Halloween is upon us :).
The
origins of the celebration date back hundreds of years ago to the Druid
festival of Samhain, Lord of the Dead and Prince of Darkness, who,
according to Celtic belief, gathered up the souls of all those who died
during the year to present them to Druid Heaven on October 31st.
The
Druid New Year began on November 1st, marking the beginning of winter
and the reign of the Lord of Death. The Druids called upon supernatural
forces to placate the evil spirits, and it is from that tradition that
modern Halloween gets the paraphernalia of ghosts, goblins, witches,
skeletons, cats, masks and bonfires.
As Christianity replaced the pagan religions, the church set aside November 1
st to honor all saints (all-hallows) and called it All Hallows’ Day. The evening before November 1
st became All Hallows’ Even, later shortened to Halloween.
The
jack-o-lantern, most typical of Halloween symbols began with the Irish.
According to legend, a man named Jack, who was kept out of Heaven
because he was stingy and expelled from Hell for playing tricks on the
Devil, was condemned to walk the earth forever carrying a lantern to
light his way. In Ireland the jack-o-lanterns were made by hollowing out
large potatoes or turnips. During the 1840s, the Irish took their ways
and celebrations to the States and pumpkins started being used instead
of turnips, due to practical reasons. A candle burning inside makes the
merry face of the “Trick or Treat goer” visible from far away on a dark
night and the pulp makes delicious pumpkin pie.
The lantern was
also used to frighten away roaming spirits by those who walked out into
the night. Another meaning is that in the darkness, light continues
hidden in the tubers, seeds, dormant under the earth but still glowing,
like the candle in the pumpkin.
For the Celts, Samhaim was also the start of the story-telling season by candlelight.
Most
times all Christian celebrations retain a little from a heathen past,
because in the old times the transition toward Christianity had been
swifter on condition the well known patterns of pagan ways were
preserved.
