All Souls’ Day: Soul Cakes, Prayer and Memory
Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce

All Souls’ Day: Soul Cakes, Prayer and Memory

s the bells of All Saints’ Day fall silent, a gentler sound takes their place: the slow, measured knell for the departed.

2 November, All Souls’ Day, was the moment when the living turned their hearts toward those of the departed, the ordinary people, not the saints, who still journeyed through Purgatory.

The season of light ended not in mourning, but in the hope that love and prayer could reach beyond the grave.

Origins and Etymology

The word soul comes from Old English sawol, “the spiritual essence of a person.”

The “Mass of Souls,” or Soul Mass Day, was first proclaimed in 998 AD by Abbot Odilo of Cluny. He ordered that every monastery in his order should celebrate a Mass for “all the faithful departed.” From Cluny, the custom spread throughout Europe.

Yet its roots run deep into pagan soil.

Read More
All Hallows’ Day: The Feast of All Saints
Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce

All Hallows’ Day: The Feast of All Saints

After the shadowed vigil of All Hallows’ Eve came the brightness of All Hallows’ Day—later called Hallowmas.
The name joins hallow (Old English hālga, “holy person”) and mass (from Latin missa, “Eucharistic service”).
It was the day when the Church lifted its gaze from the souls still journeying toward heaven to those who had already arrived.

Altars were dressed in white, bells rang across town and countryside, and processions wound through streets lit by candles. The message was clear: the darkness of death had been overcome by the light of sainthood.

Read More
All Hallows’ Eve: The Vigil of the Departed
Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce

All Hallows’ Eve: The Vigil of the Departed

When twilight falls on 31 October, the Christian calendar and the old pagan year meet.
The Eve of All Hallows—from Old English hālga ǣfen (“holy evening”)—was the vigil before the Feast of All Saints.
Yet in spirit it still carried the echo of Samhain, the Celtic festival of endings and beginnings.

In pagan belief, this was the night when the barrier between worlds dissolved: the dead might revisit hearth and home, and the living could glimpse the Otherworld. Fires blazed, food was laid out for ancestors, and villagers disguised themselves to ward off or impersonate wandering spirits.

Read More
The Revenant of Hereford: Walter Map’s Medieval Walking Dead
Historical Fiction, Religion Magic and Belief Rachel Elwiss Joyce Historical Fiction, Religion Magic and Belief Rachel Elwiss Joyce

The Revenant of Hereford: Walter Map’s Medieval Walking Dead

It’s Halloween, or ‘All Halliow’s Eve’, stolen from the pagans! You might think it’s all jack-o’-lanterns, witches, and restless spirits, but long before pumpkins and trick-or-treaters, medieval storytellers were already spinning tales of the restless dead. One of the most chilling comes from Walter Map, a 12th-century courtier, wit, and author of De Nugis Curialium (Courtiers’ Trifles).

Did you know, Walter Map is a character in Rachel Elwiss Joyce’s second novel in the ‘Nicola de la Haye Series’?

Map’s collection of gossip, marvels, and supernatural tales contains one of England’s earliest written accounts of a revenant — a corpse that would not rest quietly in its grave.

Read More
Lanterns and Mischief: From Samhain Fires to Punkie Night
Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Lanterns and Mischief: From Samhain Fires to Punkie Night

In the ancient Celtic world, Samhain marked the moment when the year tipped into darkness. Bonfires blazed on hilltops, not as mere celebration but as protection—flames to cleanse, to guard livestock, and to guide wandering souls.

When Christianity spread, the bonfire’s symbolism endured. The Church kindled its own light—candles of vigil—burning in churchyards and windows on the eve of All Hallows’ Day, turning pagan flame into prayer.

Read More
What Is Allhallowtide? The Three Days of the Dead…
Everyday Life, Religion Magic and Belief Rachel Elwiss Joyce Everyday Life, Religion Magic and Belief Rachel Elwiss Joyce

What Is Allhallowtide? The Three Days of the Dead…

As the last leaves fall and nights lengthen, the medieval calendar turns toward Allhallowtide—three days devoted to saints, souls, and the turning of the year.
The word comes from hallow (Old English hālga, “holy person”) and tīd (“time” or “season”).
For Christians of the Middle Ages, it was a sacred hinge between worlds: a time to honour the saints in heaven, pray for souls in Purgatory, and remember the dead on earth.

But these days did not arise from nowhere. Long before church bells rang, the Celts gathered at Samhain—literally “summer’s end.” The festival marked the boundary between the light and dark halves of the year, when harvest was over and the veil between living and dead grew thin.

Read More
What really burned at York Castle in 1190?
Historical Events, Religion Magic and Belief Rachel Elwiss Joyce Historical Events, Religion Magic and Belief Rachel Elwiss Joyce

What really burned at York Castle in 1190?

York Castle in 1190 was a large motte-and-bailey complex, not merely a tower. The Jewish community was trapped in the inner stronghold on the motte. Although this is usually reconstructed as wholly wooden, William of Newburgh’s account of stones removed from an inner wall may indicate a stone shell keep containing timber buildings.

Read More
Bloodbath at the Lionheart’s Coronation
Religion Magic and Belief, Countries and Places Rachel Elwiss Joyce Religion Magic and Belief, Countries and Places Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Bloodbath at the Lionheart’s Coronation

We remember Richard the Lionheart as a crusader king, a warrior who fought Saladin, and whose name resounded across Christendom. But for England’s Jews, his reign began in fire and betrayal.

Benedict of York’s story embodies that betrayal. Beaten at the doors of Westminster Hall, baptised by a friend who meant him no harm, denied even a grave among his people, his fate symbolises the peril of being both essential and despised in medieval England.

Read More
What Languages Did Jews Speak in Medieval England?
Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce

What Languages Did Jews Speak in Medieval England?

In twelfth-century England, Jewish communities lived in a world of many languages: Hebrew for prayer and scholarship, Anglo-Norman French for daily life and business, early Yiddish among German-origin Jews, and Middle English among their neighbours. Here’s how that multilingual world shaped the Jewish characters in Lady of the Castle.

Read More