Pagans All!

Halloween is 3000 years old. So all the pagans who started it can be assure that it is still a popular Holiday. It didn't start as a holiday. This is the day that worlds between the living and dead thin and the dead can roam. It is the day for leaving gifts to appease the dead, thus Trick or Treating, dressing in costumes to fool the dead, and lighting jack-o-lanterns to scare the dead away. (Druids used turnips.) Tonight we will light scary pumpkins, dress as someone much scarier than we actually are, ask strangers for treats, visit spooky places and build bon fires. For one night we slip back into the possibility that the dead walk among us. All was going good with the ancient celebration until the Christians tried to do away with the Pagan holiday (they still are). They came up with All Saints day which is November 1. That didn't work too well so they invented All Souls Day on November 2. Instead of stopping the celebration of Halloween many countries such as Mexico turned it into The Day Of The Dead. Through the years Halloween has attracted a few bad traits such as vandalism but basically is a much loved holiday for kids and adults. It is a day when we open our doors to strangers, give them treats, and visit haunted houses despite all the scary Halloween movies we have watched. It is a time of scared fun. Christians are still fighting the celebration of Halloween. They seem to be the only ones who are truly afraid on Halloween. Halloween is one night when we become a mystery hidden behind a mask and when we aren't sure if the masked one beside us is dead or alive. Seems a bit of pagan lives in most of us. Have a Happy Halloween as we welcome the dark side of the year. Bless be!