The In between

Autumn leaves fall in Dark Lane, above Pangbourne, Berks.

31 October - All Hallows Eve - and it's an in between kind of time.

In between because late autumn the year turns, the clocks tick back, and we resign ourselves to the temporary dying of nature as the leaves swirl down the lanes towards winter and the end of another year.

In between the liturgical marking of Harvest and Advent, we sit in the season of remembering: All Saints, All Souls and the red of Remembrance.

Contemporary celebrations of Hallowe'en lie in between too; somewhere in between the orange plastic, the false white cobwebs and the sweetie E number overload at one end, and the ever increasing adverts for full on horror movies at the other - Ouija: Origin of Evil, Don't Breathe and Lights Out all available to scare you out of your wits in your local cinema right now. Thus we use the encroaching darkness of the days to indulge our fascination with unthinkable things...

As to contemporary practices of Hallowe'en, Christians and others with a strong sense of good and evil sit somewhere in between being happy to embrace a little harmless fun (after all we all need to explore the scary and bad from time to time, children especially: Canon Anne Easter said as much on Radio 2's Pause for Thought today) and whole hearted eschewing of something that strays perilously near the occult.

And globally the US is paused in between the rising and falling of two political candidates for the Presidency, balanced like weights on a scale. Polls had begun to put Hillary Clinton in the lead, before Friday's further email discoveries, and the consequent rising again of Donald Trump. Clinton's bid for the White House is poised between success and failure. What kind of world will we have if it's a win for the reds?

Personally speaking, being in between can provide valuable space in which to discover something new about yourself. In between jobs, in between life stages, in between letting something (someone?) go and embracing something (someone?) new. The in between is a spiritual opportunity, a chance to grow, if we don't lose our nerve.

The in between is a liminal place; between summer and winter; between war and peace; between death and life, dark and light; between the past and the future; between the devil and the deep blue Democrat sea.

We hold our collective breath and wait.

Meanwhile, Happy In Between All Hallows Eve.

Hallowe'en Mish Mash

Hallowe'en, like most cultural markings of time, is a mish-mash of the pagan, the religious and the commercial. 

No culture is without its customs surrounding the dead, and Hallowe'en probably goes back to the Pagan Samhain (pronounced Sawain). Samhain was observed as the end of harvest segued into the beginning of winter. It was a liminal time when it was thought the spirits of fairies and of the dead could more easily come into our world. 

In another commemoration, today the Anglican Church remembers Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, which is fitting, given my yearly confusion about the difference between All Saints - All Hallows - (November 1st) and All Souls (November 2nd). The Roman Catholic demarcation between saints and souls (the latter still in purgatory) seems churlish, which marks me as an Anglican. The Church of England bravely attempts to navigate this theological and linguistic All Saints/All Souls confusion, though I'm not convinced:

'through baptism we become members (...) of a company of saints whose mutual belonging transcends death (...) All Saints Day and the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed on All Souls Day both celebrate this mutual belonging' (Times and Seasons, p. 537).

The doctrine of purgatory and its associated bi products, for example the selling of indulgences, was attacked by the Reformers and precipitated Luther's posting of his 95 Theses which is widely believed to have sparked the Protestant Reformation. 

Eventually All Saints/All Souls and Hallowe'en became fused into our modern day Hallowe'en, variously approached by Christians as a devilish celebration of all that is evil, necessitating throwing an Evangelical 'Light Party' instead; or as harmless dressing up fun, depending on your standpoint.

I remember the first time two of our kids were invited to go Trick or Treating. They were about 7 and 5 years old and nothing of any Hallowe'en nature had ever crossed our Evangelical Christian threshold.  But then we moved to a village. No Light Party. Strong community.  It seemed churlish to say no to what was nothing more than a well organised short walk around the immediate vicinity where all those to be visited had been phoned and previously agreed to open their doors, when appropriate; and had gone to the trouble of decorating their front rooms and buying half a tonne of sweets for the forthcoming Trick and Treaters. 

We duly raided the dressing up box/make up bag and our two innocents sallied forth in a black cloak and a white sheet respectively. I admit to a moment in the hallway when I had second thoughts - a hurried prayer for protection over them revealed a fear at some deep level that Hallowe'en slides a little bit too near the occult for my liking. Needless to say our tinies returned happy and high on sugar, their (and our) connection with our immediate community strengthened.

Samhain, All Hallows, All Saints, All Souls, Hallowe'en - people will always yearn for some connection with those who have gone before. We can imagine certain things, think we're talking to our dead, or that there's not much difference between prayer to God and prayer to dear auntie Jean, deceased; but the Church holds certain things to be true. We worship a Saviour who has fully experienced death, and come back again. We believe in 'the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come'.

So tonight, not having any tinies any more,  I'll cook, watch TV and go to bed, thinking about Martin Luther's desire for what the Prayer Book calls 'true religion and virtue'. The churchyard at the bottom of my garden will stand quietly, near to a place of prayer where weekly the dead ('the Communion of Saints') are remembered with love, not morbidly. And I'll give thanks for the faithful ministry of Bishop John, today retiring as Bishop of Oxford. Because endings are beginnings. 

And because today, 31st October, Martin Luther Day, 'Hallowe'en'/All Hallows, with its Pagan roots, Christian Protestant/Catholic wrangling and embracing of Trick or Treat culture - is rather an end of season, autumn into winter, liminal, incoherent cultural mish mash of a Day.