Parish magazine article October 2024
As I write this in early September the shops are filling up with Christmas cakes and mince pies but alongside these are Halloween goods. When I was growing up Halloween was barely mentioned and Trick or Treat was something the Americans did on Greenham Common Airbase. We had Guy Fawkes nights, with fireworks, parties and ‘Penny for the Guy’. Whilst Halloween celebrations have become a feature of our culture it has become associated with spooks, ghouls and witches and things that go bump in the night! Yet it actually a Christian festival, All Hallows’ Eve - this is the traditional title for what we now call Halloween.
Halloween has its heart in the Old English word 'hallowed' meaning holy or sanctified. In the Christian tradition it was a day of preparation and fasting prior to celebrating All Saints day. It certainly wasn’t associated with pranks, spooks, ghouls and witches but much more about preparing our hearts and minds to remember the Saints and those Christians who had died and joined the Communion of Saints. The festival that followed was deliberately designed to counter some of the superstitions surrounding the old end to summer and the coming of winter - the old Celtic festival of Samhain. Within church history it was only later that the commemoration of the dead, All Souls followed All Saints. It has become today an opportunity to remember loved ones who have passed and to give thanks for lives well led. As Christians we can rejoice that those who die in faith are now at rest and peace with God.
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
In more recent liturgical thinking this season now marks the beginning of the Kingdom season when we reflect on what it means to be citizens of heaven. However it is the idea of setting aside a day of fasting and prayer which struck me. I think somewhere along the way we have lost the real art of fasting not least because various slimming companies have rather stolen the idea to simply mean going without food! Fasting is not simply about going without food or giving something up, it is primarily about taking something on, it is about giving ourselves space and time to allow God to speak with us and to shape who we are. It also isn’t about telling everyone that we are doing it to draw attention to our spiritual well being. Jesus was clear that fasting is something we do quietly and privately.
Fasting in biblical terms is also a call to action. It is a moment when we draw near to God but we also look out to the world in acts of love and service. Fasting in the scriptures is always for a purpose beyond ourselves and for the benefit of others. It is part of the mission of the church that we are called to serve those who we live amongst and to reach out with God’s love to our world. Seen through God’s eyes fasting is a call to action and mission.
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, ... “
Isaiah 58:6-7
As October brings autumn on and the nights draw in let us not forget to pray, give thanks for loved ones we see no longer and remember that we are called to serve our communities.
The Venerable Derek Chedzey
Archdeacon of Hereford