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The True Halloween History: Honoring Our Ancestors
Most of us think of October 31 as Halloween, a time to dress up in costumes and make merry.
But it originated as so much more. In Celtic times, it was a time to honor those who have gone before us. The masked figures represent the spirits of the dead: our ancestors.
A WEE BIT OF CELTIC HISTORY
The ancient Celts, going back 4,500 years, divided each year into the dark half and the light half. The end of the light half was marked by Samhain [pron. Sow-ihn], a time when they were stockpiling food for the winter and giving thanks to the Sun God.
It is also a time of year when the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest – an appropriate time to invite the souls of the dead to come back for a visit. Candles kept in the window guide the souls back home and a place is set at the table for them.
One of My Favorite Irish Stories: “The Pious Man”
Next week being a major Celtic spiritual day [sorry, you will have to wait for next week’s post to find out what it is], I wanted to lead up to it with one of my favorite Irish stories. Please pardon the colloquialisms; you must imagine it being spoken with an Irish brogue:
There was a man there long ago, and he had a great name for himself as being very holy.
He was the first up to the chapel on Sunday, and there was never a mission he wasn’t at, praying all around him. And he was being held up as a good example to the sinners as a very holy man that never missed his duty.
Well, he said to himself, it would be a good thing for him to count all the times he was at Mass, so he got a big timber box and he made a hole in the cover of it, and he locked the box so that no one could interfere with it in any way, and he hid the key where no one could possibly find it.
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A Lesson from “A Course in Miracles” — How to Undo Fear
This is a guest post from reader Ellinor Halle of Norway – excellent advice to live by.
Have you heard of book called ”A Course in Miracles?” It’s a great book which can change your life.
I have been practicing “A Course in Miracles” for many years and it has really helped me to go past the fear that prevents us from being ourselves no matter who we are with.
The Course works with the God-given energy that is inside us all, called the Holy Spirit in the book.
When you follow the workbook each day, it helps you to connect to that energy inside us. Then the voice of fear that belongs to the nightmare of childhood (our thoughts that are babbling away, or our ”ego” according to the book) becomes more and more quiet.
What is Civilization?
Just what is “civilization?”
I asked myself that question after writing last week’s post about Christopher Columbus not being the first to discover the New World. And his still being celebrated for paving the way for Europeans to bring “civilization” to the west.
Will Durant spent 50 years writing “The Story of Civilization” and says that civilization is marked by four elements:
economic provision
political organization
moral traditions
pursuit of knowledge and the arts
The Native American societies of North America lived by the above principles for centuries before the arrival of Columbus.
Here’s my definition of civilization:
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The Myth of Christopher Columbus: First Illegal Alien
Imagine a foreign-speaking stranger, by the name of Christopher Columbus, walked into your house one day, claimed it was now his and threw you out, or even enslaved or killed you and your family.
Would you celebrate him with a national holiday?
Neither would I.
Yet the United States and other countries in the West continue to celebrate Christopher Columbus as having discovered the “New World” even though there was a perfectly marvelous civilization already living here.
[Columbus Day in 2012 is Monday, October 8 – a Federal holiday.]
My Lakota dad Wallace Black Elk called Columbus “the first illegal alien.”