the bad and made ‘hallow’ (holy) while the new year was blessed.

Samhain was a time fraught with magic and fairies, elves, and other supernatural beings were abroad. The new fire was a way to keep these, not always friendly, spirits at bay. Bonfires were lit on Halloween even as late at the first World War in parts of Ireland and Scotland. More and more, though, the big fires became the Jack ‘o Lanterns carved with faces and other images.

Samhain, the thin place and start of the new cycle, became ‘Christianized’ into Hallow Mass or All Saints’ Day. The evening before All Hallow’s Day is All Hallows Eve and eventually that contracted into Halloween.

Hallow is a word not used much any more, but it means to make holy or sacred and to venerate. Abraham Lincoln used hallowed in the Gettysburg address when talking about the lives lost in that battle: “But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” We may blithely recite “Hallowed be Thy name” in the Lord’s Prayer, but do we stop and consider that we are saying “Holy is your Name” to God?

On All Saints Day and All Souls Day (November 2) we remember all the faithful departed. On All Hallows Eve (Halloween) this year, let us say a prayer that our lives may be Hallowed to the Lord, just as those who have gone before us have been hallowed and made holy in the presence of our Lord. Perhaps this prayer said at the kindling of the daily fire (when people had to kindle their fire for heat and cooling) will give you an idea:

I will kindle my fire this morning
In the presence of the holy angels of heaven,
In the presence of Ariel of the loveliest form
In the presence of Uriel of the myriad charms,

Without malice, without jealousy, without envy,
Without fear, without terror of any one under the sun,
But the Holy Son of God to shield me.

God, kindle Thou in my heart within
A flame of love to my neighbor,
To my foe, to my friend, to my kindred all,
To the brave, to the knave, to the thrall,

O Son of the loveliest Mary,
From the lowliest thing that liveth,
To the Name that is highest of all.

 

See you next time as we look at Hallowed Ground or Holy Ground. Perhaps it's just under your feet.

All Hallows Eve

Since September we’ve been looking at Routines and how God is present in our day-to-day life. By becoming aware of our routines, we can also be more aware, as Madeline L’Engle and Barbara Brown Taylor say, of God found “in the work” and “under our feet.” We can consciously be aware of the Holy present in the ground under our feet, in the images around us, in the altars (holy places) in our lives, and even in the interaction with those we meet. The past couple of weeks we’ve looked at how interrupted routines can also heighten our awareness of the Holy in our lives. God breaks in when we let go of our routine, whether on purpose, by being aware of things around us, or in the disruption of the daily habits. Holidays are another way that our routines are disrupted and God breaks in.

Today is All Hallows Eve, more commonly known as Halloween. For most of the world it has lost its historic link to the Christian Feast of All Saints Day (Nov. 1), when the church remembers that we are all saints. The link to being the Eve (night before) the celebration of all the saints of God is largely forgotten or ignored now.

Now, these origins are so obscured that some consider the celebration of Halloween as just a secular or even pagan or diabolical holiday. However, the roots go back to the time before the Christian church came to the Celtic lands of what is now England and Ireland. Before the church adopted the practice of remembering the faithful departed saints, there was an even more ancient festival associated with the change of seasons and the end of October. Samhain (pronounced sow-in) was the time when Celts honored their ancestors. It is easy to understand how the early church would find a way to relate the remembrance of the faithful saints with the existing feast remembering ancestors. Around the 9th century, the early church wisely adopted and redeemed Samhain, just as happened with other many existing feasts and celebrations.

There are records of Christianity in Britain by the 3rd century and of course the legend of Joseph of Arimathea coming to Glastonbury soon after the crucifixion. The first Church authorized evangelism was under Pope Gregory I who sent Augustine to Britain in the 6th century. (This is not Augustine of Hippo, one of the famous theologians of the church, who lived 200 years earlier.) Augustine’s ‘holier than thou’ attitude did not sit well with the people of Britain who had developed their own form of Christianity in isolation from the rest of Christendom.

One cannot but wonder (at least I cannot help wondering) if the adoption of Samhain into All Hallows Eve was not a centuries later footnote at one of the church councils to offer an olive branch to the Celtic roots of Britain’s Christians. The change of the seasons was perceived, by the Celts and other ancients, as a ‘thin space’ or a time when the boundary between our world and the ‘Otherworld’ was translucent. Spirits (good and bad) could come and go at such times. The Celtic celebrations involved masks, body painting, and bonfires. From this comes the wearing of costumes and even the jack-o-lantern. Now, of course, Halloween is mostly about wearing costumes and getting treats or going to masquerade parties. We rarely pause to remember the saints who have gone before.

The Rev. Gary Kriss notes, “There can be little doubt that our Christian observances owe much to pre-Christian customs. Witches and ghosts, unseen demons and the souls of the dead wandering in the dark were very real to ancient people, and this should not surprise us…We may need to step back for a bit of perspective before we too quickly dismiss the quaint and ill-informed customs of the ancients as pagan nonsense. Indeed, as the days grow shorter and the hours of natural light are fewer, we would do well to reflect on the importance of light, literally and figuratively, in our lives. To shed light on a problem is to move towards a solution. To come out of the darkness into the light is to overcome fear and ignorance.” (http://fullhomelydivinity.org/) 

Even in our modern life, we have things that frighten us. We may not pray, “From ghoulies and ghosties, and long-leggedie beasties, and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us” as an ancient Scottish litany puts it. However, we do have to deal with the fears of our own time. Halloween is a time when we can lightly touch scary things—and bring them into the light where they aren’t so fearsome.

The cultural routine is to celebrate Halloween with ghosts and goblins and costumes and treats. We’ve been looking at our routines and how to transform them into ways to be more aware of God within them. Maybe you can start a new routine around Halloween. One way might be to incorporate the eating of donuts on Halloween as a reminder to pray for the saints in your life. An old tradition involves the use of donuts as ‘soul cakes’ in the Middle Ages. Beggars would go from house to house offering to pray for the departed in return for food. Supposedly one cook decided to make her cakes in the shape of the circle of eternity—and the donut was born. http://fullhomelydivinity.org/articles/all%20hallows%20full%20page.htm

Perhaps another way to find God in the Halloween norm is to reflect on the lives of the saints we have known. Who has been influential in your faith growth? Give thanks to God for those persons.

I know I promised to talk about labels, but it is not often that Halloween falls on a Sunday, after all. Next week, we’ll get back to the routine, if you’ll pardon the pun.