At the end of October, we celebrate Samhain. It’s a time when we mark the end of summer and the final harvest of the year. It’s also a time of reflection on what and who has passed. Part of that reflection, for many of us Pagans, includes remembering our ancestors of both blood and of spirit and what we have in our lives as a result of theirs. I’ve commented before on the likely fact that, in the not too distant past, our ancestors would have been unlikely to identify as Pagan, many identifying as followers of another faith. If you’ve had particularly negative experiences from followers of another faith whose actions are presented as their faith perspective, it can seem difficult to find a way to honour ancestors who followed that faith. I’ve had possibly more than my fair share of those experiences, too. But in my dialogue and work with people from different faith traditions, I’ve found that people express aspects of their faith in different ways, and that can lead to a different understanding of those aspects and of followers of that faith. It’s good to talk, as the old BT advert (30 years ago) told us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pwl5Zc_51s
Samhain, as mentioned, is a time when we reflect upon our spiritual ancestors. At the same time of year, our Catholic friends will be observing All Hallow’s Eve (Hallowe’en). This is the evening before All Saints Day, a time to remember those who have lived a holy or sacred life. There will be some Catholics who would feel uncomfortable about that point of connection between our Samhain observances and their faith festival. But Pagans aren’t claiming All Hallows eve as a Pagan festival and this time of year, Pagans and Catholics aren’t the only ones setting aside a time to remember ancestors. Indeed, it’s interesting how common it is for different faith traditions to have similar festivals, often at similar times of year. I’m not a subscriber to the notion of ‘they stole our festival’, not least because it could be said that we all ‘stole’ bits from each other’s traditions at some point in time, and my personal feeling is that we’re all human and share a human experience of life and what is important to being human, so we’re likely to have commonalities in our beliefs. On that note, we all have experience of endings- endings of lives, endings of harvests, endings of periods of hardship. It would be great if we could all share an ending of hatred of difference, too.
Next month provides us all with a great opportunity to talk with people from other faith traditions, including people from faith traditions our ancestors may have followed. Interfaith week takes place between the 8th and 15th November, this year and carries a theme of Lighting the way to a shared future’. Perhaps that could be a good time to work towards an ending of hatred of difference, sharing our light with one another into a brighter future?
Mike Stygal
Belief and Education Officer
Contact Mike here