All Hallows Eve & the Season of the Dead

The Season of the Dead

October/November

The season of the dead runs from around 31^st October to 2^nd November. It takes in All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Whilst the season of the dead sounds a bit macabre, surprisingly it arises from a celebration that is quite life enhancing.

In contemporary society All Hallows Eve  has become a bit of a horror fest, all about murder, blood, vampires, zombies. It’s as if death has become so frightening we have to cover it up in extreme horror so it doesn’t look so real. But the truth is we are all going to die. And we won’t become vampires or zombies, nor will be killed painfully by someone wearing a hockey mask or with a torture fetish. Well, not unless we’re really unlucky or are with a group of teenagers who go into a spooky forest after they were told not to.

All Hallowstide (31^st October onwards) acknowledges our humanity, the value of life, and it celebrates those who have gone before, helping us also perhaps, to recognise our own mortality and place in life. All Hallows Eve means ‘the evening before All Hallows Day’, All Hallows Day also being known as All Saints. This day was originally celebrated on 13^th May until, in the 8^th Century, England and Germany moved it to 1^st November. All Souls Day (2^nd November) was begun around the early 11^th century, and was originally celebrated in February.

Traditionally, the evening before a festival day isa time to start the celebration (just like Christmas eve still is now). Bells would be rung and people would prepare for the big day and so All Hallow’s Eve became established, becoming Hallowe’en and now Halloween. The evening before an event often seems more magical, midsummer’s eve feels different to midsummer’s day. Perhaps it’s because it is an ‘inbetween’ state, not quite what it was, but also not quite what it will be. These liminal states are mystical, they are the times when things happen and realms touch. Perhaps more on that another time!

A lot of traditions have accumulated around the day, in some parts of the world people dress up as the martyrs, usually to look like them after their grisly death, hence the (mistaken) association with horror. Some peoples hold parties in cemeteries, literally on the tombstones. These traditions face the reality of death and see it, not as the end of life, but part of it. In some parts of the world there has been a fascinating mix of Christian and other beliefs and All Souls Day is a day when people wait to be visited by their dead relatives or other wandering souls.

The link with the dead and ancient paganism on this specific date is not entirely clear, but this is the time of Samhein, an ancient Celtic festival to mark the end of summer. Also November was called ‘blood month’ in Anglo-Saxon as this was the time when the animals who weren’t going to make it through the winter were slaughtered. It was a time of festival and fire to purify and prepare for the dark nights ahead. Modern pagans celebrate this season as it also marks the turn of their year and it’s links with ancient pagan celebrations.

How ancient the practises and customs we follow now are is uncertain although there are references to different customs, such as souling and fires.  As recent as the 18th and 19th century some villages in Lancashire and Derbyshire lit fires in the fields at midnight to see in All Souls day. In Derbyshire these were sometimes called ‘tindles’ and were believed to light the way for souls who were coming from purgatory to visit on that night.

Pumpkins, trick or treat and all that... All Hallows Eve in the west now owes much to America, although they didn’t invent. In fact, it was the Europeans who exported it to the New World with the early colonists and, although it died down over here, it grew in strength over there, also becoming associated with Thanksgiving, a major American festival. But whilst the language may have become Americanised, the actual activities aren’t. Trick or Treating has its origins in old visiting customs, in many parts of Britain children would go ‘Souling’, knocking on doors asking for treats. It was believed that by being generous and giving out treats that the souls in purgatory would have their time reduced. In some parts of the country ‘soul cakes’ were made for the occasion, and you can find traditional recipes for them on a few websites (i.e. I can’t be bothered to write them out). We can thank the Americans for giving us the big orange pumpkin, which is far easier to carve out than our tradition turnips, mangelwurzels or the like. So points to them for that! Also pumpkin soup is nicer than turnip soup.(Although that is an opinion, not a fact)

All hallows here... Tree of Life is about spiritual journeying and we also mark this season with a few events.On All Hallows Eve we hold a family party with traditional activities like pumpkin carving, bear baiting and apple bobbing (just joking about the bear baiting). We often mark All Saints by setting time aside to remember those who have died in the cause of justice and peace, remembering modern martyrs and more ‘traditional’ saints. On All Souls we hold a ceremony each year to think of those who have passed on, to give thanks for their lives and also to remember those left behind. TIn 2011 we held the ceremony outside around a fire, followed by distributing soul cakes.