Don't Be Afraid of the Dark - Meb

          October is the month of Hallowed Evening or Holy Evening - Halloween. While largely commercialized as an American holiday, Halloween, as we call it, is grounded in tradition from a variety of cultures. In the Christian tradition, the 'hallowed evening' started as the end of a three-day festival that honored the saints, the martyrs and the dead. In the ancient Celtic world, Halloween originated from the Gaelic Samhain harvest festival. Samhain means "summer's end" in Old Irish. There was a period of time in Ireland, when all the children dressed up, not as witches, ghosts, pirates and princesses, but as street urchins, not to beg for treats, but to get any food at all. And anyone who has lived in California for any length of time comes to appreciate the art, if not the sentiment behind the tradition of the Mexican Day of the Dead on November 1st.

          I love the tradition, but I'm a little beyond helping my kids dress up for Halloween and don't have any grandchildren yet who will be out and  about this year. Lately, the early darkness and the chill in the evening air has me thinking more about the Hallowed Evening and wondering if the old tradition of celebrating the mysteries of passing over to the world beyond isn't a really important thing to do. I think about friends and family who have died this last year and those friends who are so ill they could die - and of course, my own mortality. For some, this is scary thinking. But as I've gotten older, I've learned that the "veil between the worlds" is thinner than I was brought up to believe.

         I ran across this beautiful poem that was written by Henry Scott Holland, an English clergyman in 1910 and popularized by Irish monks. 

Death is Nothing at All

Death is nothing at all
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way 
Which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it. 

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.

All is well.
Nothing is past; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before only better,
Infinitely happier and forever, we will all be one together.

          We should never be afraid  to take time to celebrate all the people we have ever loved, the living and the dead. Life is a gift and love is a gift. Wishing you a very happy Hallowed Eve.