All Saints Day

There was one happy event when my children were young that the whole family used to look forward to and that was the celebration of the birthday of a friend's daughter on the 4th November. Naturally, over the course of time, it had become a combined celebration not only of Tiffany's birthday, but also Guy Fawkes and Hallowe'en – all rolled into one!

Year after year, a whole crowd of us - mums, dads and kids - would gather around a massive bonfire, roast potatoes, let off the fireworks which everyone had brought, and eat the many offerings of food which all the mums had brought for the occasion.

In the grounds of my friends' home there was a lot of woodland, and there would be placed candles in bottles, in cut out pumpkins and swedes, which would line the pathways through the trees. Then the children, holding torches, would file through the trees like a conger and each grown-up would be wrapped in a sheet, and would then jump out at the kids who would scream with the pure delight of having the living daylights scared out of them! Oh definitely, a good time was had by all, and there was never any food left over by the end of the evening!

But what were we celebrating? Certainly, Tiffany's birthday and then of course Guy Fawkes, but also we were celebrating Halloween, which is All Hallows Eve, the day before All Saints Day. Regretfully, with the secular world having taken over this time with its ghosties and witches, and with things like the American 'trick or treat', it has become an excuse for the rowdy behaviour of some of the younger generation who don't know better, and now, eggs are thrown at cars, buses and taxis or at peoples' front doors.

But consideration of All Saints has produced some interesting facts. Of course, All Saints is the festival in the church held on November 1st when the congregations pray for all the saints, because all baptised Christians belong to the 'communion of saints', dead or alive. The festival which celebrates those who are the faithful departed only is the next festival, All Souls (usually 2ndNov) which is a time when the living pray for the dead.

In some countries, flowers would be put on the graves of loved ones, and even though at the time of the Reformation, the Church of England banned this festival, it has reappeared over the course of time. By the way, just to confuse the issue, the Orthodox Churches celebrate All Hallows on the Sunday following Pentecost, which is in the late spring when the days are getting longer.

Certainly, the dread of darkness and evil things associated with Halloween likely comes from a time when the beginning of November was the start of the Celtic season of Samhain, a season associated with the malign forces of darkness and sorrow as people awaited the onset of winter, a time of death and coldness.

Indeed, our word 'bonfire' is thought to have come from the 'bone-fires' when, at this time, all the animals that could not be fed over the winter season would be slaughtered and all the inedible parts of those animals would be burned on large fires. It was therefore a time of feasting, but as it were, with one's eye over a shoulder, for with this time of the growing length of nights, it would seem that evil was about to triumph.

But surely, instead of celebrating, as it seems to be happening now, the existence of the evil inhabitants of darkness, should we not be gaining strength from the fact that our lives and thoughts can be illuminated by the eternal Light of God and should we not be full of joy that we, as well as those saints who have left this material world, are being encompassed by His immeasurable love? That indeed is something about which we can really celebrate as the dark days of winter come upon us.

Harvest Thanksgiving

The time of Harvest Thanksgiving conjures up within me wonderful memories, of my earliest days when the church had been beautifully decorated with all manner of fruit and vegetables, and with the large loaves of bread that had been baked in the shape of a corn sheaf. Oh, that smell and the glories that surrounded a drooling youngster as he sat with his parents through the service.

And of course the highlight of the day after singing such hymns as 'We plough the fields and scatter…' would be the handing out of an apple to us youngsters and we would go home cosseting our precious present, although one day, a tomato sort of made its way into my jacket pocket, only to find later that I had leaned inadvertently against the pocket and the tomato was a horrible squishy mess, quite unusable - surely the Lord had punished me for my wrong doing!

I suppose the only puzzle that rested upon my young mind was the strangeness of celebrating the gathering in of the harvest even though most of the congregation including my family in my younger days were all town dwellers - well, one supposed that some of the folk would have been thanking the Lord that the caterpillars hadn't completely decimated their garden greens and just maybe there would be one or two others who had an allotment somewhere. But then I hadn't realised that 'harvest' really means all the good things we receive throughout year, no matter what these things might be.

Years later, as a farmer, as I attended harvest thanksgiving, I would think of the problems that had beset me and all my neighbouring farmers who had had to contend with the vagaries of the weather, with hay that had gone mouldy in the barn, with bogged down tractors in wet fields, with sick and dying animals, with the mounting vets bills and with the falling income as the costs escalated. That would be in some years.

In other years, by harvest thanksgiving, the hay sat sweet and wholesome in the barn after a summer that had been hot and helpful, and the milk tank had seemed to fill up much faster than at other times, and the livestock looked well in the fields - surely then there had been something to be thankful for?

But as we all sing with gusto those well known harvest hymns, should we not reflect that this mortal life is all about taking the good with the bad, and yes, struggling on in the hope that there will be better times, that what good seed we have sown will hopefully produce a good harvest.

As mortals, God never expects us to be perfect, for we must realise that no matter how good we try to be, we can never earn His forgiveness - 'for it is by His grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God and not by [your own] works.' (Ephesians 2. v. 8, 9)

So just as we thank our Lord for our earthly harvest, which is not only the food we eat, but is also our income for the year, no matter how little it is, so we must thank our Lord for His grace and forgiveness which is preparing us for our spiritual life, our true life with Him.

But until then, our souls have to be tried and tested and refined in the fires of this life on earth, as metal is refined in a furnace. For 'now …you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith, (of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire) may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed'.(1 Peter 1. vs. 6,7)

Thus through this mortal life, we have to be ripened, prepared, and readied for the Lord's harvest. And then we will be able to sing glorious praises of thanksgiving for such a salvation - a time which is foreshadowed by the hymns and praises of our earthly Harvest Thanksgiving.