How Thin is the Veil Really?

What Halloween Can Teach Us About Grief

There is a concept called “thin space” in Celtic culture. It is considered to be a space where those who have passed are more “available” to us. This space can be physical, experiential, even metaphorical. 

This thin space can be terrifying, beautiful and worthy of awe. 

Loss is one of those intense spaces that encompasses difficult dualities—sadness and happiness, anger and joy, confusion and clarity. It is also a space that we can honour, and connect with those who have passed. 

This thin space is a potent space for grief and healing.

What is a Thin Space?

In Celtic culture, a "thin space" is a sacred place or moment where the boundary between the earthly realm and the spiritual realm, or "otherworld," is perceived to be especially thin or permeable (Psychology Today). When we are grieving, we can connect with our loss and become present to insights that we weren’t privy to before. 

The tricky part about grief, is that it is often shunned from a societal perspective. We are told that grief exists on a timeline, and that we should be healed after a certain amount of time has passed. But if we invited grief to exist alongside us—what could become possible? 

How the Seasons Relate to Thin Spaces and Grief

As the seasons shift, there is a natural inclination to tune inwards and reflect. 

Spring and summer are about emergence—blooms, sun, and abundance. While autumn and winter remind us of “endings.” 

Nature doesn’t resist darkness the same way we do. 

Trees shed their leaves. Flowers die. Fields go barren. There is wisdom in retreat, in letting go, in stillness that nature understands and that we can learn from.

What would it mean to let our emotional lives follow this rhythm?  To see grief in all its shapes and forms in the fall not as problems to fix—but as invitations to slow down and listen? 

Lessons from Samoan Tradition

Similar to the Celtic culture, the Samoan culture sees the seasonal shift as holding sacred meaning. The community mirrors nature and slows down to acknowledge all that is passing or has passed. Rather than resisting darkness, they embrace this change of seasons as an invitation to connect deeply inwardly and outwardly. 

As Halloween approaches, it is said that during this time, the veil between the living and the dead is “thin.” Ancestors are close, connection is possible, and honoring the dead becomes an act of community and continuity—celebration and healing.

The Samoan tradition embraces Halloween as a season to remember. To call names aloud, to bring forth stories, to acknowledge that the dead are not gone; they are simply woven into us differently.

Beyond Death: Embracing the Seasonal Shift

In Western culture, the natural pull toward reflection in fall is interrupted. Between Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years– the pressure to celebrate when our bodies want to hibernate and the constant call to “do” are all examples of how we habitually combat grief with busyness.

What if, this season, you didn’t resist? What if you treated the falling leaves, the empty branches, and the darkened skies as mirrors—reminders that grief is a rhythm that can allow us to connect with those whom we’ve lost?

In this way, I think we too can embrace Halloween as a season to celebrate and heal.

5 Ways to Befriend Grief this Season

1. Create a small ritual of remembrance. Light a candle, place a photo, or speak the name of someone you’re grieving. Invite their memory into your space without judgment.
2. Let your body follow the season. Go to bed earlier, take more rest, eat warm grounding foods. Slowing down is not weakness—it’s wisdom.
3. Take grief outside. Walk among the falling leaves or sit under a bare tree. Let nature mirror what endings look like without shame.
4. Make space for silence. Instead of filling every pause with noise or activity, allow moments of quiet. Grief often speaks in stillness.
5. Give form to what feels heavy. Write, draw, dance, or move in a way that lets the grief live outside your body for a while. Expression is release.

Learn how to carry these practices into your work, and life, with others. Our Empowered Courses are designed for exactly this: helping professionals, caregivers, and community leaders become fluent in grief’s many languages—spoken and unspoken.

👉 Explore the training HERE and discover how you can hold grief in all its seasons