Happy Samhain Everyone

I live in a truly amazing town. On any day, I can hear any one of dozens of languages spoken. With it, I also catch wind of several new year's celebrations. There's our own western European calendar that starts on Jan 1. After that, many other folks who have found their way to Toronto celebrate their new year too.

Today is one of those new years. What we now know as Hallowe'en was once called Samhain (pronounced as sa-wain), the Celtic New Year. The Celts believed that the veil separating the everyday mortal world from the spirit world was thinnest after the harvest, and winter began setting in. It's an auspicious time to communicate with all the weirdness that lurks beneath the surface, and deal with it effectively. Of course we all know that the Christians kinda borrowed the original pagan notions, and made November 1 their All Saints Day. I suppose it is respectful to the older traditions to recycle the intent of the holiday rather than obliterate it.

I've always enjoyed Hallowe'en for the merriment and all the sweet stuff. Perhaps a little less of the sweet stuff as I get older, but hey, we can all use some merriment. And I don't mind the idea that modern pagans have tried to reconstitute the ancient Celtic traditions either. We'll never know exactly how the Celts really brought in the new year, but why not tip our hat to a culture that covered all of Europe well before the Greeks and Romans came along. It seems to me that a culture that ancient deserves its own new year too.

With that, I'd like to wish everyone a happy Samhain, and a prosperous new year. Make sure there are no demons in your life. You can get rid of them by disguising yourself and running around like an eejit to frighten them off.