On Monday October 31st an ancient tradition was lived out on the streets of our city. The ancient tradition comes from the Celtic lands and is known as Samhain. The tradition marks the end of the harvest season. It was the time when the cattle were brought into the house from the machair. It was the darkening of the year. It was believed that the distance from this reality to the reality of the spirit was but tissue thin. From time to time the spirits would break through and we would at least get a glimpse of another reality. Samhain is a time of the year when the curtain is drawn back and the ancestors walk among the living for one evening. It was a time of celebration, a time of closeness with those who had gone before, and a time when heaven and earth became one.
However along with the good spirits that visited on this evening there were also encountered malevolent ones who entered this present reality as well. To scare these malevolent spirits away the Celts would dress up in animal skins and walk about in the evening. As we watch what has happened in our culture we will see many of our children walking as their favourite characters from TV and from movies. However more and more we will see youth and adults taking on costumes to scare those they meet. The costumes increasingly become gorier. Their purpose is not to scare the malevolent spirits but to scare the innocent and the gentle and trusting.
Increasingly in today’s culture, malevolent spirits seem to come out and their costumes are more and more gory. In our culture this time of the year is called Election. We have been following pre-election debates in the USA for the past months and have seen malevolent spirits appear more and more. We have seen these spirits in the referendum over Brexit in the UK. They come to scare the innocent and frighten the gentle and trusting. They speak about building walls to protect but are really building walls that will hurt. They speak about the other as a threat but they are really the threat.
When we see these spirits in our midst we must remind ourselves how they work and stand up to them with love, mercy and peace. They will tell us that those who look different are a danger. They will identify as a danger those who hold different beliefs. They will say that those who are strangers should not be welcome. They will hurt us and others by fooling us into a belief that we are safer when we are divided rather than speaking the truth which is - in our diversity we find true strength. The Creator has given us a mozaic of humanity, a wonderful gift. The Creator has given us a wonderful diversity throughout the centuries, a wonderful gift. The Creator has given us a wonderful complexity in languages, a wonderful gift.
We respond and scare off malevolent spirits when we wear a particular costume. In Christian scripture this costume is identified in this way: So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. (Colossians)
The Right Reverend Logan McMenamie is the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of British Columbia
You can read more articles from our interfaith blog, Spirituall Speaking, HERE
*This article was published in the print edition of the Times Colonist on Saturday, Nov 5 2016
