Trick or Treat?
Relationships can feel like delicious treats or deplorable tricks, and the song that we hear each Halloween begs us to make a choice: “Trick or Treat?” Relationships and Halloween both full of choice. And, it has always been this way. The origins of Halloween being about the dead and our relationship to them long before there was a song to wield in which to gross candy.
Beginning in the seventh century with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts the day before the Celtic New Year. This was a very superstitious time, “when the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter” History of Halloween.
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1, All Saints’ Day, as a time to honor all saints and martyrs, incorporating some of the traditions of Samhain, with celebrations the evening before taking on the title All Hallows’ Eve, which later became known as Halloween. Our connection to the dead now, on this day, being about costumes, gourds and candy, the one day it is OK in most neighborhoods to go door to door, ringing bells, and asking whether a trick or treat would be best, in eager expectation of something sweet.
Our history as a human race is varied and continues to change. Our relationships to things and people changing with the times. But one thing remains the same: We will all have to say goodbye to the body at some point. Holidays, whether we choose to celebrate them or not, are an opportunity for us to see the value in our relationships to things and to people: to see the blessing of the body or its “curse,” to see our friends or our “enemies,” to meet our triumphs or our “failures.” For that matter, everyday and every interaction calls us deeper into the importance of these tricks or treats to meet them head on with our ability to listen and respond to the high calling of Love and head in the direction of purpose.
How do you hold space in your life for the light and dark? How do you hold space for others and yourself? Let your celebration and contribution of all that has been be sweet, a blessed song unto the hearer, not just to reap a treat, but rather to give something precious.
Go well. Namaste.
