Halloween’s Celtic Connection
Halloween is still a few weeks away and I’m already trying to figure what costume to wear. Hey, I like dressing up. And no, I’m not writing this post because I plan to dress up like a banshee (well, maybe). Anyway, the thing is that I’ve been reading a lot about the Celts lately and I just discovered that the Halloween we know today has Celtic roots.
The Celts celebrated the end of the harvest season around what is now late October by holding a festival called Samhain. (Samhain is the name of the month in the ancient Celtic calendar and means “summers end.” Samhain is also the Celtic lord of death.) This festival was sometimes also referred to as the Celtic New Year and became associated with the festival of the dead (the yearly observance many cultures have honoring their dead).
The ancient Celts believed that there was no boundary between the dead and the living during the second to last day of the Samhain festival (the festival took place for three days with the final day on the 1st of November). In fact, they feared that the dead would wreak havoc on their people, crops and supplies. As a precaution, the Celts burned the bones of slaughtered animals in bonfires (fortunes were told from the remains) and dressed up in costumes and wore masks in order to appease (and sometimes copy) the spirits. The Samhain was an intensely ritualistic event for the Celts.
Overtime the influx of Christianity in Ireland impacted and phased out pagan festivals like the Samhain. Some non Christian customs remained, like Halloween, in the wake of other Christian celebrations like the establishment of All Saints Day on the 1st of November.
Nowadays, Halloween is celebrated more out of fun than superstition for most people who don’t consider the Celts come October 31st. Nonetheless, aspects of Samhain are alive today with people still dressing up as ghosts or devils but only for entertainment.
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