Jenna Woginrich: 31 October. Hallowed Day

A different take on today. Happy Halloween, Inside Storey readers.

I greet my cold morning with love. I light the stove, feed the animals, and decide to eat out on this bright morning. I cook up a breakfast burrito of my hen’s eggs, a home-grown tomato, and smoked cheddar and wrap it in foil. I pour coffee into a Thermos and make sure to stash some of Merlin’s 

I ride up the mountain to a view of the valley below, taking in the shock of color and morning light. I stand there savoring the scene and the burrito, and I venerate the great and magical and holy day I pine for all year: Halloween. The anchor of so many agrarians for thousands of years and the oldest holiday that has survived to these modern times. 

Halloween! That old girl has been celebrated for something like 6,000 years and is still going strong. It is different now, of course, but I’m doing my part to bring back a different sort of observation, one honoring the land. It’s the least I could do for the month I love.

Hallows

The celebration that became known as Halloween is believed to have originated around 4,000 BCE, making it the oldest holiday we still have. Halloween is about the big things: Life and Death. It’s a day to be quiet and realize that this is all over too soon and to celebrate what’s left with all you’ve got. Only when you accept your own mortality are you truly free to live this life without hindrance or fear.

Halloween is an affirmation of the gift of life.

Excerpt from One-Woman Farm © 2013 by Jenna Woginrich. Illustrations © Emma Dibben. All rights reserved.

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For more One-Woman Farm, see Storey art director Carolyn Eckert's post on designing the book.

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