Pumpkins, Pagans & Hannah Montanna: Happy All Hallows Eve!

I guess I have something of an odd "relationship" with the celebration of Halloween. As a child I distinctly remember it being one of the "big" holidays; one during which my parents took great care in decorating the house (as they did for all the biggies: including Christmas and Easter). I recall clearly that my brother and I always enjoyed dressing up in the costumes (scarecrow, viking, robot) we and my mother would make by hand, a tradition I continued until my own kids grew too old to want a handmade outfit.

As I have grown older, and Halloween has continued to morph into a lame excuse for adults and teenagers to behave recklessly (translation: drunk and roaming my neighborhood urinating in the bushes), I have kind of fallen away from "celebrating" Halloween, such as it is, with masks and skulls. Though some traditions have endured...

To this day I still enjoy the tradition we have established of cutting jack-o-lanterns (usually the day of, if not a few days prior), and sitting outside in the Fall air distributing candy to a few of the neighborhood kids. I still enjoy the Autumn "Solsticiness" (though not "officially" so) of the day, the feeling that there is some sort of mythological pagan earth energy whipping through the air... Perhaps rather than burying a small parchment prayer in the ground, as is traditional in some Wiccan groups, maybe it is neither evil nor overly pagan to plant in your heart the understanding that element and evening (more than skulls and candy) is the best way to remember the season.

The Earth is my Mother.
I shall not want.
Her hand brings forth the green pastures.
She tarries within the still waters.
She leads me in fields of fruitfulness for my Glory.
Yea, as I walk through the summer of life unto death,
I will not be afraid, for You are with me.
Your womb in the earth will enfold me.
You prepare a harvest before me and bless my home with children.
You fill me with milk and honey.
My cup overflows.
Surely, goodness and beauty will nurture me all the days of my life,
and I will become part of the earth forever.

Then again it might just be easier to "treat" the seventeen Hannah Montannas and forty Wolverines that come to your home this evening until their pillow cases of candy overflows... either way, have a safe and happy All Hallows Eve!