Halloween
had its beginnings in an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival
of the dead. The Celtic peoples, who were once found all over
Europe, divided the year by four major holidays. According to
their calendar, the year began on a day corresponding to November
1st on our present calendar. The date marked the beginning of
winter. Since they were pastoral people, it was a time when
cattle and sheep had to be moved to closer pastures and all
livestock had to be secured for the winter months. Crops were
harvested and stored. The date marked both an ending and a beginning
in an eternal cycle.
The
festival observed at this time was called Samhain (pronounced
Sah-ween). It was the biggest and most significant holiday of
the Celtic year. The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain,
more so than any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead
were able to mingle with the living, because at Samhain the
souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the
otherworld. People gathered to sacrifice animals, fruits, and
vegetables. They also lit bonfires in honor of the dead, to
aid them on their journey, and to keep them away from the living.
On that day all manner of beings were abroad: ghosts, fairies,
and demons--all part of the dark and dread.
Samhain
became the Halloween we are familiar with when Christian missionaries
attempted to change the religious practices of the Celtic people.
In the early centuries of the first millennium A.D., before
missionaries such as St. Patrick and St. Columcille converted
them to Christianity, the Celts practiced an elaborate religion
through their priestly caste, the Druids, who were priests,
poets, scientists and scholars all at once. As religious leaders,
ritual specialists, and bearers of learning, the Druids were
not unlike the very missionaries and monks who were to Christianize
their people and brand them evil devil worshippers. ....
As a result of their efforts to wipe out "pagan" holidays, such
as Samhain, the Christians succeeded in effecting major transformations
in it. In 601 A.D. Pope Gregory the First issued a now famous
edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and
customs of the peoples he hoped to convert. Rather than try
to obliterate native peoples' customs and beliefs, the pope
instructed his missionaries to use them: if a group of people
worshipped a tree, rather than cut it down, he advised them
to consecrate it to Christ and allow its continued worship.
In
terms of spreading Christianity, this was a brilliant concept
and it became a basic approach used in Catholic missionary work.
Church holy days were purposely set to coincide with native
holy days. Christmas, for instance, was assigned the arbitrary
date of December 25th because it corresponded with the mid-winter
celebration of many peoples. Likewise, St. John's Day was set
on the summer solstice.
Samhain,
with its emphasis on the supernatural, was decidedly pagan.
While missionaries identified their holy days with those observed
by the Celts, they branded the earlier religion's supernatural
deities as evil, and associated them with the devil. As representatives
of the rival religion, Druids were considered evil worshippers
of devilish or demonic gods and spirits. The Celtic underworld
inevitably became identified with the Christian Hell.
The
effects of this policy were to diminish but not totally eradicate
the beliefs in the traditional gods. Celtic belief in supernatural
creatures persisted, while the church made deliberate attempts
to define them as being not merely dangerous, but malicious.
Followers of the old religion went into hiding and were branded
as witches.
The
Christian feast of All Saints was assigned to November 1st.
The day honored every Christian saint, especially those that
did not otherwise have a special day devoted to them. This feast
day was meant to substitute for Samhain, to draw the devotion
of the Celtic peoples, and, finally, to replace it forever.
That did not happen, but the traditional Celtic deities diminished
in status, becoming fairies or leprechauns of more recent traditions.
The old beliefs associated with Samhain never died out entirely.
The powerful symbolism of the traveling dead was too strong,
and perhaps too basic to the human psyche, to be satisfied with
the new, more abstract Catholic feast honoring saints. Recognizing
that something that would subsume the original energy of Samhain
was necessary, the church tried again to supplant it with a
Christian feast day in the 9th century. This time it established
November 2nd as All Souls Day--a day when the living prayed
for the souls of all the dead. But, once again, the practice
of retaining traditional customs while attempting to redefine
them had a sustaining effect: the traditional beliefs and customs
lived on, in new guises.
All
Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows (hallowed means sanctified
or holy), continued the ancient Celtic traditions. The evening
prior to the day was the time of the most intense activity,
both human and supernatural. People continued to celebrate All
Hallows Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but the supernatural
beings were now thought to be evil. The folk continued to propitiate
those spirits (and their masked impersonators) by setting out
gifts of food and drink. Subsequently, All Hallows Eve became
Hallow Evening, which became Hallowe'en--an ancient Celtic,
pre-Christian New Year's Day in contemporary dress.
Many
supernatural creatures became associated with All Hallows. In
Ireland fairies were numbered among the legendary creatures
who roamed on Halloween. An old folk ballad called "Allison
Gross" tells the story of how the fairy queen saved a man from
a witch's spell on Halloween.
O
Allison Gross, that lives in yon tower the ugliest witch in
the North Country... She's turned me into an ugly worm and gard
me toddle around a tree... But as it fell out last Hallow even
When the seely [fairy] court was riding by, the Queen lighted
down on a gowany bank Not far from the tree where I wont to
lie... She's change me again to my own proper shape And I no
more toddle about the tree.
In
old England cakes were made for the wandering souls, and people
went "a' soulin'" for these "soul cakes." Halloween, a time
of magic, also became a day of divination, with a host of magical
beliefs: for instance, if persons hold a mirror on Halloween
and walk backwards down the stairs to the basement, the face
that appears in the mirror will be their next lover.
Virtually
all present Halloween traditions can be traced to the ancient
Celtic day of the dead. Halloween is a holiday of many mysterious
customs, but each one has a history, or at least a story behind
it. The wearing of costumes, for instance, and roaming from
door to door demanding treats can be traced to the Celtic period
and the first few centuries of the Christian era, when it was
thought that the souls of the dead were out and around, along
with fairies, witches, and demons. Offerings of food and drink
were left out to placate them. As the centuries wore on, people
began dressing like these dreadful creatures, performing antics
in exchange for food and drink. This practice is called mumming,
from which the practice of trick-or-treating evolved. To this
day, witches, ghosts, and skeleton figures of the dead are among
the favorite disguises. Halloween also retains some features
that harken back to the original harvest holiday of Samhain,
such as the customs of bobbing for apples and carving vegetables,
as well as the fruits, nuts, and spices cider associated with
the day.
Today
Halloween is becoming once again an adult holiday or masquerade,
like mardi Gras. Men and women in every disguise imaginable
are taking to the streets of big American cities and parading
past grinningly carved, candlelit jack o'lanterns, re- enacting
customs with a lengthy pedigree. Their masked antics challenge,
mock, tease, and appease the dread forces of the night, of the
soul, and of the otherworld that becomes our world on this night
of reversible possibilities, inverted roles, and transcendency.
In so doing, they are reaffirming death and its place as a part
of life in an exhilarating celebration of a holy and magic evening.
