Halloween has its origins in an ancient Irish feastival sow-in which roughly means 'summer's end.'[Wikipedia] Halloween celebrated the end of the summer season and the beginning of cold, or as the Celts liked to call it the 'end of the lighter half of the year' and the 'beginning of the darker half.' No wonder Halloween is greeted with the dark colors of black and orange and associated with the fall crop of pumpkins. And certainly we all will agree that is true, this morning coming to work I got my coffee at the gas station at 7:30AM and it was still dark. Interestingly enough the ancients thought that on Halloween, the line between this world and the other world was less defined and spirits there where able to visit. Now mind you this was not in the exaggerated 'horror' context of today ... this was a celebrative time and the family' ancestors would be honored and invited to a brief visit; and it was also a time to ward off unfriendly/harmful spirits. The most popular way of warding them off was to wear costumes, that way when one dressed up as an unfriendly spirit the real harmful spirits would leave them alone, it was not to scare others.
Sow-in was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Now this thought intrigued me, for I come from Mennonite stock. My grandfather/grandmother on my father's side were Mennonite [liberals], and spoke 'high German' along with English. Interestingly out of my father and eight uncle's and aunts, only two aunts understood the high German I would hear Gramps/Gram speak when in a discussion. My dad's family had an annual custom, and around this time [matter of fact my memory seems to recall it was either the week of, or week before or after, Halloween] all the brothers would come together for a 'slaughter day!' Since the majority of the siblings [6 of 9] raised livestock each would bring a cow, goat or pig to be slaughtered, then the fat, bones and meat would be equally distributed among all. Those who didn't live on a farm would contribute containers, ammunition and shoot the animals, host in a variety of ways that allowed them to be equal contributors.[This was also a time when us cousins would have a blast playing and running errands for our parents as they were butchering] I can remember my mother cooking all year from those tins filled with lard[fat]. But never did it strike me that this was during this Halloween season! Now I'm sure it was not done consciously to celebrate Halloween, that would have been a sacrilege, but it does go to show you how thin the line can become between secular and spiritual.
Sow-in was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Now this thought intrigued me, for I come from Mennonite stock. My grandfather/grandmother on my father's side were Mennonite [liberals], and spoke 'high German' along with English. Interestingly out of my father and eight uncle's and aunts, only two aunts understood the high German I would hear Gramps/Gram speak when in a discussion. My dad's family had an annual custom, and around this time [matter of fact my memory seems to recall it was either the week of, or week before or after, Halloween] all the brothers would come together for a 'slaughter day!' Since the majority of the siblings [6 of 9] raised livestock each would bring a cow, goat or pig to be slaughtered, then the fat, bones and meat would be equally distributed among all. Those who didn't live on a farm would contribute containers, ammunition and shoot the animals, host in a variety of ways that allowed them to be equal contributors.[This was also a time when us cousins would have a blast playing and running errands for our parents as they were butchering] I can remember my mother cooking all year from those tins filled with lard[fat]. But never did it strike me that this was during this Halloween season! Now I'm sure it was not done consciously to celebrate Halloween, that would have been a sacrilege, but it does go to show you how thin the line can become between secular and spiritual.
