The loveliest present I’ve received this All Saints’ Day:
the child’s heart in this video https://www.facebook.com/reel/2356993598379199
which has made my day!
Blessed is the simple, spontaneous, wonder-filled heart of a child – it is in the arms of Love!
Did you know that the word ‘Halloween’ is a contraction of the ancient expression ‘All Hallows’ Eve’:
hallow = holy or sacred person (as in the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Hallowed be thy name’ = ‘May your name be holy’).
Eve = the evening before (as in Christmas Eve, the eve of Christmas).
So, ‘All Hallows’ Eve’ literally means ‘the evening before All Saints’ Day’.
The Halloween festival represents the convergence of the Christian faith with Celtic traditions: the festival of Samhain (which is Gaelic and is apparently pronounced ‘sow-in’) once marked the New Year in our part of the world, coinciding with the onset of winter. Our ancestors believed that the night of 31 October to 1 November is a timeless space where the visible and the invisible brush against one another, during which the veil becomes very thin between the world of the living and the Otherworld (where spirits, gods and ancestors dwell) .
I wish for all of us the spontaneous and wonder-filled heart of one who simply throws themselves into the arms of Love!
Happy All Saints’ Day…