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Tag: Días de los Muertos

Which saints do we honor today?

Which saints do we honor today?

Blessings on All Saints Day This is one of those “universal” days celebrated in several cultural traditions. But exactly which saints are we venerating on this day? Who are they, and where did they come from? That depends on which tradition you mean.  The ever-flexible early Christian Church adopted Celtic Samhain and reframed it in a culturally Christian way. Robust traditions in Poland and other Slavic countries point to pre-Christian roots as well. Missionary priests rediscovered it in their Mesoamerican and Filipino converts a few centuries later.  Thus, neopagans today, traditional…

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Samhain: a thinning of the veil

Samhain: a thinning of the veil

I’ve had my Halloween post for this year up for a couple of days. Time now for a journey back into the roots of our traditions. The thinning of the veil between our world and the spirit realm is traditionally most extreme at Samhain. It’s pronounced something like “Sah–ween,” according to my sources. It springs from ancient Celtic tradition. Its popular, secular descendant is the contemporary craziness that is Halloween, but in its origins and in some of the rising spiritual communities of today it is celebrated more as…

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