All Saints Day

“Dressed in hooded gowns, women were seen standing in a circle around a cauldron while ritualistic acts were conducted.” Shock! Horror!

A news report in the Daily Mail has criticised the BBC for devoting time to paganism on Halloween. Note that this is the Daily Mail, of which I have had choice words to say in the past.Just in case my comment conveniently gets lost in the ether, I shall repost it here:

Halloween is not a Christian festival. *All Saints Day” (November 1st) is, so is *All Souls Day* (November 2nd). Indeed the latter is in fact the Christian version of Samhain – i.e. the true Samhain, not the crassly commercialised entity known as Halloween.

The fact is that both Christians and Pagans used the end of October / beginning of November for the same purpose – honouring the souls of departed loved ones.

I say let the pagans have their air-time on 31st October – as long as the Christians can have their air-time on November 1st. Criticising the BBC for lack of Christian coverage on Samhain itself is premature. Only if the Christians don’t get coverage on All Saints Day can one begin to complain that they are being marginalised by the BBC.