The 31st October is an ominous and portentous date in the calendar. It is observed in two very different ways. People either gather together to remember and mourn the dead whereas others choose to indulge in a celebration of the macabre and supernatural. Both of these interpretations are argued and debated over every year, and very rarely a sensible consensus is reached.
Many prominent leaders in the church continue to attempt to suppress the livelier side to the ceremonies and stress that death is something that deserves a degree of respect and reverence. This is due to the belief in the sanctity of human life. However the secular interpretation is much older and predates Christianity. It originates from our Celtic, pagan past. Various rituals were enacted to banish malign spirits from possessing the living.
According to legend, these spirits stalked the earth seeking revenge upon their enemies before they descended back down into the underworld. Their activity was especially pronounced in the winter time, so people would wear masks or costumes to avoid detection. When Christian missionaries arrived in parts of Northern Europe, several attempts were made to ban such rituals.
However these bans failed, because this was something that was deeply embedded within the psyche of a population that frequently experienced enduring hardship during the harsh winter months. Death was something far too familiar to them, so they could not banish it from everyday life. Consequently the Church appropriated this festival and transformed it into a solemn commemoration of the dead.
In the modern industrialised world, where science and technology have supposedly replaced myth and superstition, conversations surrounding our mortality have almost vanished. This is odd, because it is the only logical inevitability about our existence, that we all must die. This is the quandary that we all encounter as presumed sophisticates living in the west. We think that we are infinitely superior and civilised, and that we have a ready explanation for everything. We somehow pride ourselves that we have turned away from our once dark, savage and primitive ways. Yet we cannot avoid our collective fear of death.
Once we acknowledge death, we can then understand that life has a greater meaning and significance beyond its biological and physical manifestation. Atheists scoff cynically about this, but their arrogance and ignorance is actually immaterial and irrelevant in the grand and eternal scheme of creation. Their methods are also flawed. This has been proven throughout history, and we are living with the unfortunate consequences of their mistakes. When the radicals, rationalists and revolutionaries purged centuries of tradition and religion from France, they also ushered in a culture that became shallow, inarticulate and inconsequential in spite of their laudable battle cries of equality, liberty and fraternity.
Ghosts, spirits, and the restless souls of the dead remain a constant in our culture, in spite of our supposedly progressive and enlightened societies. Negating this is akin to negating our humanity, and denying the power and gifts of our imagination.
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