This is Halloween

MarieDreamcatcher
Oct 27, 2021
6 min read

We are now in the week of Halloween, the veil is most definitely thinning, making the communication with those who have passed over much easier.

Last year I talked a little bit about Halloween and its traditions in my blog, but this time I’m going to go in much deeper.

Halloween is originally Samhain pronounced Sowin or Soween. This was a pagan festival that had grew out of the ancient Celtic spiritual traditions. Now in modern times Samhain is celebrated between 31st October -1st November to welcome in the harvest and usher in “the dark half of the year.” This is the time when the barriers between the physical world and the spirit world break down during Samhain, allowing more interaction between humans and the inhabitants of the spirit realm.

The Celts marked Samhain as the most important of the four quarterly fire festivals, this fire festival took place in the midway point between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. On this day families would go out and gather the harvest and bring down the cattle to the winter pastures or slaughter the cattle, and while out doing this their hearth fires would be lit and left to burn out in their family homes while out gathering the harvest. Once the harvest work was complete, they would then go to the Druid priests and light a bonfire in the local community, they would do this by using a wheel that would cause friction and spark flames, the wheel was considered to be a representation of the sun. This is where the cattle would be slaughtered/sacrificed and then the families would take a flame from the bonfire back to their home to relight the hearth.

Samhain at the time was considered a mandatory celebration that would last three days and nights and this would be when those in the local community would present themselves to their local kings or chieftains. Failure to participate was believed to result in some form of punishment by the Gods, this would typically either be death or illness. In Ireland they also prepared thrones for their local commanders of the military, anyone who committed a crime during this celebration was usually sentenced to death and was executed. Some texts suggest that alcohol was drank to excess over a six day period, usually this would be beer or mead and there would be large feasts too.

As the Celts believed the barrier between the two worlds could be accessed and moved between during this period, villagers would prepare offerings which would be left outside of the villages and in the fields for the fairies. It was expected that ancestors might cross over during this time, and Celts would dress as animals and monsters so that fairies were not tempted to kidnap them. This is where our modern day tradition of dressing up in costumes has come from. Sounds a bit better than the plastic witchy fingers, bin bags and plastic masks we wore in 80’s and 90’s!

Some of the monsters/spirits are particularly tied with Samhain, one of the being the Pookah, who was a shape shifting creature that received the harvest offerings in the fields. This spirit delighted in torturing humans was believed to spend Samhain destroying or contaminating whatever remained unreaped. The economic uncertainty led to a sense of eeriness with the turn of the year, with the dying and still unborn, making the veil between our world and that of the dead very thin, meaning that neither human or spirits needed passwords to come and go between our world and theirs.

The Lady Gwyn is another spirit associated with this time of year, she was believed to be a headless woman dressed in white who chases night wanderers and was accompanied by a black pig. She would often pretend to be a lost soul, luring and chasing anyone she caught wandering during the night.

The Dullahan sometimes appeared as impish creatures, but often is depicted as a headless horseman riding on a black horse with eyes of flames, their appearance was a death omen to anyone who encountered them.

A group of hunters known as the Faery Host who were also believed to haunt Samhain and kidnap people. There was also the Sluagh, who would come from the west to enter houses and steal souls.

There is also the story of Stingy Jack, he hailed from a town in Ireland, and he was known to be a drunk, with a silver tongue and was able to manipulate others. Eventually the Devil himself heard of the tales and deeds of Jack, feeling envious he went to see for himself if the tales were true.

The Devil encountered Jack in a drunken condition wandering down the road, Jack realising it was the end of the road for him, he asked the Devil could he have a few drinks before he entered the gates of hell. The devil obliged and took him to the pub where he could drink his fill. When the bill arrived, Jack asked the devil to pay for the bill by transforming him into a silver coin. The Devil, who was impressed by the audacity of the request, did as he was asked. Jack, being the master manipulator, took the silver coin and placed it in his pocket, this pocket also happened to have a crucifix. This left the Devil unable to do anything, trapped in coin form, and in order to be restored he had to make a deal with Jack, promising to leave his soul alone for 10 years.

Ten years later, Jack and the Devil met in the same way they had before, and once again Jack bowed to the inevitable, but asked first asked if he could have an apple to feed his starving belly, the Devil agreed to the request, climbing a nearby tree to fetch him one. And as the Devil climbed the tree, Jack quick as a flash carved a cross into the tree trunk. Now at this point the Devil was angry to say the least, he demanded his freedom. Jack agreed but only if the Devil promised that he would never take him to hell, the Devil with no other way down reluctantly agreed.

Years later, Jack died having succumbed to Alcohol poisoning as he ascended to heaven, he tried to enter the pearly gates however he was denied permission by St. Peter, he then went back down to the gates of hell where the Devil, who remained true to his word, refused him permission to enter. The Devil turned him away but not before sparing him an ember to mark him as a Denizen of the underworld, Stingy Jack doomed to forever wander between the realm of the good and the evil, with nothing but Satan’s ember. This ember, he placed in a hollowed out Turnip to light his path. And this is where we get our tradition for carving Jack O Lanterns be it Turnips (which let’s be honest is not an easy feat), or pumpkins. We do this to keep Jack and other disgruntled spirits away on Samhain and place these Jack O Lanterns in the windows to chase away spirits.

Come the middle ages so did the celebrations of the fire festivals progressed. Bonfires known as Samghnagans, which were more personal Samhain fires nearer the farms, became a tradition, this was believed to help to protect families from fairies and witches.

In Wales, men tossed burning wood at each other in violent games and set off fireworks. In Northern England, men paraded with noisemakers.

During this time Dumb Supper began, this was when food would be consumed but only after inviting their ancestors in, giving the families a chance to interact with spirits until they left following dinner. Children would play games to entertain the dead, and the adults would update them on the events of the past year. That night, doors and windows might be left open for the dead to come in and eat cakes that had been left for them.

As Christianity took a strong foothold in the traditionally pagan communities church leaders attempted to reframe Samhain as a Christian celebration. The first attempt was by Pope Boniface in the 5th century. He moved the celebration to May 13 and specified it as a day celebrating saints and martyrs. The fire festivals of October and November, however, did not end with this decree. In the 9th century, Pope Gregory moved the celebration back to the time of the fire festivals, but declared it All Saints’ Day, on November 1. All Souls’ Day would follow on November 2. Neither new holiday did away with the pagan aspects of the celebration. October 31 became known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, and contained much of the traditional pagan practices.

Trick-or-treating is said to have been derived from ancient Irish and Scottish practices in the nights leading up to Samhain. In Ireland, mumming was the practice of putting on costumes, going door-to-door and singing songs to the dead. Cakes were given as payment. Halloween pranks also have a tradition in Samhain, though in the ancient celebration, tricks were typically blamed on fairies.

Halloween is full of rich traditions from the Celtic celebrations of the past, and when you learn about all of this you can see how much we still honour and celebrate these traditions to this day.