October 10, 2022・Thanksgiving
By: Brianna MacLean
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
William Arthur Ward
It never fails to surprise me just how quickly a year can go by.
In less than two months, the world will bid farewell to 2022 to make room for the clean state represented by 2023. Like clockwork, I take the opportunity to pause during this busy, transitional season of the year to take stock of the year and all that it holds, particularly the things that I am thankful to have in my life.
Giving thanks for all we have, for all we can provide, and for all we have experienced is an act that will never go out of style. For Canadians, the most well-known occasion devoted to expressing these gratitudes never fails to arrive on the second Monday of October.
A cornucopia of days, filled to the brim with an abundance of opportunities to stop and expgratitudeitude for all the good in our lives.
A time full of family, friends, and enough pumpkin pie to send Cinderella’s fairy godmother into a jealous frenzy!
A day that we affectionately refer to as Thanksgiving.
So, on October 10, 2022, remember to take a moment somewhere between the turkey and the annual football scrimmage to give thanks for our homes, health, and all the loved ones in our lives.
The year might be coming to an end, but our capacity for love and gratitude never will.
Once Upon a Spooky Time…
By: Brianna MacLean
You can feel it in the air…
Gone are summer’s bright and warm days, leaving behind the cool chill and duskiness of fall in its wake. With the triumphant return of October comes the return of all the favourite hallmarks of autumn; the leaves changing from green to gold, pumpkin-spiced everything hitting the market, and perhaps the most exciting tradition of all:
HALLOWEEN.
A day of costumes and candy, tricks & treats, Halloween has steadily risen through the ranks of North American holidays to become a beloved fall staple for millions. But did you know that the origins of Halloween, the building blocks upon which this splendid and spooky day was built, are not based in North America at all?
The day that we now know as “Halloween” originated from the Gaelic festival of Samhain, a pagan tradition celebrating the end of summer and the annual harvest while ushering in the arrival of the colder months. Traditionally beginning on the final sunset of October, Samhain (pronounced “Sow-Wen”) is one of four seasonal festivals celebrated throughout the year by the Gaels, taking place between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. Due to the liminal time that it is celebrated, Samhain is also seen n as the day in which the veil between our world and the Otherworld iitsat its thinnest, allowing spirits to pass through easily.
As boats full of immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, and the Ilse of Man made their way to the “New World,” many traditions of Samhain also made the long trip across the pond; Faces being carved into root vegetables such as turnips and placed in window sills to ward off more nefarious entities, the pagan ritual of crafting and wearing masks to disguise oneself from wandering spirits, and so many more have evolved over the centuries into the modern-day practices that even the most casual Halloween practitioner could recognize at the drop of a witch’s hat!
While no longer strictly a festival commemorating the end of the warm summer months, Halloween remains a joyful time for all who participate. Whether indulging in the seasonal surplus of candy or taking part in more joyfully frightening traditions such as haunted houses and scary movie marathons, you can ultimately count on Halloween to act as a celebration full of autumn light in anticipation of the incoming winter darkness!
