Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

Samhain

Sunday, October 31 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am

Samhain

Details

Date:
Sunday, October 31
Time:
10:30 am - 11:30 am
Event Categories:
,
Join Us:
https://tinyurl.com/ESUCSunday

Venue

Online Event

Join us as the veil thins and we welcome in our beloved ancestors to be part of our Samhain service. We will celebrate the ancestors and the fun and whimsy that have become a part of our Halloween traditions. Costumes are encouraged. Led by LeAnne Struble.

how to attend

Bulletin

• To virtually attend, please Zoom in using room number 989 3107 9078, passcode: chalice.
• To phone into the service, call 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 989 3107 9078.

For those joining, please mute as soon as you enter the room, so everyone can hear. Please note, the services will be recorded, but at this time, there are no plans to share the recording.

More Information

Religious Education for children and youth begins after the service in person! Registration REQUIRED.

If you don’t have a chalice, but want to light one, check out our Making a Chalice at Home page.

Service is followed by Coffee Hour.

Children’s Story

Sermon Audio

Sermon Text

​Blessed Samhain and Happy Halloween to all of you.

This is the end of the harvest season and the time for us to prepare for the long dark days ahead. Rather than dreading the dark that is coming we should look forward to it as a time to rest and recharge ourselves. This is the perfect time for your work to be wrapping yourself in a blanket, pouring a cup of tea and opening a book.

This is also a day celebrated in many cultures around the world as a day to honor our ancestors. It is said that the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is the thinnest and the dead can return at this time.

This does not mean that suddenly we will see ghosts or zombies walking around but it does mean at this time we have the opportunity to revisit those that have gone before us and the lessons they taught or are still teaching us.

How this happens is different for each of us. Many cultures have ceremonies and festivals to help with this. In my house it is simpler and more complicated. I allow myself to sit with that cup of tea and have conversations with those that have gone before me, I tell my mom what is happening in my life and in our family, which this year was a lot, I tell my dad about the things that I managed to fix on my own and hear him tell me how complicated my solution was. I take out this book and update it. This is my book of the people that have loved me into being who I am. Some are ancestors from my genetic family tree, some are ancestors from my chosen family tree and some that have simply come into my life and made a difference.

Sometimes it goes the other way and you hear or feel that an ancestor is trying to get in touch with you, maybe through a piece of music, or something that you read. This usually means that you have a lesson to learn, or relearn if you have strayed from the path it was leading you on.
This year my great grandfather has a lesson for me and I don’t know yet what it is. I know that he is trying to talk to me because he is the only person in my life to call me Louann, I am not sure if he knew my name was LeAnne, in the last two weeks people who have known me for years have slipped up and called me Louann. So what is the lesson or the message he has for me? I am not sure but I will sit with him tonight and hopefully we will both feel better about what he is trying so hard to tell me.

Sitting and remembering those that have gone before us is the best way to bring them back to us, if even for a moment. Remembering the way they made us feel, the way they made the world around them a better place.

But what does all of this have to do with Halloween? Most of our Halloween traditions are rooted in pagan celebrations. Jack O’Lanterns were originally lights put out so your ancestors could find their way to your house. Costumes and masks were originally worn to make sure that if evil spirits slipped through the veil they could not identify you and pull you back through the veil. Treats were left out as an offering for your ancestors so they could enjoy once again the things that they had as living people. I am not sure if the offerings left were as good as a peanut butter cup, but I guess traditions can be improved upon.

To weave together the honoring of those who have gone before us and the joy of costumes and trick or treating seems to not work.

Unless you realize that the first person you leave behind, the first person who leaves you, is the child you once were.

This person leaves you the first time you are told to “grow up” to “act your age” or to stop being silly.

The child you were leaves you the first time someone tells you that your dream is impractical or impossible. The first time they say how will you make money doing that, or do you know how long you would have to go to school to do that?

As a child we know that we can be a fireman, policeman, builder, astronaut. Or a princess, cowboy, dancer, that swims with dolphins. But when an adult in our life says that isn’t possible or that is too hard or boys can’t or girls shouldn’t. The veil comes down between us and that child.

I was asked why I want to work with the youngest children and I answered that I want to make sure that there is someone in their life that understands you can absolutely be a farmer, astronaut, ballerina, president. Even if they believe that for only one more year.

So now I want to be that adult for you. What did that child standing on the other side of the veil from you want to be before adults interfered? Were you going to be a singer, a writer, or the next Nobel Prize winner?

Halloween is the perfect time to revisit that child and to bring their dream back to life, if even for just one day. No one tells you on Halloween that being a paleontologist rock star is impractical or impossible, they just say “You Look Great.”

So take a moment to push the veil aside and talk to that child. Then open your closet and have fun.

We will look forward to seeing you here on our beautiful East Shore campus at noon today. We have pushed the veil away and have made a safe space for you to come and once again be that child that writes books about monkeys while living under the ocean.

Before you discount the dreams I have used here today, understand that every example of a child’s dream I used here were the words of a child. A child here at East Shore in our RE program. Imagine the conversations that are going to be possible when they become adults and have the stories to tell you of their lives.

Tonight when people come knocking on your door saying trick or treat. Don’t question if they are too old to do this. Be that adult for everyone who comes to your door. If the teenager isn’t really in a costume, understand that his costume is the child that he was and that for this one night he wants to be again.

By being a better adult to the child we once were and a better adult to the children who are in this world. We can be better adults to each other, making this world a much better place.

Blessed Samhain to you and yours and Happy Halloween to us all.

More Videos

Details

Date:
Sunday, October 31
Time:
10:30 am - 11:30 am
Event Categories:
,
Join Us:
https://tinyurl.com/ESUCSunday

Venue

Online Event