Ganeida's Knots

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philipians 4:8


I am mad @*%! Just so you know before you start reading.


Ok, I wasn't in the best frame of mind to start with. Migraines tend to do that to me & when it got bad enough that I resorted to rootling through the medicine tray there was no medication because I haven't had one of these in some time. I went to bed in my nice dark quiet bed & finally managed to sleep until Ditz came & woke me to take her to her singing lesson.


So far so good. A little woolly around the edges but functional. An hour looking for the top Ditz had seen & decided was just right for her exam [but told me about after the shops had closed!] was wearisome ~ & nothing else was what she had in mind. Argh! But you know, that's life with Ditz & it didn't make me particularly ratty.


Liddy gave us her car & went on to dinner with friends. Ditz & I went on to singing. Alison very happy with Ditz! Only her 3rd lesson & she has most of her singing nailed. We will do another lesson next week before rehearsals to run through some sight reading & sound tests but the reality is Ditz should blitz this. It is well within her capabilities.


I was asked again to sing in Singapore. Alison is not convinced that I cannot sing but as I said to Ditz in the car coming home, I can hear where the notes should be; I just can't make my voice put them there! Luckily for me I enjoy listening & am intrigued by the process of making music sound...well, musical.


Ditz, who fell into an elevator yesterday & now has a bunged up knee swollen to the size of a small melon & thinks that is a prime excuse for extra tea & sympathy & is limping round like the Hunchback of Notre Dame clutching at my frail frame like a drowning man on the way down for the 3rd time, meant I was desperate for coffee by the time we got back on the island. Coffee. Peace. Quiet.


Rant about to begin. You have been warned.


We were toddling home in our little red rocket when we spotted the first cluster of black witch's hats & gruesome masks. I have strong feelings about Halloween ~ all of them negative. You cannot dress evil up as righteousness no matter how you try & do it. This is a pagan festival ~ both literally & figuratively. I am aware pagan meant *country dweller* but it now has religious overtones. It originally celebrated Samhain, the dying of summer & literally means summer's end.


I'm a Celtist & know there was nothing harmless or benevolent about the original festival. It was a night of terror when the veil between the living & the dead thinned. The Celts did not parade around the place once the sun went down. They locked & barred their doors against whatever prowled the night outside. Read the old Celtic stories. Strong men, warriors of the king's war band, men who had faced death at the end of sword or spear, paled & trembled & were defeated in shame by the spirits of Samhein.


This is a festival when Moingfhinne, a snow goddess of sorcery, was worshipped. Like many Celtic deities she wasn't nice to know & had a thing for poisoning those who got in her way. The Celtic goddesses were also perceived as being... raunchy, for want of a better word, & their worship, as we know more particularly from Beltaine, included *fertility rites*. So not going there.


Samhein was when the last of the harvest was brought in. By this time of the year the first frosts had usually arrived so the excess livestock was driven between 2 bonfires & slaughtered for the winter. Anything not harvested belonged to the fairies ~ & don't think twee & cute. Celtic fairies were rather a nasty lot, especially if thwarted! The Celts had some pretty grotty habits that included lugging around, even talking to, the pickled heads of dead warriors. They nailed scalps to their roof beams & tied them to their horse's bridles so I have no trouble believing they drank blood. I mean we are talking about a people who turned one adversaries head into a drinking goblet!


This was a festival overseen by the druids. Do some reading & see the sort of practises the druids engaged in. Everything from human sacrifice to divination. They rounded up people & suspended them in wicker cages & set the whole thing on fire. Read about the bog man of Lindow Moss. Whether he was actually an Irish prince or an unlucky criminal he died a particularly nasty death.


Now here's the thing. Scripture doesn't say that these things aren't real & have no power. Scripture says don't do it! Don't play with fire. Don't toy with sin. Don't cede ground to the adversary. It says not to fill our minds with the ugly & the grotesque & frightening but to think on those things that will ennoble us rather than debase us.


It saddens me & makes me angry to see this festival growing stronger each year in Australia. I was angry to be accosted by a mob of younger teens as I drove home & forced off the road because they were deliberately making for our car. I find it an invasion of privacy to have a horde of children I have never laid eyes on before banging on my door half the night after candy I don't have. I think parents are remiss in their responsibilities to allow their children to wander even our island streets unsupervised after dark. It is not safe. We too have our share of pedophiles. I was disgusted to find the revellers had trashed an older neighbour's lawn. Ditz & I picked up the litter before we came inside.


And please, don't tell me it's really a celebration of All Hallows! All Hallows was the Church's attempt to Christianise a pagan festival. So many of the party games associated with this festival are actually old ways of divination ~ a scriptural no~no. As is chatting with the dead ~ or raising the dead. For the life of me I cannot see what attracts people to this festival of nightmarish activities. Certainly it is in no way Christian.


Ignorance is not bliss. This is sin candy~coated & packaged in lies. Satan must rub his hands in glee when even Christians dress up in the symbols of the lord of the dead & prance around indulging in activities expressly forbidden in scripture. Yeah I'm an crotchety old fuddy~duddy & no fun at all. I'm also right. :P