31/10/2024
In medieval Britain, on Halloween night, families would open their doors to children carrying lanterns, moving through the dark - not in search of treats, but of soul cakes.
These small, spiced cakes, each marked with a cross, were given by the household as an offering, honouring their departed loved ones.
In return, the children would say prayers for the family’s ancestors, asking for peace as the spirits made their journey through the thinning veil.
This exchange created a bond between giver and receiver, a shared moment of remembrance.
Halloween today holds faint traces of this ancient ritual, a subtle echo from a time when every doorway opened to honour the meeting of two worlds.
However souling was more than a tradition; it was a communion with those who had come before, a reminder that the living and the departed are bound by an eternal thread.
In this shared ritual, those who had passed were never truly gone, woven into life itself - watching, guiding reminding the living that death is not an ending but a turning point in an unbroken cycle.
