So you have just celebrated Halloween or All Hallows
with your rituals of pumpkin soup and ghostly figures with your family and
friends but do you have any idea what it really meant?
The medieval event from the times of the Tudor England,
marks the end of a festival season symbolizing the world being turned “upside
down” and wasn’t that this year the case with the 21st of December being called in as the end of the world
by the Mayas?
It is the introduction into the Twelfth Night festival,
which is a time when the King becomes the peasant and the beggar the Lord.
Between the 25th of December and the 6th of January everything is turned upside down – the
span of time between these dates is the climax of the “norm” becoming the
possible and the possible returning to be the norm. With me still?
My husband questioned over this Christmas season the
story of Christ, the traditions of what we celebrate in the form of a tree, a
wreath on the entrance door, the Epiphany cake and even the Christmas rose and
it’s “purpose” and I love him for it. It means I am able to dive back
into my “history” (very British, Anglican Church of England, Nuns boarding
school up- bringing) and research the answers. Over the next Twelve days
known in German as the “Die Rauhnächte” / Twelfth Night” I will fill you in on
a few odds and ends which might make it clearer why we should hold this
tradition of celebration in our modern day world.
Your Koruswhispers
