It's that time of the year again when, in the northern hemisphere, the clocks go back and we are plunged into the ever-growing darkness of winter.
So a good time for a Festival of Light. Diwali, a Hindu festival that has just passed is growing in popularity in Britain, mainly I think because it chimes with our traditions being a celebration of the triumph of the forces of Light over the forces of darkness.
Which is what Halloween, our traditional festival is all about
It derives from the Celtic Samhain which goes back who knows how many thousand years which was held either side of the autumn equinoxes. The central event is Halloween or the Eve of All Hallows.
Halloween has become highly commercialised after the American example. It used to be quite a modest affair but now it has become an important event for retailers with whole aisles dedicated to merchandise but without any corresponding display celebrating All Hallows or All Saints Day which is why I think many parents are grateful for Diwali.
In Druid belief light and goodness seem to have been believed to be the same substance, not such a daft idea because we don't know what light is but we can see its beneficial effects. The equinoxes in Northern Europe are when the most important religious celebrations take place because this is when the power of the sun waxes and wanes. Traditionally this is when there is more light/goodness coming into the world or leaving it. At the autumn equinoxes sunlight begins to decline and we have to create more light artificially with bonfires and candles or spiritually by seeking more goodness within ourselves by following the examples of the saints.
We can see this thought pattern at play in the sermons and letters of St Columbanus who was not a Roman Catholic but an Abbot in the Celtic Church so a Christian Druid. Sometimes his ideas are not really Christian at all but they are distinctly Druid. He says, for instance, there is no such thing as evil only the absence of goodness (just as there is no such thing as darkness only the absence of Light).
His objection to the Roman Catholic decision to move the date of Easter in the late 6th century was argued from the Druid position that you could not hold a Festival of Light while darkness was still in the ascendancy so Easter had to be celebrated after the spring equinoxes and not before it. He wrote a book detailing why he believed this which he sent to Pope Gregory the Great but it has been lost.
It was for this reason that the great henges of Britain were built. They are not just agricultural calendars - there are cheaper and easier ways to create an astronomical clock - they are magnets for light and therefore goodness.
Halloween is a good opportunity to write a ghost story but I am not much good at them. The best I can offer is a young adult adventure The Ghostrider, a tale of highwaymen and bodysnatchers which is based on a true story that was told to me by my history teacher, Mrs V. Sweeney, who was a notable local historian. It was she who first got me interested in local history and history in general so I am mightily indebted to her.
PAINTING AUTUMN
This time of year is also when painters like to get out and about with sketches and watercolours to try and capture the blaze of colours that make the season such a joy to paint. You don't need any inspiration at this time of year, you just want to paint what's in front of you. This autumn has been rather disappointing. All the rain and strong winds (again last night) have brought down a lot of the leaves before they have changed colour. Fortunately last year was glorious and I spent the winter painting a Welsh Valley. By way of an experiment I did it all with a palette knife which gives the painting a lot of texture. See what you think.
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