History and folklore of Halloween

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Samhain became the Halloween of modern times 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 just like the brahmins of Hindu religion. 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 as 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 I issued a now famous edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and customs of the peoples he hoped to convert.^{[citation needed]} 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.

This is the traditional popular press account of the "history of Halloween". The story is, in fact, more complicated. By the mid-fourth century Christians in the Mediterranean world, without prompting by any "Celtic people", were already keeping a feast in honour of all those who had been martyred under the pagan emperors; it is mentioned in the Carmina Nisibena of St Ephraem, (died 373) as being held on 13 May. ...By 800 churches in England and Germany, which were in touch with each other, were celebrating a festival dedicated to all saints upon 1 November instead. The oldest text of Bede's Martyrology, from the eighth century, does not include the festival on this date, but the recensions at the end of the century do. Charlemagne's favourite churchman Alcuin was keeping it by then, as were also his friend Arno, bishop of Salzburg, and a church in Bavaria. Pope Gregory, therefore, was endorsing and adopting a practice which had begun in northern Europe. Nevertheless, All Saints on November 1 had not, however, started in Ireland, where the Felire of Oengus and the Martyrology of Tallaght prove that the early medieval churches celebrated the feast of All Saints upon 20 April. ...both 'Celtic' Europe and Rome had changed over to a Germanic practice.^[1]}} On the other hand, Christianity outside of this jurisdiction has retained celebration of All Saints in the spring, scheduled in relationship to Pentecost.

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.^{[citation needed]} As representatives of the rival religion, Druids were considered evil worshippers of devilish or demonic gods and spirits. The Celtic underworld thusly 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, branded as witches.

It is claimed that he old beliefs associated with Samhain never died out entirely and that All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows (hallowed, i.e. sanctified or holy), continued the ancient Celtic traditions. However, there is frustratingly little primary documentation of how Halloween was celebrated in preindustrial Ireland. Historian Nicholas Rogers has written,

“

It is not always easy to track the development of Halloween in Ireland and Scotland from the mid-seventeenth century, largely because one has to trace ritual practices from [modern] folkloric evidence that do not necessarily reflect how the holiday might have changed; these rituals may not be "authentic" or "timeless" examples of preindustrial times.^[2]

”

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.Hindus in North India have their New Year Celebration in autumn. Since Hindu follow a Lunar calendar, the date of this festival called Diwali( Festival of lights falls between middle of October & middle of November. The day after New moon is the start of the New Year according to this tradition. It is believed in India that black magic can only be learned on the dark night of New moon.

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} This practice is called mumming, although the similar American practice of trick-or-treating appears to have evolved independently. To this day, witches, ghosts, and skeleton figures of the dead are among the favorite disguises. Halloween also retains some features that hearken 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 spiced cider associated with the day. Today Halloween is becoming once again an adult holiday or masquerade, like Mardi gras.

[edit] References

^ Hutton, Ronald (2001). The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. New York: Oxford Paperbacks. ISBN 0-19-285448-8.
^ Rogers, Nicholas (2002). Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. New York: Oxford University Press, 41. ISBN 0-19-514691-3.