Take a moment – All Hallow’s Eve

The field of chocolate brown mud stretches as far as the eye can see, a dull brown cloth decorated with bright orange orbs. Mini suns that have come to brighten the earth at a dark time of the year.

Early morning and all is still in the sombre light, a sense of waiting is in the air. The wind rustles the leaves in the hedge edging the field and a mouse creeps cautiously out to grab whatever treasures the pumpkin patch holds.

As the sun slants across the sky casting long shadows and little warmth, excited voices can be heard approaching the field. Welly boots slap against legs and squelch satisfyingly through the mud. Wheelbarrows clank as they bounce over the ruts. Eager children pull large pumpkins from the soil and hugging them in delight drop them into the waiting wheel barrows.

The once silent field is now a hive of activity as people swarm like bees over the orange treasures. In no time at all the beautiful bright pumpkins have gone and the field is left, a dull shadow of what it once was.

The pumpkins are taken home to be carefully carved into scary faces that flicker menacingly in candle light. The delicate flesh is put to one side to be transformed into soup or pies in warm cosy kitchens that are bright and welcoming. Whilst outside the pumpkin shells scare away the evil ghouls that roam the earth on this All Hallow’s Eve.

Hallowe’en, an ancient tradition that is still celebrated today. A special moment that takes us out of the busy, complicated modern world and back to a simpler time where we are connected to the seasons and rhythms of the earth as our hunter gatherer ancestors were all those millennia ago.