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Halloween My Favorite Holiday and Its Traditions (Revival)
- Sep 19, 2008 at 5:30 PM
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I love holidays (well except maybe Columbus Day which is just really bogus), but I have always been particulary fond of Halloween. Of course, I don't believe in spirits, ghosts, ghouls or other such paranormal activities but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy the traditions that have stuck around. Traditions always evolve because humans evolve. We know things now that people didn't know then but their surviving traditions show that they were thinking about the world as they knew it. I've gathered everything I could find until I got tired! So this journal is a mish mash of things I remember and things I've gotten from other websites. So here it is...
I am also posting this revival because every darned year silliness about how eeeeeeevil Haloween is circulates around the web. Halloween is not and was never an evil holiday. It was a time of the last harvest, the ending of the summer and the coming of the winter. Because the cycle of life and death seemed so prominent at this time (life of summer so near the the dying of winter--logical when you think about it) it was believed that the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was thinnest. Thus, it was also a time for remembering the deceased.
Holiday traditions are very old. The whole "sacrifice on halloween" issue is steeped in superstition. Druids, both past and present were accused of human and animal sacrifice. Modern Druids DO NOT practice any form of human or animal sacrifice. The Druids were the highly educated among the Celts. They were priests, record keepers, scientists, lawmakers, lawkeepers, arbitrators, divinators, and keepers of the oral traditions. They did not have demons and devils in their belief system. They believed in gods, spirits, giants, gnomes, fairys, elves and other such beings, but these were seen as powerful and potentially dangerous, not evil. Fairies, for instance, were prone to making mischief as much as they could equally do good if they were in the mood. It was said that on Samhain the fairies would sometimes trick humans into becoming lost forever in the sidhe (shee) fairy mounds . Any evidence that the ancient Druids made human sacrifices is very sparse and not well substantiated and generally come from Christian sources. One can not take the word from a conquering group especially at a time when people were being burned alive at a stake. There is very little, if any proof that ancient Druids practiced human or animal sacrifice (certainly not on Halloween). But they did build that nifty Stonehenge thing.
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HALLOWEEN
This time of year marks the end of summer and the final harvest. It is the time of the coming of the dark so what else is there to do but hold a fire festival! Of course! This is when things start to die. And since those who lived long ago didn't have central heat or state of the art health care facilities, I would imagine that many of the weak, sick, and elderly would be expected to die during the long winter. The Celts traditons were eventually merged with the Roman traditions from the Roman holiday for the dead (Feralia was February 21 which was held after week long feast for the dead when Romans visted tombs with offerings of food and ended on that day) and a day honoring the goddess of fruit, gardens, and trees (Pomona was her name and her day was August 13 -- Popum is apple in Latin and Pomme is apple in French).
Cattle and sheep are brought in from pasture, hay for animal feed is gathered in and stored. It is the time to bring in the barley, oats, wheat, corn, turnips, nuts, berries, and apples. Wood is gathered for winter fires. This is a time to begin more activities together indoors with the coming cold-salting, baking, and preserves. Look outside in the temperate zone and it is easy to see why the harvest colors are saturated with orange, red, brown (bronze), yellow (gold), and black. (If you ever played Sim 2: Seasons then you know that the fall is the time of the year for building skills!)
THE DEAD
The Celtics celebrated Samhain (sah-van though neo-pagans pronounce it sow-in) which means Summer's End (Samhain has never been the name of a Celtic god and it isn't another name for Satan. Never has been. Sam=Summer and Hain=End. ) The Celtic gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd (King of the Otherworld) or Arawn (Lord of the Otherworld), depending on the region. The new year for the Celts was around November 1 and the night before was the time when the veils between the world of the living and the world of the dead was the thinnest and this allowed spirits of the dead and the yet-to-be-born to walk among them. It was a time to be one with the past, present, and future. It was not a time of fear. This was the time of year to make predictions about the coming year with the help of the spirits (they didn't have meteorologists or the weather channel to help them out). The Celts also had a feast for the dead inviting them to partake. The Celts believed that when people died, they went to a land of eternal youth, beauty and perpetual happiness called Tir nan Og. The idea of heaven and hell was unknown to them.
For Wiccans and neo-pagans this is also the beginning of the new year; a festival of endings, transformation, breaking of bad habits, and making resolutions. It is still a time of letting go of the old, preparing for the new, paying respects to the dearly departed, to past ancestors, and to spirit guides. The Goddess manifests as the Crone and the God the Horned Hunter (the Stag).
When the Romans (C.E. 43) took over Celtic lands they added their traditions such as Feralia which was a holiday honoring the dead and also the festival honoring Pomona. Christianity added its influence around 835 C.E. the Pope decreed that November 1st was all Saint's Day to honor saints and martyers (All Saints Day had been on May 13). It was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (which is derived from a middle English term, Alholowmesse which meant all saint's day). The night before was soon called All Hallows Eve and is now called Halloween. Around 1000 C.E. the church made November 2 All Souls' day. All three Christian days were then called collectively Hallowmas or Hallow Tide.
In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain all Souls' Day is El Dia De Los Muertos and is the most important of the three Hallowmas days. It is to honor the dead who return home on Halloween. During the time of the Aztecs, a monthlong summer celebration was overseen by the goddess Mictecacihuatl, the Lady of the Dead. After the Aztecs were conquered by Spain and Catholicism became the dominant religion, the customs became intertwined with the Christian commemoration of All Saints' Day on Nov. 1 (Thank you Momma_Halo for the Aztec connection). Today, families contruct an altar decorated with candy, flowers, food and drink favored by the loved one, and pictures to honor this visit. Candles and incense help the loved one find their way home. Relatives clean up and make repairs to gravesites and then decorate them with flowers, wreathes, and paper streamers. On November 2, familes gathers at the grave to remember (sometimes with a toast, lunch feast, or music). Rememberance, joy, reflection, and open mocking of death is the theme -- it is not a time of fear. Death walks hand in hand with life.
Wiccans and Pagans also honor deceased relatives by setting up an altar and lighting candles or setting a place at the feast table specifically for them.
No matter where the traditions came from they all commemorate the dead. It is no surprise. The sun's light is "dying" and will be reborn again; ressurection. So too a god dies and will expect to be reborn; eternal. The cold and lack of new growing things could mean the difference between life and death if the harvested food doesn't hold out, or the sick and old can not keep warm or get enough to eat. Life and death meet in the last breath of the harvest.
FIRE
The Celts would put out their home fires (when you live in a cold place where fire is they key to your survival you begin to see the significance) and build bonfires (probaby was once bone fire). Crops and animals were sacrificed at the bonfire at Tlachtga (not far from Tara - Hill/Place of Kings) to please their concept of deities/spirits (why not slaughter animals for winter eating while at the same time giving their lifeblood to the gods and spirits, if indeed that was a reason? Besides, bones make a VERY hot fire once they get going) There was dancing around the fire and then a relighting of home fires from the sacred bonfire to ensure good fortune and protection into the new year. Ashes from the fires were spread on the fields which improved the soil. Christians later also celebrated with bonfires. Light in a time of dark is a way to commemorate the eventual triumph of light over dark.
COSTUMES
The Celts wore animal costumes and told each others fortunes, again spirits of your loved ones or ancestors were not viewed as things of fear. However, English Christians celebrated All Souls' day by dressing in costumes of saints, angels, and devils. These Christians were afraid of spirits! The dead were roaming the Earth for goodness sakes and not all of them were benevolent! Dressing in costumes, they hoped, would confuse the evil spirits and protect the wearer from harm.
APPLES
This time of year is apple harvest so it is no surprise that apples play a significant role. Romans honored the goddess Pomona and when they took over the Celtic lands her day became merged with the October traditions. She was the goddess of fruit and trees and her symbol was the apple. In the Celtic Otherworld (also known as Avalon or Summerland) an apple tree grows with fruits full of magical power. You must travel over sea to reach Avalon and bobbing for apples could represent this sea journy to find the elusive apples. But since the apple is also the symbol of love and youth catching an elusive apple bobbing or dangling from a string could symbolize being loved back. It is no accident that the tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden was an apple tree! Cut an apple and its orientation of seeds form a perfect five pointed star.
Pomona's Story:
From Ovid's Metamorphoses: Pomona was a Roman nymph who loved to tend her fruit tress and flowers and so shut herself up in her garden away from anyone human or divine. None could enter. Vertumnus, the god of orchards, desired her passionately. He tried many ruses, costumes, and masks to get into Pomona's gardens and they all failed until he disguised himself as an old woman and was let in. Once inside he began to woo the goddess first by praising her beauty and fruit but when this too could not win her heart he compared his plight with an elm tree that had grown intertwined with grapes. If the tree stood alone it could bear no fruit and without the elm the vine would be trampled underfoot. He pled, "You shun marriage and do not care to be wed, so I the god of the orchards cannot bear fruit without your help." His words melt the nymph's heart and she marries him.
JACK o LANTERNS
This is a much later tradition started from an Irish myth about a man called Stingy Jack (It's such a fun story but you hardly ever hear it).
Stingy Jack's Story (Short Version):
Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him but Jack didn't want to pay so he had the devil turn himself into a coin to buy the drinks. But instead of buying the drink Jack kept the coin and put it in his pocket. A silver cross that was also in his pocket kept the devil from turning back. Jack freed the devil on the condition that he wouldn't bother jack for one year and that if Jack died he wouldn't take his soul. The next year Jack tricked the devil into climbing into a tree and once there Jack carved a cross on the tree to trap the devil. Jack wouldn't let him down until the devil promised not to bother him for ten more years. When Jack died he was not let into heaven and the Devil, a little upset over being tricked twice, kept his promise and did not allow Jack into hell. The Devil sent Jack on his way with a burning coal to light the night as he wandered. Jack put the coal into a carved turnip and has roamed the Earth ever since.
Jack's wandering spirit was called "Jack of the Lantern" which was condensed into Jack 'o Lantern. People in Scotland and Ireland began to use hollowed out turnips and potatoes carved with scary faces lit with candles and put them in their windows or near their doorways to frighten away Jack (lest he trickt them out of their souls) and other evil spirits. Those who lived in England used beets. And when people immigrated to America they used a native fruit--the pumpkin--to carve the jack o' lanterns. Obviously, with the Devil as a character, this story is not of a Pagan origin!
TRICK OR TREATING
It was once believed that for every cake eaten on halloween night a soul was saved and the person going "a souling" would promise to say a prayer for the dead in exchange for the food. First it was poor adults who would beg from the weathly for coin to buy cakes or to be given a soul cake and then eventually it became tradition for children to do so. Soul cakes were replaced by money, fruit, or bread. (I couldn't find anything significant about where the pranks were about or if they were even done on houses that didn't give though there are references to general mischief making). Trick or treating in the US as we know it didn't appear until around the 1930s. Some say that Trick or Treating was a way to stop vandalism but it seems to be more of a revival of an old tradition feuled by the wheels of fundraising and commercialism. In other similar traditions in other countries and in ancient times, unlike America, the "beggar" promised something in return for the treat or earns it by performing (In Scotland it is called guising and a child might recite a poem). However, America's influence is strong and taking over the lesser known traditions!
OTHER BITS
Kornigou are cakes still baked today in Western Brittany. They are cakes baked in the shape of antlers which was meant to commemorate the god of winter shedding his "cuckold" horns as he returns to his kingdom in the Otherworld. This is also the season of nuts! It was once believed that if lovers each took a nut and named them after each other and then threw them in the fire it would make a prediciton. If the nuts burned to ahses they would be happy together if the nuts popped they would spend a hard life togehter.
OTHER TRADITIONS
In some places bonfires are still lit. Snap-apple, is a game in which an apple on a string is tied to a doorframe or tree and players attempt to bite the hanging apple. Bobbing for apples (a leftover from the goddess Pomona) is still popular. In some places parents set up treasure hunts, with candy or pastries as the "treasure" for children to find. The Irish also play a card game where cards are laid face down on a table with candy or coins underneath them. When a child chooses a card, he receives whatever prize is found below it. A traditional food eaten on Halloween is barnbrack, a kind of fruitcake that can be bought in stores or baked at home. A muslin-wrapped treat is baked inside the cake that, it is said, can foretell the eater's future. If a ring is found, it means that the person will soon be wed; a piece of straw means that a prosperous year is on its way. Children are also known to play tricks on their neighbors, such as "knock-a-dolly," a prank in which children knock on the doors of their neighbors, but run away before the door is opened.
GUY FAWKES DAY
On November 5 in the evening bonfires are lit and fireworks are set off in England. This day has nothing to do with halloween but it falls near enough that some of its traditions have crossed over. Those who followed Martin Luther stopped celebrating Hallowmas since followers did not believe in saints. This day remembers the commemorates Guy Fawkes was a Catholic who was executed in 1606 after bing convicted of attempting to blow up parliament. Bonfires were used to burn effigies (symbols of the pope at first and then replaced by Guy Fawkes). Children would carry an effigy of guy and ask for "a penny for the guy" and keep the penny, much like trick or treating.
CATS
Well cats were revered by the Egyptians and it isn't surprising that some claimed that cats could hold a roaming human soul. It didn't start out that cats were considered evil but that eventually happened especially to the black cat. As the day of the dead became more of a day of fear to some, so did the fear of the cat increase. Add in a healthy dose of witchcraft superstition and you don't have a pretty picture.
MONSTERS
American film is to blame not that supersitions weren't already there. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolf Man as Halloween staples are all the fault of Hollywood. Every so often a new monster is added like Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Leatherface and Jigsaw. (It makes sense when you think about it, most people these days don't believe in ghosts. The people who started the tradition DID. We've substituted one frightening image that we can see for another that we can't. And when you think about the fact that the day and eve are celebrations for the dead, naturally skeletons and other things that are associated with death and the night are going to come into play.)
SUPERSTITIONS
• If an unmarried girl keeps a rosemary herb and a silver sixpence under her pillow on Halloween night she will dream of her future husband. She can also go to a spring of water with a lantern (or broken egg in a glass) and see the reflection of her future mate in the water.
• If you peel and apple in one long piece it was supposed to predict your longevity. The longer and thinner the intact peel was the longer the peeler would live.
• It was once believed that black cats were the devil, or consumed by evil spirits.
• People used to believe that Satan was a nut-gatherer. Nuts were also used as magic charms on the day of the Halloween festival.
• If the flame on your candle goes out on Halloween celebration a ghost is near you.
• If you ring a bell on Halloween it will frighten evil spirits away.
• Owls were thought to eat the souls of the dying on Halloween. They used to think if you pulled your pockets out, and left them hanging, they'd be safe.
• It has been said if a bat flies into your house on Halloween, it is a sign that ghosts or spirits are very near. Bats that fly around playfully outside fortell good weather. If they fly around the house three times death is near.
• To ward off evil walk around your house backwards three times before sunset on Halloween.
• It could be the spirit of a dead loved one watching you if you watch a spider on Halloween
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Please, if you know of any other traditions or tidbits shout it out. I'd love to hear them!
PS. This Christian Pastor agrees that spreading false rumors a bout Halloween is wrong (I'd go as far as to say ignorant, but he's too nice to say that I think): http://www.new-life.net/halowen1.htm (part 1) http://www.new-life.net/halowen2.htm (part 2). I even forgive him for the whole "devil worship" side notes here and there because he's intelligent and has a good head on his shoulders and I get what he means.
Comments:
and i always thought it was just a way for stores to get us to by candy....
Yay Halloween!
Dang ALG! You're always making me read 'n learn 'n stuff. Thanks for the tribute to my favorite holiday!
I love this kind of stuff. Right up my little history lovin' alley. :) Plus, I love halloween too.
Great journal ALG! I adore learning more about the traditions we do just out of habit. I always like to add a new aspect of all the holidays each year or at least explore how they do them in other parts of the world. Well done!
I don't know that this exactly ties in, but in England and other European countries, a White cat is the symbol of bad luck, while in America, it is the Black cat. (I have not done research as to why that is, though.)
On another note, it is wonderful to hear all the great traditions of Halloween! I have a die-hard Christian Aunt with 3 children between the ages of 9 and 12. They do not celebrate because it is the 'devil-worshipping' holiday. How sad...
i love tradition on any holiday! Thanks for sharing.
I added this to short cuts, and if I can, I'd like to add to my journals if its ok by you?
Feel free, rosesNclovers.
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This is long, but interesting. I'll vote it up and finish reading :)
- Jerbear_1974
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