The Magic Time of Year

I like the hunting of the hare;
It brings me, day to day,
The memory of old days as fair,
With dead men past away.

To these, as homeward still I ply
And pass the churchyard gate
Where all are laid as I must lie,
I stop and raise my hat.

I like the hunting of the hare;
New sports I hold in scorn.
I like to be as my fathers were,
In the days e’er I was born.
— Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, “The Old Squire.”

MANY folks mourn the passing of the Summer, and the start of the Autumn. I for one do not. For me, it is truly the beginning of the best, magical part of the year. In this year of 2024, when we are faced in November with perhaps the most inane pair of major candidates to bedevil our quadrennial ritual of supposed popular choice, remembering this magic is key to maintaining our peace of mind and heart — indeed, our sanity. I do not wish here to pursue the issue of whether it is better to vote third party so as to avoid any moral scandal, or to try to parse out the moral calculus involving “double effect” or some other principle (but please, not the “lesser of two evils”!) which may allow a sincere Christian to choose one from the duo we are offered. I shall leave that to others.

What remains, however, is that few sane people will be happy with whatever choice they make — and less still after inauguration day. I am very sorry about that, my friends; but there is quite literally nothing to be done about it. We can, however do something about the space inside our own heads and those in our living areas. Here we yet remain supreme. The media and the internet will be urging us to go as crazy as anyone else in the next few months — we must refuse the invitation, and instead savour something supremely a-political: the afore-mentioned magic of the season; not merely that of Autumn, but of Winter and early Spring, 2025 being an inaugural year.

As mentioned, the Summer has ended. The children are back in school, and in more temperate climes, the weather is becoming far cooler and more pleasant. For our Byzantine-Rite brothers, September 1 is the beginning of a new Liturgical Year — the others shall come in one at a time, leaving us Latins dead last in late November. The month opens with Our Lady’s birthday and ends with Michaelmas. Are these not treasures to savour? And as the evenings lengthen, if we have families should we not try to spend more time with them? If not, then surely it is a good time to see old friends, sift memories, and prepare. Either way, we should begin taking stock of our prayer and devotional life. The upcoming feasts and seasons really require it.

The Halloween things began to appear in the stores in August or even July; partly this is due to the desire of retailers to cash in; but there is, I think, a deeper psychological thing here, both with Halloween and Christmas “holiday creep.” Life really is increasingly unpleasant; even the most self-deluded Wokester is aware of this on some level. The easiest unconscious response to this is nostalgia — to retreat to the past, to the joys of one’s childhood. Nor is this natural response wrong, IF rightly understood and ordered. But therein lies part of the problem.

Halloween is always a source of argument in Traditionalist circles — not least because on the one hand so many American Catholics accept the assertions about it made by Neopagans, Wiccans, and Satanists, and on the other because the version exported to Europe tends to reflect the interests of those three groups. But just as modern presidential elections have little to do with those of the past, so with what is so often trumpeted as Halloween. The Celtic (Irish, Scots, Welsh, Manx, Cornish, and Breton) traditions of the day are actually linked to All Saints and All Souls — despite their (to us) strange customs on the one hand. On the other — and until we are really in October, we shouldn’t be dealing too much with Halloween anyway — there is the children’s holiday it was in my childhood, and still is for so many. More of this momentarily.

In the immediate, and despite the Halloween (and Christmas decorations which will begin poking up in October) things in the stores, October has a lot of things all its own to offer. The turning leaves, of course, are extraordinary — if you live in or near a place where it occurs, do go leaf peeping. The more intense the riot of colours, the more magical the experience, the more intense the relief from the insanity.

The first Monday in October is Columbus Day in the United States, and Thanksgiving Day in Canada. The first is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and remember the proud Christian and European heritage of the several United States and all of the Americas — and our essential unity with each other and the Mother Continent on that basis. The second, rather than being partly a celebration of the Puritan heritage that ours is, is really a version of a much more European-style harvest festival. Certainly the pumpkins, Indian corn, and the rest that multiply this time of year. In the traditional Calendar, the last Sunday of October is the feast of Christ the King, and this is a very good time to remind ourselves that both honouring the great explorers, missionaries, and settlers who brought us to this land, and giving thanks to God for what He has given us here, are true marks of the subjects of Christ the King.

But now Halloween really has arrived, as an entry to All Saints, All Souls, and the Month dedicated to the latter. Let us do what we did as children for our own youngsters — but in a more concerted way. Carve the Jack O’Lantern as did your grandfather and father, ready the kids for Trick or Treating — but remind them that originally it was “Souling;” pray for the dead relations and friends of the candy-givers when the children return with their treats. Tell them of the Church’s protection against spiritual evil, of Holy Water, St. Benedict Medals, and their own Guardian Angels.

In November, the magic really becomes palpable, as All Saints Day reminds us of our goal, and All Souls of our prayer-needy brethren in Purgatory. This year, the electioneering shall be at its shrillest, stupidest, and vilest at this point; so try very hard this year to mark the Octave of All Saints by vising a cemetery each day for the Indulgence. In the midst of this vital and eternally important work, make a quick obeisance on November 5 to the political powers that be for this short moment in time by casting your vote. Then resume the really essential service you are performing for those you have loved and lost — though as we hope, only for time.

As the month of the Holy Souls continues, it shall get colder. St. Martin’s Day really should be marked with a goose dinner, if you can, and the onset of American Thanksgiving prepared for. In this country, this is also a time for remembering the past, and relating it to the present. When at last Advent comes (bearing in mind the need for a St. Andrew’s celebration, for the Scots-minded among us!), let us try to keep it as a little Lent, although giving due honour to St. Nicholas and Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception on their feast days (especially because she is our national patroness — and we no doubt should redouble our prayers in the aftermath of whatever emerges from November 5).

If we can, we should keep Christmas celebrations down to a minimum util the actual Eve, for the Birth of Our Lord is truly “the most wonderful time of the year,” although Easter deservedly ranks higher as a feast on the Church’s calendar. The mingling of ethnic, national, familial, and even secular traditions creates an extraordinary atmosphere, which we should attempt to prolong not only through the Twelve Days, but all the way up to Candlemas. This shall be especially important this year, since the presidential inauguration shall disfigure the Christmas season on January 20.

This year, we certainly have a great deal of madness to combat, but the weapon or medicine we have to hand is a magic born of religion, culture, history, and nostalgia. Nor is it a narcotic or drug, meant to ease a very real pain through illusion. Indeed — it is the very opposite. As with our prayers for the dead during the Octave of All Saints, when our lords and masters shall be preening themselves the most, these things are not based upon self-delusion but upon the greatest reality of all — Heaven. In the light that flows from “the realms of endless day,” that illumined our ancestors in their attempts to venerate and honour the mysteries of our Holy Faith in the Calendar, and that we ourselves took part in when young, the darkness and illusion that the Lord of the World and his unwitting human minions attempt to bind us with shall be dispelled. That is powerful magic, indeed.