Halowe’en: Remembering the Darkness. Café Psychologique, 23 October

All Hallows Eve was intended to begin the honouring of the saints celebrated on All Hallows Day. Hard to keep that in mind when faced by half-a-dozen small children demanding payment by menaces – also known as ‘Trick or Treating’. What’s true is that contemporary celebrations of Hallowe’en have moved just as far from the Celtic harvest festivals and Roman celebrations of the dead that prefigured the original Christian expression of Hallowe’en

Nonetheless, a preoccupation with the ghoulish, the ghastly, the possession of evil, and the permanence or otherwise of death persists through the centuries. The present packaging of halloween distracts from the useful, even vital role that might be played in having our fear of the dark, the demonic or the unknown brought to mind. These things are clearly too troubling to attend to every day, but too important to completely ignore. Much of contemporary culture, including the world of self-improvement and self-help demands we focus on the positive, for fear the negative will weigh us down and hold us back. This Pollyanna approach is easily challenged by the realities of a world in which things do go wrong, not everyone is lovely, and we can’t always win.

This café will help us explore how and why we might need to be reminded of the darkness, and the place of Hallowe’en in connecting us with not just our fears about pain, loss and death, but also our joy in life.

Our conversation will be introduced by Café Psychologique favourites storyteller Matthew Bellwood, and performer and writer Alison Andrews, on Tuesday 23 October, 8.00 pm to 9.45 pm in Seven Arts, Chapel Allerton, Leeds. The Café costs £4 on the door.

There is a poster to download here:
Café Psychologique November 2018

You can read how the Café works here:
Café Psychologique Rules