All Hallows Eve (or Halloween, as it is more commonly known) is - according to Bel Mooney, writing in Saturday's Daily Mail - 'about death, mourning, darkness and remembrance. And that, Bel says, 'is why the festival speaks to our innermost selves, even if we don't realize it.'
She continues: 'Even in a secular age, the subconscious mind tunes into the spiritual at this time of year. Children dressed as witches and skeletons and parents laboriously carving out pumpkin lanterns are connecting to our ancestors and enacting the deeper meaning of October 31.
It is not hard to see how the idea of the dying of the light prompts thoughts of death. The Celts believed that on October 31 the border between our world and the 'other' world is especially thin. As plants died away, they believed that revered ancestors reached back through the veil separating them from the living.'
Whatever your beliefs, I wish you a Halloween that's as spooky (or not) as you want it to be!
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