Make no mistake, I love this time of year. And it always saddens me when it seems to turn into the Silly Season when vicars, ministers and those who write in Church Magazines start harping on about how it is all connected with devil worship. This is then seized on by the media... who aren't quite sure whose side they're on anyway, because Halloween helps them sell their newspapers just like any other festival.

Halloween has nothing to do with the Devil. The devil is a Christian construct, made up of part of pagans gods, some of whome had horns (Cernunnos) or the legs of a goat (Pan). The whole idea of good versus evil is very complex in Pagan myth and legend, where even trickster deities such as Loki (in the NOrth), or vengeful ones such as Juno (in the ROman Empire) were also capable of acts of kindness. And conversely, 'good' deities were capable of great cruelty, such as when Apollo and Artemis murdered Niobe's children. They may have felt they were being insulted, but their argument was with Niobe, not the children.

So the idea that celebrating Halloween, which in the north at least was often known as Samhain, is in some way to worship the Christian Devil is total nonsense. But it still goes on.

And what makes it worse is that people who really should know better, Head Teachers and their like, seem to get carried away with this.

Well I'm rather sick of this 'Either you're for us or against us' dichotomy. I love Halloween. I celebrate Halloween. Halloween is not all about trick or treating - although some people do seem to emphasise this aspect. But nobody went trick or treating when I was young - that's a commercial aspect of the festival, pushed, I suspect, by the makers of Halloween sweets and decorations.

The thing to remember about Halloween is that the Church never managed to appropriate it. Other festivals became more or less successfully Christianised... Christmas was turned into Yule, even though there is no way there shepherds were out guarding their flocks in late December. The Spring Equinox was turned into Easter... but they never managed to do away with its association with hares and eggs. Imbolc, on February 1st was turned into Candlemas - with virtually all the same symbolism. The greenery of the spring festivals morphed into Palm Sunday. The list goes on and on...

Halloween remains a sticking point. To be fair, the Christian Church did try. They appointed November the first as All Saints Day (the Hallows of Halloween). And for good measure the 2nd November became All Souls Day... but Halloween remained, stubbornly engrained into our psyche. The great fire festival. And of course, the Gunpowder Plot, celebrated as Bonfire Night on November 5th helped keep Halloween vaguely respectable. There was now a good, patriotic excuse for lighting bonfires.

So - siding with the devil? Not at all. Halloween is a very sacred time when we remember family and friends who have passed on. For some Pagans the Oak or Sun King 'dies' at this time of year, to be reborn at Yule, the winter solstice. Just as the Holly King or Dark Lord dies at Beltan (May 1st) and is reborn on the summer solstice. The Dark Lord is not the devil. He is a necessary balance to the harmony of the year.

However you decide to celebrate Halloween, remember it's an ancient festival the last of the harvest celebrations for this year. 'All is safely gathered in,' to borrow the words of a well-known Christian hymn. Even the least psychic of people often senses 'something' at this time of year. And it's not something to be afraid of either, this thinning of the veil between this world and the next. It's a comforting reminder that we never really lose those we love. They remain close because the Other World is not really that far away.

Halloween - with all its traditions - is almost here. Enjoy it! :)