Six Weeks
of Weird Halloween Words ~ Week #1
“Christmas” is preceded by “Hallowmas”?
HALLOWMAS (halʹō mɘs, -masʹ) n. former name for All
Saints’ Day. [Think celebrating sainted spirits …if you lived through the night
before hell.]
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| Painting by Guido di Pietro, 15th century. |
How former, you ask? It
reaches back to somewhere between 731-741. And of course, All Saints’ Day is November 1, to honor … well … all saints.
[Clever.]
Want
to get in the mood? Melanie Rigney’s new book, Blessed Are You: Finding Inspiration from the Stories of the Women Saints is
especially appropriate; religious or not, Catholic or not, there is excellent
life advice to be gleaned from it.
How
does Hallowmas make the Weird Halloween Words list? It’s preceded
by All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween) on October 31, a night on which the
veil between us and the afterlife is particularly thin.
Of course, we don masks
so the menacing souls on “the other side,” won’t recognize us, as we feast in preparation
for the next two celebratory days. Seriously – they won’t know it’s you under
that Star Wars: the Force Awakens
Kylo Ren helmet-head, or traditionally
sexy Bat Girl mask. And then what happens ...?
We wrap up our three-day merriment with All
Souls’ Day, November 2nd, which honors all the unsaintly dearly departed – or just
plain, ordinarily human folks – who have passed through our lives.
Some
close friends and family will know where I’m going with the Six weeks of Weird Halloween Words.
Most warn, “Straight to hell!” At which point we laugh and have another
chocolate pumpkin.
I chose six weeks, as a
half-witted spoof on the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” And … yes, I will attempt
to come up with an equally nonsensical “chant” to unveil in the sixth-week
post. Attempt being the key word.
There
is a madness to my method (purposely skewed ol’ cliché), and if you know what my book series topic is, you might
easily guess to what subject the Halloween
week word will refer. The rest of you will need to follow me to the spooky end. ;-)
Hallowmas is, in some circles,
the early term for All Saints’ Day and nothing else; but for some it’s a
synonym
And
we’re back to the confusion that is Halloween
– is it a strictly pagan / Druid
holiday? Or is it a religious
celebration?
Make
it what you want. Make it both or either. But don’t forget to enjoy it. With chocolate.
Your Wicked Witch of the West
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