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Halloween,
that night when the ghouls, ghosts and daemons which comes to us every
autumn/fall; but what do we actually know about it. Is how we remember
Halloween shaped by Hollywood and modern fashions or our traditions
carried through the centuries.
Halloween as
we know it can be traced back to the pre-Christian Druidic festival of Samhain.
With the name of Halloween coming only since about the 7th century
with the Feast of All Saints Day, or All Hallows Day, On 1 November each year
the night before becoming All Hallow’s eve or ‘een, eventually. All soul’s day
is celebrated on November 2 each year and was first celebrated about 100 years
after All Saints’ Day. The initiation of this feast-day was as attempt to
further bury pagan customs and replace them with Christian celebrations. With
this holiday the festival of Samhain and the old Roman festival of Pomona
(Roman harvest festival with non of the darker sides of Samhain) were mingled
into the sands of history.
The festival
of Samhain, was one of the pre-eminent religious festival of the old
Celtic calendar. The word “Samhain” itself means “summer’s end”. It was a
harvest festival which marked the end of summer and the start of the winter
season, the dark time. It was celebrated from the sunset on the October
31 through the following day, November 1.
Samhain was
one of the four special festivals spread through-out the Celtic year to
make the passage of the seasons and time. It also celebrated certain social
practices necessary for Celtic society.The four festivals were ; Imbolc
on the 1st February. This festival has now largely been assigned
to the footnotes of history, with Lá Fhéile Bríde, Saint Bridget’s day
now celebrated at this time. The Spring festival of Beltaine, on the 1st
May is still remembered and is today used as a celebration of “Creativity as we
age”, a week or so of activities to celebrate the contribution made to the arts
and society by older members of the community. The Festival of Lúnasa
which takes place on the first of August has also been revived and is
essentially an arts festival which is Sligo based[1]
The original
festival of Samhain was a lot more than the Halloween we see today, with a far
more significant message.
Samhain
began with the Festival of Fire on the evening of 31 October, possibly in
honour of the sun god Móg Ruith . At this time all fires in the country
would be ceremoniously quenched only for a sacred fire to be lit on the Hill of
Tlachtga by the High-King, the flame from this used to light torches
which would bring the new year’s flame to the corners of the country. The food
consumed during Samhain would be cooked on these new fires. This was
essentially the New Year’s festivity, the old year was quenched out to allow
the new to begin. The year’s crops having been harvested and stored. The
livestock was also brought in at this stage with any animals to be slaughtered
for food in the winter ahead selected and readied for slaughter, when it would
come. Fruits and other crops were also to be harvested by this date with the
folklore being that any fruits or berries left on harvested by this day would
be bewitched and inedible.
The
passage of the year from old to new is perhaps the part of Samhain which
we remember most. Whereas we see the day as starting with dawn, the Celts saw
it as starting when dark and progressing to light. This concept they also took
to their calendar. The dark nights of November would eventually give way to the
bright days of spring and summer. There was also the spiritual side
to the festival. This time of transition between years was also a time of
transition between world, this one and the next. It was a time when spirits
would return to visit family members and others with messages, some good, some
bad. At this time it was felt that those ghosts and spirits were on their
journey to the Otherworld, but had some last message or function to
perform. In many cases these spirits were not seen as bad or malevolent. Dead
ancestors who left this world for the other during the previous year were
invited to homes and treated as guests of honour. Food was prepared for both
the living and the dead, the food prepared symbolically for the ancestors was
shared with the poorer members of society.
Note:
the legends which the author grew up with suggested that although the
appearance of a ghost at this time may bring bad news with it, it was the news
that was bad, not the ghost and indeed it was felt that the bringing of bad
news by a ghost was not a harbinger of doom but rather a warning, a
chance to possible prevent foretold events from occurring. Of course
families being families and people being people meant that not all of these
ghostly visits were welcome, indeed some were to settle old scores. To prevent
this the living would often dress up in costumes and masks to prevent the dead
from recognising those they come to communicate with.
The
importance of Samhain can be seen in the surviving burial mounds at Tlachtga (
the home of the fire festival on the eve of Samhain) and Tara.
The famous Mound of the Hostages has its entrance passage aligned
with the rising Samhain The importance of this is the age of the Mound;
being 4,500 to 5,000 years old, it predates Celts by about 2000 years. This
shows us that the time associated with Samhain was noteworthy even to those
people who populated Ireland even before the Celts who are understood to have
arrived in Ireland around 2,500 years ago.
Faced with
the decline of the sun as the months carried on the bonfire was seen as a way
of assisting the sun at this time of the year when it was seen to be at it
weakest and most vulnerable. It was at this time that Donn, the Lord of
the Underworld was sufficiently strong to walk freely upon the earth with his
followers of ghosts, faeries and other creatures. Donn is said to
have been a Milisean ( a mythical race who invaded the island millennia
ago), who was killed through the Druids tricking him to head in to a storm with
his ship. Legend says he and a number of his followers are buried on Skellig
Michel (a world heritage site because of the early Christian monastery on
the island).
Given his
rank in life he became the Lord of Death in the after-life. It was said
that the souls of the dead gathered at Skellig when travelling to and
from the underworld. Legends tell of fishermen hearing strange boats in the
night heading to and from the islands, the names of the dead being called out
as they land on Skellig about to travel between worlds.
Just
as the Druids marked the passing of the light and the closeness between both
worlds at this time it was only natural that this festival also marked the
dead. The say Samhain is suspended in time given its links with the old and new
year but also the link between both worlds. Whereas ghosts may have returned
with messages there were still a lot of others in the underworld which might
return purely for bedevilment; minor gods, faeries and others. You would want
to hide yourself from these folks.
It is
possibly a sign of the confidence of the ancient Celts in their belief of
good over evil, of rebirth that at the very time when the linkages between this
world and the underworld were at their strongest, all fires were quenched until
re-lit, for this night there was very little to protect against those visitors
from the underworld who might be up to mischief. The relighting of the fires
symbolised the conquering of light over dark, life over death. With the fires
re-lit, the spirits who would be welcomed to a home could come and go safely
and with no risk to their human hosts. Just as we leave out food for Santa
Claus, so did our ancestors for those who returned that night. The fires would
warm the visiting ghosts, they would know hospitality and the human hosts would
not have it said that they treated their ancestors with anything less than
reverence. The human hosts just had to make sure that those visitor
s from the underworld had no old scores to settle, if they did, Samhain was the
night they got settled.
Some suggest
that the “trick or treat” aspect of the modern Halloween reflects this with the
visiting children dressed as the ghosts and fed by us with some of the offering
we left out. This offering would also appease less friendly ghosts and spirits.
Anger them by not offing food and the angered ghosts would ensure there was a
year of bad-luck upon the household.
The
time of Samhain was a boundary time, between summer and autumn, between light
and dark, this world and the next; and so it was only logical that this would
spill into the human world. The boundaries between one person’s land and
another’s were seen as favourite places for these ghostly visitors to assemble,
likewise bridges and crossroads. Of course burial grounds were also places to
be avoided this night more than ever. The importance of “managing”
the dead can also be seen in the practice of burying dead Druids. If a Druid died
during the year, he would only be partially buried, covered in stones to
prevent animals taking the body away. On the night of Samhain the Druid’s
corpse would be unburied and burned on the Samhain bonfire.
Samhain
also marked the end of the military year. The Fianna would “hang-up” their
weapons for the winter, enemies vanquished and food hunted for the winter
months. We can also see in the legends of Fionn Mac Cumhail, Cuchulainn and
others that Samhain figures prominently in the legends, fixing times and places
for the stories and contexts.
Modern
Halloween is a product of 19th century emigration from
Ireland and England to places such as the US, where the old customs and
traditions were often held on to with a sense of nostalgia and merged with a
myriad other cultures and traditions to give us the pop-culture,
family friendly festival we know today.
The
trick or treat visitations can be seen as the visits of the year’s deceased
back to their families and our need to treat them with respect. The general
approach of fancy dress, may be seen as an attempt to avoid less than
friendly ghosts and faeries. Even the bonfires we light bring us back
thousands of years to the celebration of light over darkness, new over old,
good over evil.There is much made of potential human sacrifices at this
and other times of year, but the evidence would suggest that the sacrifices
were usually symbolic with milk and corn or other foods being offered.
It was a
time of the puchí (ghosts), the bean sidhe and faeiries.
This was the only night of the year a human can kill a bean sidhe (for what
ever reason), but it was also the night when humans could see the great palaces
of the faery aristocracy. But as with anything dealing with the faery folk
there was a sting in the tale. Visiting humans would be guests in the
homes of these great faeries, eating and drinking what was on offer, the
openness of the hospitality was even extended to the female companions of the
faery Lords. This could be done on this night only, and only if all of the
rules were obeyed, if not, they would be trapped there. Sounds like a risk
people could take, except that the rules and regulations were such that the
chances of messing up and suffering the wrath of the faery fold outweighed the chance
of success.
Halloween traditions
Samhain was not just about the dead or the past
year, but also about looking to the future, omens and signs had a particular
strength and meaning on this night. An apple peel falling to the floor might
make the first letter of a potential spouse coming in the year ahead.
Another
aspect of Samhain or Halloween which developed is the playing of games. These
may not all be linked to the ancient spirits. The ducking for apples for
example is seen these days as just a game, it may have been a convenient way of
doing away with some excess stock at the end of harvest.
Looking
to the future there was, is still, the ritual of the ring hidden in a pan
of brack – a fruit loaf baked for this time of year. Variations of this
include rings being placed in foods such as colcannon. If you find the
ring, you will be married within the year. A coin is also placed in the
mixture, signifying wealth and riches in the year ahead.
Although
the pumpkin is not a typical Irish foodstuff , there still might be a
route to the pumpkin lanterns through Samhain. It is said tha the
ancients produced menacing faces out of turnips and hung them from gates posts
and doorways to prevent unwanted visitors from the underworld. Adding a candle
to this face added to its power and visibility.
In
modern times, pumpkins are used. They're considerably easier to carve, and a
lot bigger, too, but they are not native to Ireland.
Legend has it
that the Halloween lantern that we know today, comes from a game of cards.
Jack O’Lantern made a deal with the devil and strangely enough managed to
better him, he got the Devil to agree never to take his soul. That was all well
and good until Jack died and his licentiousness, gambling and general poor
living meant that he was turned away at the gates of Heaven. The Devil honoured
his side of the deal and did not take Jack in to Hell, the result was
that he now wonders the lanes and by-ways of Ireland for all eternity with
nothing but a turnip which with a hollowed centre holding a burning l ember
from hell thrown to him by the Devil.
The
legends of Halloween will continue to grow for as long as we celebrate the
holiday, but at the end of the day, it is what it is, a tradition still
alive today in its modern form which stretches back into the dark shadows of
time, a time of light and dark this world and the next.
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