We are soon to enjoy the All Hallows festival beloved of
Pagans the world over. October the 31st is the Feast of The Dead, the All
Hallows, The Soul Night and in the United States of America and many other
countries now following suit...Halloween, a great big party for the kiddies!
Yet if any other religion had to face a hi jack of their
feast day, have it turned into a ridiculing imagery of its followers with green
skin, warts and snaggle teeth, if their feast day was turned into a mockery
there would be, to use a term, Hell to pay.
Samhain is MY festival, not the domain of the advertisers,
the toy makers, the media hyped stupidities but.... you can continue, I will
not argue, carry on...but as you do, please do so understanding the following, it’s
important to me that you at least understand.................
There are NO seminal sources to prove that there is/has been
or ever will be a Prince of Darkness, a Lord of the Dead, a Grim reaper or a Satan.
Not one single 'god' is ascribed the time of Samhain by the indigenous religion
of our country. Nor has there ever been.
Samhain is a celebration of the end of summer and its
harvest also included a time of reflection to remember lost members of the
family and friends. people who have died; honouring the dead in memory and time
praying for a soul’s peace.
The core of all Pagan concepts is And Harm None. What media
hype, perverted idiots and Fundamentalists do is jump onto a bandwagon of mis
or dis information and because they have more money than most they buy time on
media to spread their version of 'truth'. They either Disneyfy (i.e. Pocahontas
was 13 years old, bald and naked when John Smith became her husband...was that
in the nice cartoon erm...no) or as Lady Wilde did in her false and totally
inaccurate book Mystic Charms and Superstitions claim there is a Lord of the
Dead based on hype and media acclaim and of course her blue blood.
The Dictionary of Festivals defines Samhain as: _
'Samhain or Samhuinn:(Celtic) 31 October, Eve of 1 Nove.is
the beginning of the Celtic year, the beginning of the season of cold, dearth
and darkness.
No other religion suffers as paganism in its many paths
does.
Has any other religion had their sacred festival hi jacked
for media hype, commercialism? Ghosts, Ghouls, Vampires, Witches, and other
rubbish even ET got in on the act....so someone can make a profit. Blood
coloured cakes, black jelly...what's that all about? it has no bearing
whatsoever on my beliefs.
The practise of sending children dressed all cute and sweet
to a complete stranger’s door to demand money and food or sweets is in my
opinion absolutely stupid and worse....it was invented by Christians. NOT Pagan
peoples who are safe in their own homes, loving their families and remembering
someone they have lost whose death has impacted on their lives.
We have, as a religious umbrella term; Paganism. Samhain is
celebrated by Celtic based religions. What others do with our sacred festival
is not in any way anything to do with us. We do not approve, we do not like nor
promote the ideas being 'celebrated' yet we have no governing body, no
priesthood stands between us and our Deity. We have no Lord or Lady, Political
or Army, we do not have Terrorists or Church to represent us in a world that
continues unabated to persecute our peoples.
We often times are unable to represent ourselves simply
because we are and always have been, ever since Christianity was promoted as a
main religion by the invading armies of the Romans, a subjugated and persecuted
people. Millions of people have been murdered in the name of a loving God. Not
because the God asked for it...on the contrary the actual religion I speak of
has text promoting peace, forgiveness, understanding and in its final book
actually has a statement to its followers to stay out of the problems in other
countries and not to bother with other Peoples but leave them to sort out their
own lives and get on with sorting themselves out.
However, these human beings take it upon themselves to
invade other countries, put men and women in the line of fire, demonise other
religions and at the same time cry fearfully that the celebration THEY created
is evilness personified and caused by 'us' a system of belief older, indigenous
to our land, peaceful and loving, with no harm to others promoted at any time
within our concepts.
We don't stand on the steps of other people’s churches,
temples or religious centres demanding our rights. We don't scream 'kill'
because someone has drawn yet another cartoon of a witch with green skin and
warts thus demonising a woman who learns about herbs and believes in a middle
earth.
We are the poor relation, even though we are a religion
stemming from the very core of our countries history, the roots of our ancient
lineage. I object to the Americanisation of my festival, for this is the
country where the hysteria has begun in hard core media hype. Until the
fundamentalists decided to promote lies and mis information, even here, in the
UK.
All Hallows, Halloween was a simple enough festival where as
a child I would see the occasional party for bob apple, duck apple, simple
games which where to remind people that men and women died by being 'ducked' in
water for their beliefs.
Leave my festival alone.
Don't send children to a stranger’s house demanding money.
Don't allow children to make egg and flour bombs to hurl at
houses where they received no 'gift' yet another ancient act being media hyped
for this is based on the old manner of 'stoning' houses or people who dared to
believe in a different fashion.
We all have our own way of remembering the dead. Who has not
on a special day, a birthday or a Memorial Day not held a moments prayer,
perhaps eaten food that day which was the favourite of the lost person? who has
not sat with a picture of that person and cried, then ended with a smile as
they remembered something nice. Who has not read a letter written from that
lost person or watched a video or a camera clip? how many people surrender
their own beliefs in a copy of our Samhain. That we have one special night for
that exact purpose is no one else’s' business.
When 'others' promote a falsity, a lie and then claim it as
a truth...then the perpetrators are in the wrong.
If you want a Night of the Devil...by all means have
one...just not on our night...it’s been ours for thousands of years, so hands
off...go find your own festival to mutilate hang on you already have: -
