By Robin DuMolin
The earliest halloween celebrations were held by the Druids in honor ofSamhain, Lord of the Dead whose festival fell on November 1. It was also the Celtic New Year's Day, the beginning of winter, and the time of "the light that loses, the night that wins." The Druids had a lot of contact with the Greeks and ended up worshipping many of the same gods and goddesses called by different names.
A joint festival was held for Samhain and the Sun God on November 1. The sun, ripener of the grains, was thanked for the harvest. Samhain assembled all souls who'd died the previous year. For their sins these souls had been confined in the bodies of lower animals; on New Years their sins cleared, they were released to go to Druid heaven.
Horses and humans were sacrificed at this time of year. The humans were usually criminals. They were imprisoned in wicker and thatch cages in the form of giants or animals. The cages were set on fire by the priests. Horses were sacrificed at the feast of Samhain as late as 400 AD. Even after Christians had taken over pagan temples and consecrated them to the Christian God, oxen continued to be sacrificed on Hallowmas.
The final incorporation of the feast of Samhain into the Christian calendar took somewhat longer. Allhallows is a feast of the Church celebrated in honor of all the saints, known or unknown. All Saints' Day was introduced into the Church calendar because the year was not long enough to
dedicate a special day for each saint of the Catholic Church. The day chosen was one already associated in the popular mind with a thronging of spirits of the dead and was in line with the Church policy of incorporating harmless pagan ideas. Outside the Church, the belief in Halloween as a
gathering time for sanctified and unsanctified spirits continued. To the ghosts originally assembled by the Lord of the Dead were added troops of goblins and fairies.
Long after the Church had triumphed over organized paganism, country people everywhere in Europe continued their ancient practice of placating local spirits and strengthening fertility by magical rites. During the Reformation these rites were considered heresy by the Church. The result was that witchcraft emerged as an organized cult in opposition to the Church. The Prince of Darkness, witches and warlocks gathered to mock the Churchs' All Saints Day by unholy revels of their own.
On the eve of Samhain, pagan cults lit bonfires on the hills to welcome the winter season and ward off evil spirits. The idea that ghosts and spirits fear fire is widespread and with the rise of the witch cult, fire became the weapon against the powers of darkness. The burning of witches was a rite of
purification even more than of punishment.
All Soul's Day This festival of the Catholic Church is dedicated to those who have passed away during the past year and whose souls can be helped on their journey through purgatory through the prayers of the faithful. There is a widespread belief that the spirits of the dead return to visit their former homes on one particular day of the year. This day is All Souls Day and the Day of the Dead.
In ancient Egypt the Day of the Dead was celebrated on the winter solstice. This feast was in honor of Osiris, the god of death whose death symbolized the death of vegetation. On this anniversary of his death, the souls of the dead returned to the land of the living. Food was laid out in houses for the homecoming spirits, and at dusk rows of oil lamps were fastened outside all houses. This was so ghosts
would have no problems finding their way home.
In medieval times criers dressed in black marched through the streets ringing a mournful bell and calling upon people to remember the souls in purgatory. Throughout London the "soulers" used to walk the streets singing and begging.
Alms were given them in return for the soulers to say extra prayers for the donor's dead relatives.
The more prayers said, the more rapid the passage of the dead soul through purgatory.
Halloween Games and Customs
In both pagan and Christian times the period from nightfall on October 31 to sunset on November 2
seems to have held special significance. It is a time when the unseen world of spirits is closer to the
mundane sphere than at any other time of the year.
The souls of the dead return. Elves, trolls and
witches are about. Since these spirits can see into the future, all sorts of divination games are included
in Halloween celebrations. In Scotland and Ireland these games were very popular and it is mostly
from these countries that Halloween customs
in the U.S. have been taken.
There has been wide use of nuts and apples being used in games since they are in season during this
time of the year. A custom of naming nuts for a girl and a boy who are lovers and placing them side
by side on the fireplace was believed to foretell their future. If one catches fire and the other doesn't,
the one whose nut flames will love madly and be rejected. If one or both nuts crack and jump in the
fire, the lovers will quarrel and separate. If both nuts burn quietly together, the pair will be happily
married within the year.
Another divination practice calls for a girl to go alone into a dark room carrying a lighted candle, an
apple, knife and a mirror. She cuts the apple in nine pieces, looks into the mirror, eats eight pieces,
spears the ninth and holds it over her shoulder. The apparition of her future husband comes to take
the apple section and his face is
mirrored in the glass beside hers.
Halloween In Ireland
Fairies for Ireland dominate during this time more than ghosts, devils and witches. The fairy as it first
appears in Scottish and Irish legend was not made up of gauzy-winged little people, but of beings
larger and more beautiful than men. they were the ghosts of ancient kings and heroes mingled with
elder gods. Stunned by the sound of Christian bells and shriveled by holy water, the fairy folk
dwindled to "little people". Another myth about them was that God made them, but did not give them
souls. Another is that at the time of the rebellion some angels sided with Lucifer and were cast into
hell where they became demons. Others remained true to God and stayed in heaven. The indifferent
ones were cast out and condemned to dwell on earth as
fairies until Judgment Day.
Fairies are immortal, but on Judgment Day they will die, whereas good mortals will have eternal life.
For this reason they are jealous of humans and like to play tricks on them. The fairies, like the
witches, hold one of their meetings on Halloween.
But their meetings were gay festivals with dancing
and merriment. Fairies often stole newborn babies and left a fairy child behind. They also bewitched
adults as in stories like Sleeping Beauty.
The best time to rescue victims of such
enchantment was on Halloween.
The jack-o-lanterns carved from pumpkins are also an Irish tradition. The name jack-o-lantern
comes from a tale about a man named Jack who was notorious for his drunkenness and meanness.
One Halloween night, Jack was so drunk and his soul began to slip away from his body. The Devil
appeared to claim his doomed spirit. But Jack made several deals with the Devil, always putting off
his death and the claim the Devil had on him.
Finally, one Halloween, Jack's body just wore out and his soul had to find a place to go. He was
turned away from heaven because he had been too mean and stingy all his life. When he got to the gates of hell, the Devil shouted, "Go away! You tricked me into promising that I'd not claim your soul. I must keep my word; you cannot enter hell."
"But where am I to go?"
"Back where you came from."
"How can I find my way in the windy dark?"
The Devil answered by throwing a chunk of live coal from hell's furnace. Jack put it inside a turnip.
This "jack-o-lantern" has been wandering Earth ever since, a lost soul with no place to go.
Editor's note:
We thank Ralph and Adelin Linton for their book,
Halloween Through TwentyCenturies,
from which much of this research was derived.
Halloween is one of the oldest holidays with origins
going back thousands of years. The holiday we know as Halloween has had many influences from many cultures
over the centuries. From the Roman's Pomona Day, tothe Celtic festival of Samhain, to the Christian holidays
of All Saints and All Souls Days.
Hundreds of years ago in what is now Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts. The Celts worshipped nature and had many gods,with the sun god as their favorite.
It was "he" who commanded their work andtheir rest times, and who made the earth beautiful and the crops grow.
The Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1st.
It was celebrated every year with a festival and
marked the end of the "season of the sun" and
the beginning of "the season of darkness and cold."
The Celts believed, that during the winter, the SunGod
was taken prisoner by Samhain, the Lord of the Dead
and Prince of Darkness.
On the eve before their New Year (October 31),
it was believed that Samhain called together all the dead people. The dead would take different forms, with the bad spirits taking the form of animals. The most evil taking the form of cats.On October 31st after the crops were all harvested and stored for the long winter the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished.
The Druids, the Celtic priests, would meet in the hilltop in the dark oakforest (oak trees were considered sacred).
The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals.As they danced around the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin. When the morning arrived the Druids would give an amber from their fires to each family who would then take them home to
start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the
homes warm and free from evil spirits.
The November 1st festival was named after Samhain andhonored both the Sun God and Samhain. The festival would last for 3 days. Many people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of their animals.
This festival would become the first Halloween.
During the first century the Romans invaded Britain.
They brought with them many of their festivals and customs. One of these was the festival know as Pomona Day, named for their Goddess of fruits and gardens.
It was also celebrated around the 1st of November.
After hundreds of years of Roman rule the customs of the Celtic's Samhain festival and the Roman Pomona Day
mixed becoming 1 major fall holiday.
The next influence came with the spread of the new
Christian religion throughout Europe and Britain.
In the year 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church would make November 1st a church holiday to honor all the saints.
This day was called All Saint's Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Years later the Church would make November 2nd
a holy day. It was called All Souls Day and was to honor the dead. It was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as saints, angels and devils.
But the spread of Christianity did not make people
forget their early customs. On the eve of All Hallows,
Oct. 31, people continued to celebrate the festival of Samhain and Pomona Day. Over the years the customs from all these holidays mixed. October 31st became known as All Hallow Even, eventually All Hallow's Eve, Hallowe'en, and then - Halloween. The Halloween we celebrate today includes all of these influences, Pomona Day's apples, nuts, and harvest,
the Festival of Sanhain's black cats, magic, evil spirits
and death, and the ghosts, skeletons and skulls
from All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day.
celebrated their New Year's Eve on October 31.
They believed in the supernatural and tried to placate the Lord of Death. They lit bonfires to honor the sun god and frighten away evil spirits. The Druids also believed that witches rode on broomsticks and that ghosts caused supernatural happenings.The custom of celebrating Halloween was brought to the New World
by Gaelic immigrants. Today's celebration follows
ancient customs involving a combination of Druid
practices and other religious beliefs.
The Jack-o-Lantern originated with an Irishman named
Jack who loved to play pranks on the Devil.
Legend is that he was made to wander the world carrying a lantern to show him the way, going to neither heaven nor hell.
Hollowed out pumpkins with candles lighted inside
were supposed to scare evil spirits away.
"Trick-or-treating" was initiated by the Irish when farmers would go from house to house to collect food for the village.
Today, Halloween has become a multi-million dollar costume business. Generally, on this children's holiday, children dress up and go from house to house for candy. Harmless pranks are pulled on neighbors or friends. Many communities are now hosting structured activities or parties in order to keep pranks from turning into destructive outings.
England is old and small and they started out running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave.
When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they
realized they had been burying people alive.
They began tying a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and attach it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; so, someone could be "saved by the bell"
or was considered a "dead ringer."
