Dear Glen Mar friends,
Halloween is coming! You may not think of it as a particularly religious holiday and if it’s not your thing, I respect that. But I learned in seminary about where Halloween came from. I was reminded that the period between Halloween and the winter solstice in late December coincided then, as it does today, with the darkest time of the year, with shorter days and longer nights. (At least in our hemisphere). In the medieval period, dark was pretty dark, apparently, and it was a dangerous time. In our “Edison-ized” society, where light is taken for granted, we tend to forget that. But long cold nights meant for dangerous travel back then. People were eating the food they had stored since the crops were all harvested and the land was covered with ice. It was a risky and vulnerable time of year.
At this darkest time, the Church gathered its “little lights” together, its saints, for help through this “long dark night of the soul.” November 1 became All Saint’s Day, a time to honor those gone on to glory and to remind us that Jesus has won the victory over all the darkness that can surround us.