The Real Origins of Halloween Discusses the History of Halloween

7/28/2019 The Real Origins of Halloween Discusses the History of Halloween

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The Real Origins of Halloweendiscusses the history of Halloween, the origins oftrick-or-treating, reasons behind some of the symbols of the season, and why theholiday is well worth keeping and celebrating. Previous versions of this essay

specifically contrasted the historical evidence with the absurd claims and urbanlegends used in most anti-Halloween propaganda. I have now put those lattermaterials into their own essay,Halloween Errors and Lies, since it seems that many

eople have never seen or heard those fearmongering tales and could not understandwhy I would spend so much space discussing them within an historical essay.

This is a work of amateur scholarship. If you wish to quote me in an academicenvironment, you may wish to first verify my statements by consulting the books linkedwithin my text. A more formal Bibliography will appear in a future book, Some

Truths About Halloween.

If you prefer black text on white, you can clickherefor a more easily printed (or for

some folks, more easily read) edition of this specific essay. For a Spanish translationwith graphics, go toLos Verdaderos Orgenes de Halloweenor here for theeasy

rinting/reading Spanish textwithout most of the graphics.

For information about the specific topic of Witchcraft, consider obtaining my book,Bonewits's Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca.

There appear to have been four major holy days celebrated by thePaleopaganDruids,

possibly throughout the Celtic territories: Samhain, Oimelc, Beltane & Lughnasadh(in one set of Irish-based modern spellings). Four additional holy (or High) days

(Winter Solstice or Midwinter, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice or Midsummer,

and Fall Equinox), which are based on Germanic or other Indo-European cultures, are

also celebrated in theNeopagan Druid calendar,along with others based on

mainstream holidays (visit the linked essay for details).

The most common practice for the calculation ofSamhain, Oimelc, Beltane andLughnasadh has been, for the last several centuries, to use the civil calendar days oreves of November 1st, February 1st, May 1st and August 1st, respectively. Since we

have conflicting evidence on how the Paleopagan Druids calculated these dates,

modern Neopagans just use whichever method is most convenient. This means, of
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course, that we arent all doing anythinguniformly on any given night, which fitsperfectly with the Neopagan saying that, organizing Pagans is like herding cats. It

doesnt match the Evil Conspiracy theorieswhich have us all marching to a strict

drumbeat in perfect Satanic unisonat all.

These four major holy days have been referred to as firefestivals for at least the last hundred years or so, because (1) to

the ancient Celts, as with all the Indo-European Paleopagans, fire

was a physical symbol of divinity, holiness, truth, and beauty; (2)

fires play important roles in the traditional customs associated

with these festivals; and (3) several early Celtic scholars called

them that. Whether in Ireland or India, among the Germans or

the Hittites, sacred fires were apparently kindled by the Indo-

European Paleopagans on every important religious occasion. To

this very day, among Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholics,

you cant have a satisfying ritual without a few candles being lit

of course, the Fundamentalists considerthemHeathen too!

Samhainor Samhuinn is pronounced sow- (as in femalepig) -en (with the neutral vowel sound) not Sam Hain

because mh in the middle of an Irish word is a w sound

(dont ask me why, its just Irish). Known in Modern Irish asLSamhna, in Welsh asNos Galen-Gaeaf(that is, the Night of theWinter Calends), and in Manx asLaa Houney (Hollantide Day),Sauin orSouney, Samhain is often said to have been the mostimportant of the fire festivals, because (according to most Celtic

scholars) it may have marked the Celtic New Year. At the least,

Samhain was equal in importance toBeltane and shared manysymbolic characteristics.

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Samhainwas the original festival that the Western Christian calendar moved its AllSaints Day to (Eastern Christians continue to celebrate All Saints Day in the spring,

as the Roman Christians had originally). Since the Celts, like many cultures, started

every day at sunset of the night before, Samhainbecame the evening of All

Hallows (hallowed = holy = saint) which was eventually contracted intoHallow-een or the modern Halloween.

Whether it was the Celtic New Year or not, Samhain was the beginning of the Winteror Dark Half of the Year (the seasons ofGeimredh=Winterand Earrach=Spring) as

Beltane was the beginning of the Summer or Light Half of the Year (the seasons ofSamradh=Summer andFoghamhar=Fall). The day before Samhain is the last day of
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summer (or the old year) and the day afterSamhain is the first day of winter (or of thenew year). Being between seasons or years, Samhain was (and is) considered a very

magical time, when the dead walk among the living and the veils between past,

present and future may be lifted in prophecy and divination.

Many important mythological events are said to have occured on that day. It was on aSamhain that the Nemedians captured the terrible Tower of Glass built by the evilFormorians; that the Tuatha De Danann later defeated the Formors once and for all;

and that many other events of a dramatic or prophetic nature in Celtic myth happened.

Many of these events had to do with the temporary victory of the forces of darkness

over those of light, signaling the beginning of the cold and dark half of the year.

There is some evidence to indicate that three days were spent celebrating this festival.

Philip Carr-Gomm, Chosen Chief of theOrder of Bards, Ovates and Druids, speaking

of bothPaleopagan and Mesopagan Druidsin England, had this to say about it in his

Elements of the Druid Tradition:

Samhuinn, from 31 October to 2 November was a time of no-time. Celtic society, like

all early societies, was highly structured and organised, everyone knew their place.

But to allow that order to be psychologically comfortable, the Celts knew that there

had to be a time when order and structure were abolished, when chaos could reign.

And Samhuinn, was such a time. Time was abolished for the three days of this festival

and people did crazy things, men dressed as women and women as men. [This

happened atBeltane tooIB] Farmers gates were unhinged and left in ditches,peoples horses were moved to different fields, and children would knock on

neighbours doors for food and treats in a way that we still find today, in a watered-

down way, in the custom of trick-or-treating on Halloween.

But behind this apparent lunacy, lay a deeper meaning. The Druids knew that these

three days had a special quality about them. The veil between this world and the

World of the Ancestors was drawn aside on these nights, and for those who were

prepared, journeys could be made in safety to the other side. The Druid rites,

therefore, were concerned with making contact with the spirits of the departed, who

were seen as sources of guidance and inspiration rather than as sources of dread. The

dark moon, the time when no moon can be seen in the sky, was the phase of the moon

which ruled this time, because it represents a time in which our mortal sight needs to

be obscured in order for us to see into the other worlds.

The dead are honoured and feasted, not as the dead, but as the living spirits of loved

ones and of guardians who hold the root-wisdom of the tribe. With the coming of

Christianity, this festival was turned into Halloween (31 October), All Hallows [All

Saints Day] (1 November), and All Souls Day (2 November). Here we can see most
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clearly the way in which Christianity built on the Pagan foundations it found rooted in

these isles. Not only does the purpose of the festival match with the earlier one, but

even the unusual length of the festival is the same.

The Christian Church was unable to get the people to stop celebrating this holiday, so

they simply sprinkled a little holy water on it and gave it new names, as they did withother Paleopagan holidays and customs. This was a form of calendrical imperialism,

co-opting Paleopagan sacred times, as they had Paleopagan sacred places (most if not

all of the great cathedrals of Europe were built on top of earlier Paleopagan shrines

and sacred groves). So when Fundamentalists come to your local school board and try

to get Halloween removed from the public schools because its a Pagan holiday,

they are perfectly correct. Of course, Valentines Day/Lupercalia, Easter/Eostre, and

Christmas/Yule also have many Paleopagan elements associated with their dating

and/or symbols, as the Jehovahs Witnesses and others have pointed out for decades.

So if we decide to rid the public schools of all holidays that have Pagan aspects to

them, there wont be many left for the kids to enjoy.

I find it amusing that American teens and pre-teens seem to have instinctively

expanded their seasonal celebrations to add another night before Halloween, one on

which they commit various acts of harmless (or unfortunately not) vandalism,

including pranks on neighbors. If we assume that All Saints Day was moved to co-opt

the central day ofSamhain which was associated originally with the Gods andGoddesses of the Celts, and All Souls Day was supposed to co-opt the worship of the

Ancestors, then the modern Cabbage Night, Hell Night (boy does that push the

Fundamentalists buttons!), or simply Mischief Night (which used to be April 30th

the night before May Dayin Germanytheres thatBeltane/Samhainconnection again) would correspond to a celebration of the often mischievous Nature

Spirits. This then nicely covers the Indo-European pattern of the Three Kindreds of

Deities, Ancestors, and Nature Spirits.

Where does the custom of trick or treating come from? Is it really ancient, a few

centuries old, or relatively modern? Lets look at the evidence:

Kevin Danaher, in his remarkable bookThe Year in Ireland,has a long discussion ofthe traditional Irish celebrations of this festival. In one section on Hallow-Een
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Guisers, he says:

A familiar sight in Dublin city on and about October 31 is that of small groups of

children, arrayed in grotesque garments and with faces masked or painted, accosting

the passers-by or knocking on house doors with the request: Help the Hallow Een

party! Any apples or nuts? in the expectation of being given small presents; this,incidentally, is all the more remarkable as it is the only folk custom of the kind which

has survived in the metropolis.

A couple of generations ago, in parts of Dublin and in other areas of Ireland, the

groups would have consisted of young men and grown boys, who often travelled

considerable distances in their quest, with consequently greater reward. The proceeds

were usually expended on a Hallow Een party, with music, dancing, feasting and

so on, at some chosen house, and not merely consumed on the spot as with the

children nowadays

Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge, ii, 370, states that in parts of Count Waterford, Hallow Eenis called oidhche na h-aimlise,The night of mischief or con. It was a custom in thecountyit survives still in placesfor the boys to assemble in gangs, and,

headed by a few horn-blowers who were always selected for their strength of lungs, to

visit all the farmers houses in the district and levy a sort of blackmail, good

humouredly asked for, and as cheerfully given. They afterward met at some

rendezvous, and in merry revelry celebrated the festival of Samhain in their own way.

When the distant winding of the horns was heard, the bean a tigh [woman of the

house] prepared for their reception, and got ready the money orbuiln (white bread) tobe handed to them through the half-opened door. Whoever heard the wild scurry of

their rush through a farm-yard to the kitchen-doorthere was always a race amongst

them to get possession of the latchwill not question the propriety of the word

aimilis [mischief] applied to their proceedings. The leader of the band chaunted asort of recitative in Gaelic, intoning it with a strong nasal twang to conceal his

identity, in which the good-wife was called upon to do honour to Samhain A

contributor toAn Claidheamh Soluis, 15 Dec. 1906, 5, gives a example of theseverses, from Ring, County Waterford:

Anocht Oidhche Shamhna, a Mhongo Mango. Sop is na fuinneogaibh; dntar nadirse. Eirigh id shuidhe, a bhean an tighe. Tirigh siar go banamhail, tar aniar go

laitheamhail. Tabhair leat ceapaire arin agus ime ar dhath do leacain fhin; ambeidh lim ghirrfiadh dhe aoirde ann ages ciscim choiligh dhe im air. Tabhairchugham peign de bhainne righin, mn, milis a mbeidh leawhnach n-a chosa agusuachtar n-a mhullaigh; go mbeidh s ag imtheacht n-a chnocaibh agus ag teachtn-a shlibhtibh, agus badh leat go dtachtfadh s m, agus mo chreach fhada nor


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bhaoghal dom.

(Oh Mongo Mango, Hallow Een tonight. Straw in the windows and close the doors.

Rise up housewife, go inside womanly, return hospitably, bring with you a slice of

bread and butter the colour of your own cheek, as high as a hares jump with a cocks

step of butter on it. Bring us a measure of thick fine sweet milk, with new milk belowand cream above, coming in hills and going in mountains; you may think it would

choke me,but, alas! I am in no danger.)

Wow, that chant sure sounds scary, doesnt it?

This space for

rent!

As I mentioned before, because it was an in-between kind of

holiday, spirits (nice or nasty), ancestors (ditto), or mortals (ditto?)

were thought to be more easily able to pass fromThis World to the

Other Worldand vice versa. It was also a perfect time for

divination or fortune telling (Danaher talks about all of this at

great length). While some monotheists may consider these

activities to be evil, most religions in human history have

considered them perfectly normal.

Before and after the arrival of Christianity, early November was when people in

Western and Northern Europe finished the last of their harvesting, butchered their

excess stock (so the surviving animals would have enough food to make it through the

winter), and held great feasts. They invited their ancestors to join them, decorated

family graves, and told ghost storiesall of which may strike some monotheiststoday as spiritually erroneous, but which hardly seems evil and many modern

polytheists do much the same (though few of us have herds to thin). So where does

trick or treating come in?

According to Tad Tulejas essay, Trick or Treat: Pre-Texts and Contexts, in Jack

Santinos anthology,Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life,modern trickor treating (primarily children going door-to-door, begging for candy) began fairly

recently, as a blend of several ancient and modern influences. Im mixing Tulejasmaterial here with my own insights, see his essay for details of his opinions,which Ill

mark with italics to separate from mine:

At various times and places in the Middle Ages, customs developed of beggers,then children, asking forsoul cakes on All Souls Day.

At some other Medieval times and places, costumed holiday parading, singingand dancing atMay Day, Halloween, and Yule(with different themes, ofcourse, though sometimes with similar characters, such as the Hobby Horse)
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became popular in Ireland and the British Isles. Originally these costumedcelebrants were adults and older teens, who would go from house to house (as

Danaher describes above) demanding beer and munchies in exchange for their

performances, which mixed Pagan and Christian symbols and themes. While

many Neopagans may think these folk customs go all the way back to

Paleopagan times, they are actually fairly modern (seeStations of the Sun: AHistory of the Ritual Year in England, by Ronald Hutton).

To the medieval householders, of course, being thought stingy (especially infront of the visiting ancestors and faery folk at Halloween) would be very bad

luck, as it would violate the ancient laws of hospitality. Perhaps there were

some inebriated paraders who might have decided to come back later in the

night and play tricks upon those who hadnt rewarded them properly, but any

references to such are fairly modern.

In 1605 c.e., Guy Fawkes abortive effort to blow up the British Parliament onNovember 5th, led to the creation ofGuy Fawkes Day, celebrated by theburning of effigies of Fawkes in bonfires and children dressing in rags to beg

for money for fireworks. As the decades rolled by, this became thoroughlyentwined with Halloween celebrations and customs. This is not surprising,considering that bonfires were a central part of the old Samhain/Halloween

tradition, and that Nov. 5th was actually closer to the astrological date for

Samhain (thought by some Neopagans to be the original dating method) than

Nov. 1st was! In the year 2006, the movie V for Vendetta introduced the imageof Guy Fawkes to millions of Americans.

In 19th Century America, rural immigrants from Ireland and Scotland keptgender-specific Halloween customs from their homelands: girls stayed indoorsand did divination games, while the boys roamed outdoors engaging in almostequally ritualized pranks, which their eldersblamed on the spirits beingabroad that night.

Also in mid-19th Century New York, children calledragamuffins would dressin costumes and beg for pennies from adults on Thanksgiving Day.

Things got nastierwith increased urbanization and poverty in the 1930s.Adults began casting about for ways to control the previously harmless but nowincreasingly expensive and dangerous vandalism of theboys. Towns andcities began organizingsafeHalloween events and householders began

giving out bribes to the neighborhood kids as a way to distract them away fromtheir previous anarchy. The ragamuffins disappeared or switched their date to
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Halloween.The termtrick or treat, finally appears in print around 1939!

Pranks became even nastier in the 1980s, with widespread poverty existing side-by-

side with obscene greed. Unfortunately, as criminologists, military recruiters and

historians know, the most dangerous animals on our planet are unemployed teenaged

males. Bored kids in a violence-saturated culture slip all too easily from harmlessdecoration of their neighbors houses with shaving cream and toilet paper to serious

vandalism and assaults. Blaming Halloween for this is rather like blaming the Fourth

of July for the many firecracker injuries that happen every year (and which are also

combatted by publicly sponsored events).

By the mid- 20th century in Ireland and Britain, it seems only the smaller children

would dress up and parade to the neighbors houses, do little performances, then ask

for a reward. American kids seem to remember this with their chants of Jingle bells,

Batman smells, Robin laid an egg, and other classic tunes done for no reason other

than because its traditional.

To a great extent, the costumes worn by modern trick-or-treaters represent, as they

might have in older times, an effort to entertain, amuse and/or scare the neighbors,

and to compete a bit with others in beauty, ugliness, humor, scariness, and costuming

skill.

What was Halloween in America like forty years ago? Read Lady PhaesHalloween

and Meessay on my website for some heartwarming memories.

Why Bother to save Halloween?is an essay by Richard Seltzer, which has yet morereasons why its important to keep the custom of trick or treating alive:

Halloween is a time that reconfirms the social bond of a neighborhood (particularly

the bond between strangers of different generations) by a ritual act of trade. Children

go to lengths to dress up and overcome their fear of strangers in exchange for candy.

And adults buy the candy and overcome their distrust of strange children in exchange

for the pleasure of seeing their wild outfits and vicariously reliving their own

adventures as children.

In other words, the true value and importance of Halloween comes not from paradingin costumes in front of close friends and family, but from this interchange with

strangers, exorcising our fears of strangers, reaffirming our social bond with the

people of the neighborhood who we rarely, if ever, see the rest of the year.
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Several correspondents have said, If the holiday isnt evil why are there so many evil

images associated with it such as ghosts, skeletons, black cats, ugly witches, demons,

monsters, and Jack OLanterns? The answer, of course, is that most of these images

arentevil, and the ones that are negative were added by people opposed to the

holiday.

Ghosts have always made perfect sense, for Samhain was the festival where the Gates

Between the Worlds were open wide and departed friends and family could cross over

in either direction. As I mentioned earlier, people invited their ancestors to join themin celebration. The only ones who would cower in fear would be people who had

wronged someone dead and who therefore feared retribution of some sort. The often

repeated tale that the dead roamed the earth after dying until the next Samhain, when

they could then pass over to the afterlife, makes no sense in either Celtic Paleopagan

or Medieval Christian beliefs, so is probably fairly modern. It is possible that any

earth-bound spirits needing assistance to pass over might have received it at this

time, but this wouldnt have been considered necessary for

most of the dead.

Samhain was the time of year when the herds were culled. Thatmeans that farmers and herders killed the old, sick or weak

animals, as well as others they didnt think would make it

through the winter with that years available food. Prior to the

last few centuries in the West, most people lived with death as

a common part of life, especially since most of them lived on

farms. Samhain became imbued with symbolism of these annual deaths. So skeletons

and skullsjoined the ghosts as symbols of the holiday. Again, theres nothing evil

here, at least to the innocent in heart. Indeed, in Mexico, where the holiday is known

asLos dias de los Muertos,or Days of the Dead, (combining All Saints Day with

All Souls Day) skeleton and skull toys and even candies are made and enjoyed by themillions, many by and for devout Roman Catholics.

Medieval Christians feared cats, for reasons as yet unclear, and especially feared

black catswho could sneak invisibly around at night. Its ironic that they feared

cats so much that they killed tens of thousands of them, leaving their granaries open to

rats and mice, no doubt causing much food to be wasted, and leaving Europe as a
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whole wide open to the Black Plague, which was carried by the fleas on those rats and

mice. Unfortunately, the millions of human deaths caused by the Black Plague were

later blamed on theDiabolic Witchesthe Church invented, then murdered. Cats, as

evil animals, then became associated with the evil witches.

Witches as figures of pure evil wereinvented by the medieval Church and

inflated by the Catholic and Protestant

Churches during the Reformation period.

Paleopagan witches were people suspected

by their neighbors of using magic or poison

to harm others, though the term was

sometimes used to insult or accuse the

cunning folk (who were herbalists,

diviners, and folk magicians) of

committing malpractice. I know of no

formal association of witches with Samhain

until the late Middle Ages. For some historical facts about all the different people

real and imaginarywho have been called witches over the centuries, see my

book,Bonewits's Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wiccaor theexcerptsfrom itavailable on my website.

As the Church tried harder and harder to make people abandon their Paleopagan

customs for the new Christian ones, Samhain became a prime target. The Church

began to say that demons were abroad with the dead, and that the fairy folk were all

monsters who would kill the unwary. When Diabolic Witchcraft was invented, the

Evil Devil-Worshipping Witch simply became the newest monster to add to the

others. The green skin was a twentieth century touch the Wizard of Oz movie added tothe evil old hag version of the Diabolic Witch.

Halloween became a holiday in modern times for which half the fun was being scared

out of ones wits. Modern fiction added newmonsters to the American mix,

including vampires (previously known mostly in Eastern Europe), werewolves,

mummies (after modern Egyptology started), and various psychopathic killers and

ghouls. These are not images anyone actually needs to perpetuate, but the teens

certainly enjoy them.

Jack OLanterns, as mentioned earlier, became popular as house decorations in the

USA after immigrant Irish people discovered how much easier pumpkins were to

carve than turnips, unleashing what has turned into quite an art form in the last decade

or so. They certainly add a spooky touch, especially when the glowing faces appear

from the darkness.
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11/12

Most psychiatrists and psychologists seem to agree that Halloweens emphatic

celebration of deathserves to bring out our cultures suppressed feelings about the

topic, which can be a healthy experience for both children and adults. I strongly

suspect that the primary reason for American cultures aversion to thinking about

death and dying is that most modern Westerners dont actually believe the mainstream

monotheistic religions doctrines on the topic, or if they do, they fear eternalpunishment more than they expect an eternal reward. The Paleopagan/Neopagan

views that death is a transition to a new state of being where things go on much as

they have here, at least until one reincarnates, is much less frightening (at least for

those having a relatively happy life now), and makes most spirits of the dead

unthreatening to us.

Certainly, Halloween gives parents an opportunity to discuss their beliefs and attitudes

about death with their children, one hopes with no recent close death to cloud the

issues, and to soothe whatever fears their children may have.

Reporters are always asking us what we Neopagans do for Halloween. Well, usually

we take our kids around our neighborhoods trick or treating, as carefully as any otherparents. Those who stay at home may hand out commercially packaged candy to those

who visit our houses (we might prefer to give out homemade goodies, but paranoia

has made such treats unwelcome). Over the weekend, our circles of friends will have

rituals that might include dumb suppers (silent, saltless meals) for the Ancestors, or

separate kid circles and costume parties for our childrenand we always wind up

with at least as many kids as we started out with! Most of us will do some divination,

give honor to those who have died in the past year, play traditional games, and

meditate on our own mortality.

Thats what American Neopagans will do on Samhain. No blood drinking, no babysacrifices, no crimesjust good, clean, all-American festivity with some ceremonial

additions appropriate to the season and current events.

A student sent me an email asking me to sum up in more personal terms what

Halloween means to me and other Neopagans. Here is what I told her:


12/12

Halloween is the modern name for Samhain, an ancient Celtic holy day whichmany Neopagansespecially Wiccans, Druids and Celtic Reconstructionists

celebrate as a spiritual beginning of a new year.

Halloween is a time to confront our personal and cultural attitudes towardsdeath and those who have passed on before us.

Halloween is a time to lift the veil between the many material and spiritualworlds in divination, so as to gain spiritual insight about our pasts and futures.

Halloween is a time to deepen our connection to the cycles of the seasons, tothe generations that have come before us and those that will follow, and to the

Gods and Goddesses we worship.

Halloween is a time to let our inner children out to play, to pass on ourchildhood traditions to our children, and to share the fun with our friends and

neighbors of many other faiths. So

The Real Origins of Halloween Discusses the History of Halloween

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