In Irish mythology, Samhain was when the doorways to the Otherworld opened to allow the souls of the dead to enter our own world
Amid the commercial tat and razzmatazz that attend the weeks leading up to Halloween, there remains something mysterious and ineffable about the night itself, the one moment in the year when the wall between the physical and spirit worlds is most easily breached.
In the western Christian tradition, the evening of All Hallows Day represents the beginning of the period dedicated to remembrance of saints and the faithful departed. Like other dates in the liturgical calendar, it maps closely to a pre-Christian festival, the Celtic celebration of Samhain, marking the passage from harvest season to the dark and dangerous days of winter.
Some may complain that the banalisation of Halloween has taken away much of its mystery and symbolic power, but that was probably inevitable in our globalised world. What is more interesting is the fascination that endures in secularised societies with the idea that the dead still walk among us. The dark may not be as perilous as it was in pre-industrial times but it still has the ability to terrify us with the thought that something truly awful lurks in the gloom.
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