These days, many people think of Hallowe'en as something that
is often used as a subtext for some rather tacky horror movies or as a celebration for children which has been imported from
America, but in fact they couldn't be more wrong. Hallowe'en was known to the Celts as Samhain and is still known as
such by many modern day pagans and heathens.
At its most basic, Samhain is the feast of the dead and also heralds the Celtic
new year. The Celts began their new year in the winter. The winter season lasted from November 1st until April
30th. On October 31st, the Celtic new year's eve, fires were lit and these bonfires were kept lit for a period of 10
days, which is why we still have bonfires on November 5th - it's not just because of Guy Fawkes, the fires were burning long
before he came on the scene. The fires were not just to rid the community of the year's accumulated rubbish, they were
also symbolic of the renewal of the earth and they were thought to lure the spirits of the dead away from the homes of the
living.
Livestock that could not be kept over the winter were slaughtered and a feast would be had. Sheep were mated
to ensure the following year's stock and at the height of the festival the young men and boys of the village would dip torches
in the bonfire and run round the perimeter of the village waving the torches to ward off evil spirits.
The Celts also employed
the infamous wicker man. Basically a wicker man was a sacrificial cage made in the shape of a human and the Celts would
sacrifice animals and sometimes even people in these cages. A somewhat macabre element of this is that the Celtic priests
would sometimes attempt to divine the future by observing the writhings of the bodies and the flames within the cages.
When the Christian church came to Britain these powerful celebrations
could not be ignored. The church elders felt that they would be unable to obliterate this ancient celebration so they
hijacked it instead. In AD 834, All Saints Day was moved from May 13th to November 1st. October 31st became All
Hallows Eve, Hallows being another word for saints. In AD 988 the church instituted All Souls Day and the church urged
the pagan Celts to pray FOR their dead instead of TO them. This meant that saints largely replaced the spectre of ghosts.
Despite this the habit of Samhain still lingered in Europe,
especially in Brittany and the British Isles. Sir James Frazier, a 19th century writer on the occult said of Samhain;
"The time of year when the souls of the departed were supposed
to revisit their old homes in order to warm themselves by the fire and comfort themselves with the good cheer provided by
their affectionate kinfolk. It was, perhaps, a natural thought that the approach of winter should drive the poor, shivering,
hungry ghosts from the bare fields and the leafless woodlands to the shelter of the cottage with its familiar fireside."
Believe it or not, this was the origin of the "trick or treat"
tradition which went to America with the Scots and Irish immigrants. At the time the aim was to dress as a spirit in
order to win the food left out for the dead.
Then of course there is the Jack O' Lantern. Christian myth tells
of Jack as a blacksmith who made a deal with the Devil. For 7 years Jack would be the finest blacksmith in the world, but
once his 7 years were up he would have to give his soul to Satan. Before that date Jesus and St Peter visited Jack at
his forge and offered him a place in Heaven if only he would repent. To their horror, Jack refused. When the devil came
to collect his soul, Jack refused to offer his soul in payment.
However, when Jack died both the Devil and Jesus rejected
him, and so Jack was doomed to wander the earth, holding a turnip he had been eating containing a coal scooped up from hell
which Satan himself had thrust into his hand.
The legends and myths that have sprang up around Samhain are
many and varied but the actually history is far more fascinating. It seems sad to me that over 3,000 years of pagan
history has been swallowed up and spat out as nothing more that a bit of fun for kids dressed up as ghosts and monsters.
