waves Hi everyone. Here’s entry two. 
Actual stuff tomorrow or Thursday depending. I have to go be social tomorrow.
I have this feeling and maybe it’s not broadly true. I’ve checked with other people and at least a few of the people I’ve talked to feel the same way. A feeling that at least in the west, we’ve lost our rituals but not our need for them. Christmas, harvest festivals (Thanksgiving in America and Canada), and others have all been co-opted by retail sales and holiday specials.
Some folks on the right like to talk about the war on Christmas but Christmas was lost a long time ago. Christians lost Christmas when it was taken over by retailers. Thanksgiving (in the U.S. anyway) was lost when it became the day before Black Friday sales. Our national holidays were lost when restaurants and retailers decided to stay open so all their clientele could visit on their day off. The workers don’t get Labor Day off.
But this isn’t a blog for those days. Even if I wanted to write about them, I’m not the best person to write anything about them. They’re not my holidays.
Halloween, on the other hand, seems to have been a commercial holiday for as long as it’s been celebrated in the U.S. What little of its origins remain in our current celebrations is a faint shadow of what it was originally meant to be. No one lays claim to it anymore unless you’re counting people like me. And we generally don’t count in these discussions.
We have an opportunity to do something with this time that feels like it brings meaning. Something that can fill our need for ritual.
Something to remember and reconcile with those we’ve lost. Something to reconnect with the members of our personal communities we’ve lost touch with. Something to rejuvenate our connection with the parts of ourselves we’ve silenced or forgotten.
And, by request, food!
Stay tuned.