It's a scary time of year. Filled with strange omens, early sunsets, sudden changes of weather, wandering beggars pounding at your door, and the abidingly glorious spectacle of the autumn foliage. We should all look this good when we fall to earth.
What we learned about this season last year was that
Halloween comes very close to Election Day, and sometimes the two exchange
places. Halloween is clearly the lighter-hearted of the now widely observed autumn
holidays. It’s on Election Day that ghosts, monsters, and spirits of the dead
walk the land.
Some of us find any excuse at all
to celebrate in autumn. In our household we have favorite pieces of music or albums
that evoke the season’s spirit. We associate the beauty of Fall with
the music of Windham Hill piano master George Winston, especially his albums “Autumn”
and “Forest.”
I also find the music of Celtic harp
virtuoso and musicologist Aine Minogue particularly soulful when the sun
declines, the shadows lengthen and, according to ancient belief, the barrier
between the material world and the world of the spirit thins.
The popular origin theory for
Halloween is the Celtic festival Samhain. Though typically associated with
Ireland today, the Celts were once the dominant culture all over western Europe.
When Caesar was conquering the Gauls in France – those were Celts. As were the
Britons. 
Later, when
the people of these lands were converted to Christianity, the Roman church
took control of their calendar. The Christian stamp was laid on top
of a seasonal parade of feast days that were still rich with the old
traditions. The Celtic autumn festival Samhain, one of the seasonal ‘fire festivals,’
involved lighting bonfires and – here’s the clincher –
wearing costumes to ward off ghosts. 
The Christian holy day celebrated
at this time is All Saints Day. Many saints have their own feast days,
so all the others (lest they feel neglected) are all bundled into All Saints Day,
celebrated on Nov. 1. Saints are “hallowed,” that is, sacred figures. So All
Hallows Eve became the name for the day before All Saints Day, a day when folks
had the fun of lighting fires, costuming and otherwise japing around. They would
have plenty of time to be good on the day after.
Here’s what
Aine Minogue’s album “Between the Worlds” says about the Celtic festival of
Samhaim:
Samhain was the feast that marked the end of the "light half" of
the year and the beginning of the "dark half." The light half was
that of the people, the dark half belonged to the earth, the cycle of time
being expressed in the basic duality of darkness and light. Samhain, or
Halloween as it has come to be known, was actually New Year's Eve in the Celtic
calendar. For the Celts, the dark always preceded the light, and day began at
dusk, not dawn.” Samhain, this borderland of seasons, between light and dark, also bridged the dualities of life and death:
This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.”
Aine’s research also extends to the
origin of trick-or-treating: “The children's tradition that otherworldly
creatures come to life on Halloween has its origins in the ancient feast of
Samhain." However, she adds, "the Celts' main concern with the other world was to receive wisdom
from their ancestors.”
Samhain, a time of borders and passages
between this world and the next, between growing season and fallow season,
was also “a time for solitary introspection and reflection,” she writes. “The
custom of dressing up in costume began back then. It was acceptable to stretch
the boundaries by assuming a different identity to welcome the supernatural.”
This year I think I will dress up as myself.
We thought about carving a pumpkin with the features of a raving lunatic and plastering a hank of straw on top to suggest the image of the monster who slipped into our world this time of year one year ago.
In the end, however, we decided not to tempt fate a second time. We turned on the porch light and handed out treats. I wore the mask of a contented soul and munched on leftover candy to sweeten my disposition.
Here’s a link to the song “Fyvie
Castle” from Aine Minogue's album “Between the Worlds.”
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