Isn’t kinda funny how, like with Halloween, so many of us just follow along with traditions from childhood, as our parents did, and do things just because everyone else is doing them, without really knowing why! Kinda like graduating highschool, going to college, and getting a “good” job??

I do have to admit that having children does make Halloween much more fun as an adult. And I do enjoy the traditions of carving the pumpkin, having the kids get dressed up in cute costumes, and seeing people so willingly giving (unfortunately the worst thing you can give a kid - LOADS OF SUGAR) for the sheer joy of seeing little children in their cuteness and costumes.

As I have stepped into direct sales with Platinum One Destinations, I have become someone who has chosen to “wake up” to my choices and had to become aware that up until I joined direct sales, I was just doing what everyone else was…. volunteering for the rat race that would never lead me to true financial freedom.

So lately I’ve become more aware and conscious of my thoughts and actions, and I’ve been evaluating things I do to check in with whether or not what I’m doing is truly something that is original from me - something that I am choosing to do because of my own desires.

I realized that Halloween was just another one of those “things” I do because everyone else is doing it. So I spent some time tonight after we came back from trick or treating and had put the pumpkin seeds in the oven to toast… (mmm they smell good!) to research why myself and my kids are dressing up in costume and asking people for candy, and why we carve the pumpkin, and why the holiday has become this grotesque expression of death, murder, fear, mystery, darkness, and the like.  Sorta like some people ask themselves why they are driving to work day after day, month after month, year after year, to the same dead-end job.

So, here’s the deal… The celebration goes back to the Celtics in mainly Ireland and Scotland, England. It was a pagan ritual to mark the end of the harvest.  They believed that during this time, the dead would come back to visit and raise havoc on people and the crops. This makes sense given that back then when winter arrived it did represent a time of stillness and hibernation and death of growing and harvesting. Not to mention many people died during the winter months because of not enough food, heat, or water.  So they’d have huge bonfires and gather round with masks representing evil spirits. They dressed up as evil spirits to “blend in” with the real “evil spirits” that were at that time co-habitating with the mortals.

Trick-or-Treating came about from this season as well. Children would knock on the doors of their neighbors to gather fruits and nuts for the festival/celebration. And since the evil spirits were also roaming the neighborhood, the parents would not send them out without wearing a disguise (as an evil spirit).

Now the pumpkin thing is kinda cool. Back then they used turnips, and they would carve images of creepy faces and evil spirits again to ward them off.  The turnips looked like heads. And the reason they used them is that the head represented the most powerful part of the body, as well as where humans connected with spirit.  As far as lighting them up as a jack-o-lantern, that is tied to a guy named “Stingy Jack” who had a run-in with the devil, who then placed a curse on him to roam every night with the only light he had, which was a candle inside a hollowed out turnip.

Now given all of this - does this mean I’m going to stop celebrating Halloween? I mean, common, these traditions lead back to pagan rituals that have nothing to do with my current beliefs and understanding of winter, or fear of dieing because winter is coming. 

Of course I will not stop participating in Halloween. I wouldn’t do that to my children - nor do I think they would let me!! However, it is good to know where the “energy” of Halloween came from, so that I can choose not to carry on the same consciousness of fear and death and dieing from centuries ago.  Instead, I can choose to celebrate Halloween for the meanings I give it now for my own life, and here they are..

• A time to make fun of fear
• A time to understand that behind everything scary there is an underlying truth that is simply being masked - for the moment.
• A time to allow for my children to use their imagination and exercise their belief in magic
• To carve a pumpkin so I can eat the seeds and make a temporary candle-holder for my front porch
• To remind me of how rooted the human mind is to our ancestoral, outdated beliefs and fears, and to consciously choose to pick my own in all areas of my life.

With all that said, I wish everyone a very safe and Happy Halloween! May it be a reminder to you to laugh at your fears, and to see beyond them to the truth of the precious gifts behind the “mask” that is just waiting to be revealed.

Your Partner in Prosperity,

Carol Ann Martin
Founder, Synergy Prosperity Alliance
Synergy Certified, Platinum Executive Leader
Platinum One Destinations, Synergy Marketing Group
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