Posts tagged introduction

In the Christian churches, holy days and seasons revolve around a cycle of feasts and fasts. In our present age, many people do not know that “Halloween” is a shortened form of the term, “All Hallows Eve,” signifying the evening festival for All Saints’ Day – similar, of course, to Christian celebrations of Christmas Eve. Nor are most people cognizant that All Saints is actually a season and is celebrated for an octave, or eight days. All this is an introduction to the fact that this season of All the Saints is my favorite season of the year, beginning with Halloween and lasting through November 8th. Here is a religious season that contemplates the very meaning of our lives and deaths, our souls and bodies. Here too is a season that acknowledges that we are surrounded by “a great cloud of witness” – the on-going presence of all the dead who rest in the heart of creation and yet ever have an impact upon us all. It is a beautiful season, and it coincides with the changing and falling of the leaves here in New England. It forms a backdrop and segway that is entirely fitting to the season of Thanksgiving, too.