As we get deeper into the Fall season, our thoughts turn to Halloween. Even if we spend our time as hermits, we probably know that Halloween is coming very soon. Every time that I walk into a store lately, I am hit by Halloween candy, decorations, and pumpkin spice!

Halloween had its historical origins in Celtic religious traditions and has evolved over time to integrate other traditions. The Catholic Church eventually incorporated the following day, November 1, into All Saints Day or All Hallow's Day. And so, the night before became known as All Hallow's Eve or in the poetic common usage of today, Halloween. With its start as a religious ritual celebrating the harvest, the holiday has morphed into a secular holiday in much of the U.S. (Thomas, 2021).

It is a western holiday and in our modern secular celebrations, Halloween is meant to be about scary creatures and mischief. Ghosts, goblins, headless horsemen and other characters from beyond the hum of daily life. Mischief caused by these characters and rituals adapted from various traditions add to the frightening fun of Halloween.

These scary antics also point us to recognize what is going on in our inner worlds. We may be facing inner fears that can be reinforced by the scary playfulness of our modern Halloween traditions.

Yoga and Halloween

So, how does all this fit into our yoga traditions? Yoga helps us to find our inner peace. It helps us search for and come to grips with a life that is a little less scary. It helps us to face our inner ghosts and goblins when we are ready to do so. The challenges of ghosts and goblins enables us to find our body, mind and breath through diligent mindful application of meditation, yoga postures (asana) and breath practices.

You can use this time to reflect on themes such as facing fears or embracing the unknown, when the unknown is a scary prospect.

Using these scary characters and rituals as metaphor in yoga, a simple cleansing inhalation and exhalation breath cycle can help to move the bad air of the witches and warlocks out of the body and bring in the purity of new clean fresh air like the sweetness of candy.

Thus we cycle out of the body the bad air, while cycling in the good clean air. A common breathing meditation that you can practice on your own for Halloween is to picture a wicked witch and breathe out.

On the inhale breathe in a picture of a pumpkin spice latte (or other image that is comforting to you). Breathe out a witch, breathe in the pictures and/or aromas of your PSL.

Trick or Treat for UNICEF

A long, long time ago, when I was a young girl, my friends and I would carry around small orange boxes along with our giant candy sacks when we went trick or treating. We would hold our little boxes and say Trick or Treat for UNICEF!!! We would collect coins to bring back to school. I assumed the pennies went to UNICEF. We were a lot more trusting back in those days. :-)

I was just reminded of this tradition and found that today, of course, you can make a donation to UNICEF online. In that tradition, I am fundraising for UNICEF here and on my website. Here is my fundraising link.

About UNICEF

"UNICEF works in the world’s toughest places to reach the most disadvantaged children and adolescents – and to protect the rights of every child, everywhere. Across more than 190 countries and territories."

You can find out more about UNICEF here.

Readings & Resources

Thomas, H. (2021). The origins of halloween traditions. U. S. Library of Congress Blog.