All the traditional holidays that were imported to Australia by colonizers felt upside-down to me, as a kid, growing up – as we sang songs about wintery wonderlands, in the 30 degree heat of December, or puzzled the entire trick or treating thing in the middle of spring when the days were long and everything was full of life.

Now, feeling deep the dark days of October, the fall, the death and decay, Halloween is a festival that makes so much sense to me, even though I’m really just coming to it, as a stranger.

So I appreciated reading this, from local yoga teacher Christie Reid, rooting the festivities, dress-up, revelry and celebration, in earth-oriented ways, making a deep seasonal sense to me:

Happy Samhain or Happy Halloween. Samhain being a long celebrated pagan holiday where the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is thin. An opportunity for us to honour and revisit our loved ones that have passed on.

It feels like an invitation to sit with the shadows of our lives… quietly, or with revelry and a joyous kind of defiance, making noise, and marching through the streets together.