🎃 Greetings all. 🎃
Halloween. As kids, for most of us, this time was more exciting as Christmas. It truly was a “kid’s “ night.
We all have our remembrances of what the 31st of October means to us. Some of us would begin to put together our costume together in July, and I am sure would change it about 25 times before the 31st of October.
There are many explanations as to where this tradition came from. The word HALLOWEEN is shortened from ALL HALLOW’S EVE, as this was the eve before All Saints Day. But this tradition goes further back. It was the end of the harvest so people gathered together to celebrate that. It was believed that the vail that separated the worlds of the living and the dead was very thin and that souls were able to pass through. People wore costumes to hide who there were so that the souls could not know who they were. And there are many other histories of this day as well.
For the most part it is for children to go through the town and collect candy, with the words, “Trick or Treat “
For some it is a date that they wished they were children once again. “Elizabeth Chase Allen once wrote, “Backward turn backward O Time, in your flight, make me a child just for tonight.”
Ghost and goblins, black cats, and witches’ hats and all that frightened us as children and that which we tell our children are not real, become somehow real on the 31st of October.
May your Halloween be filled with happy scary fun. May we all allow our inner child out just for this night. Even if we do not go out, we may watch a scary movie and eat a bowl of popcorn with the family. AND, let us not forget that the next day is OUR feast, the Feast of All Saints. It is the celebration of all those whose name we do not know are celebrating in the Celestial Halls of heaven, yes, even our loved ones who rejoice in the presence of our Loving Father. One day, in the Father’s good time, we also shall rejoice with those we have loved, not for just one night, but for an eternity.
Peace and All Good,Fr. Vinnie, osf and theBros and Srs of the Franciscan House of Prayer.
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