The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #152680   Message #3673545
Posted By: GUEST,Blandiver (Astray)
01-Nov-14 - 05:25 AM
Thread Name: Folklore: Halloween and the 'thinning veil'
Subject: RE: Folklore: Halloween and the 'thinning veil'
One would do well well to bear in mind the non-Western prototypes of Christian demonic imagery as recent research (MacDermott et al) into (so-called) Triple Hare & Green Man imagery has shown. The horrors on offer in the sculpture of the Romanesque for example (of which Herefordshire is particularly blessed, most notably at St. Mary's, Kilpeck) would seem to be woven from various strands of Norse and Hinduism.

Not convinced that the literal / orthodox Temple Veil has anything to do with the metaphorical / vernacular Twilight Veil under discussion here. A further example of the latter existed in parts of Lancashire where there existed numerous Purgatory Fields. It was here that the Teanlowe Fires were lit as Catholic families prayed to / for the souls of their dead, the notion being that at this time of the year Purgatory was a good deal closer than at other times; the veil at its thinnest. (See The Stations of the Sun (Hutton, 1996. Ch. 36, pp. 372-3).

In the merry glow of this, whilst seeing if there was anything about the Teanlowe Fires on-line I came across this news item from a few years back where Lancastrian roughs attempted to set fire to a shopping centre named after the long vanished custom. Rites & Riots!

Teanlowe Blaze : Three Held