The Return to Nature

How did Halloween become associated with the living dead?
Why do we celebrate Easter as a time when eggs are delivered by rabbits?

What events happened in the natural world that gave rise to our holidays?

The ancients saw themselves as participants of a Great Mystery and the things that took place in nature did not place human beings on the sidelines. At the root of any holiday, we can trace the natural phenomena that gave rise to our ancient beliefs.

2000 years ago, people watched the stars in the same way that we watch television. We might laugh at our ancient myths, but television shapes our beliefs in much the same way.

In addition to being resurrection vehicles for kings, the Egyptians built their pyramids as ancient observatories. Observing the precise placement of the Dog Star, Sirius coincided with the annual inundation of the Nile. As an agricultural community, they could predict with great accuracy when to plant and harvest by watching the movement of the stars.

On the winter solstice at the end of December, many ancient civilizations noted how the sun appeared to be reborn. This is a time when the shortest day of the year seems to switch course to give way to longer days. They celebrated the winter solstice as a time when a new sun was born. The ancients worshipped the return of the sun by decorating world trees with celestial orbs. Today people celebrate the birth of a son differently and wait for a return. Perhaps this is a rumor from ancient times, although the ancients would remind us how the sun returns every year.

At the end of winter, many ancient cultures observed what appeared to be a rabbit living on the moon. This coincided with a time when wild birds would lay their eggs. The ancients celebrated this renewal aspect of nature by worshipping the symbolic lunar rabbit or goddess Eastre. This coincides with the the celebration of Easter. We exchange eggs from a time when we honored the resurrection or rebirth occurring in the natural world. This was no mysterious resurrection, but the rebirth of life that was witnessed all over the earth.

The ancient Norse celebrated the onslaught of winter as a time they called the Great Hunt. Odin the Wild Huntsman led Thor, the God of Thunder along with his snorting hounds and horses through the skies overhead to tug the last remaining greenery from the earth. Townspeople would leave gifts of food out for the flying host and his train of horses who flew over overhead to gather the disembodied souls of the dead. Influencing our Halloween and Yule time traditions, many of our festivals have much older roots than religion.

During winter, the ancients also celebrated the life force that appeared to rejuvenate the sleeping seeds beneath the snow. Odin as the Flying Host inspired the tradition where gifts are delivered to the townsfolk below.

Autumn is a time when the natural world appears to die away. This was an important time to in these ancient agricultural communities however, because what was done in earnest during this season laid the proper foundation for a springtime to come. The ancients found comfort observing how in nature, everything that appears to die away is reborn.

The harvest festivals of ancient times also coincided with a time of honoring the dead. In the Great Mystery, it appeared that autumn brought life and death together....in a sliver of time...just once each year. As the earth opens to receive the seeds where the past and future will lead to new life, perhaps they believed their wishes could reach their departed loved ones. Honoring this life/death/life pattern of nature evolved into Halloween as a confirmation that there is nothing to fear.

The snake worshipping cults of antiquity honored the cyclical regeneration symbolized in the way that the snake sheds and renews its skin. They honored abundant fertility goddesses and earth deities so that their crops might find favor in the coming spring. In ancient times, it was the things of the earth that gave them inspiration. Nature offers this message of hope and renewal to anyone who would observe its ways. This halloween, may the seeds of your greatest dreams grow into your sprintime.