Night of the Lightbringer

Have you read any of the “Sister Fidelma Mystery” series by Peter Tremayne. If not, then you have a fun experience ahead. The stories are usually set in 7th century Ireland and thus are in the heart of that great period when old Celtic spiritual ways were intersecting with Christianity and the Celtic Christian path was being forged. The stories feature Sister Fidelma as both a representative of the legal and government establishment as well as practicing as a Celtic nun. She is a wonderful combination of law and grace, and her outstanding mind is put to great use in solving crimes. These stories are set in both ancient spiritual settings, pagan and Christian, and are a wonderfully fun way to imagine that rich and perilous time.     

In “Night of the Lightbringer”, Tremayne describes the ancient feast of Samhain. This ancient celebration, which marks the beginning of the Celtic year, is in part an introduction to the darkness of winter. Two characters discuss the season...

‘One bonfire is the same as another,’ Eadulf responded, but a close observer might have detected some apprehension behind his light-hearted dismissal. He knew well what the symbolism of the bonfire was and what it meant to the townsfolk who, for some days now, had been bringing in logs and branches from the surrounding woodlands. 

Aidan, who did not observe his uneasiness, shook his head in reproof. ‘You have been long enough in this kingdom, my friend, to know that there is a special time approaching.’ 

‘I know all about the festival of Samhain,’ Eadulf said. 

‘So you must know that this is the time of darkness,’ the young warrior went on. ‘That is why the fires of Samhain are so special. When lit, they express our hope that we may survive the threatening shadows of the night and be reborn into light. Remember that tomorrow night, at the festival of Samhain, dark forces will surround us. There will be much evil abroad and all that is malevolent and vengeful will stalk the land.’ 

Eadulf tried to restrain himself from nervously rebuking his companion for prattling on. Eadulf himself had been raised in the pre-Christian culture of his own people. In his village of Seaxmund’s Ham, in the land of the South Folk of the East Angles, there was a similar festival called the Modraniht, or ‘Night of the Earth Mother’. After this came the month of Blótmonath, the time of the sacrifices to the gods and goddesses in order to protect folk from the supernatural entities that inhabited the gloomy woods and desolate places, intent on wreaking harm, and vengeance. He suppressed a shiver. Christian missionaries had begun to convert the Kingdom of the East Angles to the New Faith and as a youth Eadulf had eagerly accepted their teaching. But the old ways and beliefs, beliefs practised from the time beyond time, did not vanish so quickly. There were still times when he found himself believing in the old ways; ways that the New Faith had not been able to suppress and therefore had tried to absorb. Even the great Roman Pope, Gregorius Anicius, had told his missionaries to stop destroying pre-Christian shrines and temples and simply re-dedicate them in the name of the New Faith. Therefore, many old practices and beliefs took on the mantle of the new religion.

Samhain is a season which offers an invitation to prepare our hearts and minds for darkness, the time when we go within ourselves and discover both hidden beauty and perhaps our own darker struggles as well. The Celts often created ritual, story, and myth that unites the inner journey of the human heart with outer awareness of spiritual matters and God’s revelation of our spiritual tasks by means of metaphorical connection with the cycles of Nature. Samhain thus was a ritualistic means of inviting us to begin our “year” by being aware of the push and pull of light and dark and taking good care to acknowledge anything which wants to extinguish the light that illuminates our soul and to keep that flame burning even through times that are difficult, dark, mysterious, frightening, and ultimately challenging. 

We have co-opted some of these Samhain rituals into our celebration of Halloween (or All Hallows Eve, or the eve of the day to remember the lovely souls that have gone faithfully before us). Sadly, much of the meaning of the day has been lost in the commercialized and Westernized version of Halloween, but taking mind of the older meaning and rituals of Samhain helps to bring the force of the meaning back to our attention. As the world darkens, it is a call to wake up again and again to the light that has entered our soul from the time that we were conceived and that the Light that cannot be extinguished carries us through times of death, darkness, and oppression. Christians call that light Christ. The Creator has set that flame burning within you and it cannot be extinguished.

You are people of the Light even in the darkest of days.   

Kirk Webb
(Director of The Celtic Center)

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