For those of us who are strictly Hellenic Polytheists and not Wiccan/NeoPagan in practice, Halloween is not the “New Year” or one of the Eight Festivals in the Wheel of the Year. Halloween is a holiday, that even if it is pagan in origin, is a strictly secular one. We may take our children ‘trick or treating’ and wear costumes like most of the people around us, but unlike many other Pagans this is not a religious holiday for us.
This is not to say that Hellenics do not have festivals honoring the dead. We just celebrate them at different times of year. We have just celebrated the Thesmophoria honoring Demeter’s search for Persephone or the Greater Eleusinia in honor of both Goddesses. We are honoring Apollo’s annual journey to the Hyperboreans and Dionysus’ rule over Delphi. We are busy with the business of life, not the business of a night where “the veil between the worlds” is thin.
No, this is NOT a religious festival for us. However, that does not mean we cannot celebrate it with our neighbors. It just means that we have other religious festivals around this time of year — and that we love Halloween candy.
