Halloween: Origins

Last week whilst helping my boyfriend do his homework, I came across the term samhain that was also in Halloween II (1981). Samhain (pronounced sah-ween) is brought up in a couple of the Halloween movies and I was thrilled that it was what I was going to be helping him learn. Samhain is a Celtic holiday that is what Halloween as we know it is rooted from. So naturally, Halloween being my favorite holiday, I was more than eager to do the entire project for my boyfriend. So now I am happy to share with you some really cool things that I learned about how we got our holiday of costumes and candy from a very ancient ritual.

• First things first! There is a reputation for the origin of Halloween being a grotesque, pagan ritual but it's actually quite exaggerated. Samhain is a Celtic festival that was taken down and altered by Catholicism when the Romans took over. The Romans hated the Celtics very much at this time so most of the history we heard about pagans is all passed down by Romans who portrayed them as savage beasts who summoned satanic demons. 

• There indeed was animal sacrifice and huge gatherings around a bonfire with the skulls and skins of animals as costumes of sorts. I like to think of these sacrificial killings not too different from Ancient Greek sacrifices to the gods. The bonfires were a place to tell each others fortunes and the costumes were to ward off bad spirits.

• It was the Fire Festival and a celebration of the end of summer where they would have great harvests and prepare for the coming winter. It was believed that October 31st was the day the barriers between the living and the dead broke and spirits were free to roam the land and wreak havoc on the harvest. 

• When the Romans did force their Catholicism upon the Celtic culture, they created All Saint's Day as a way to cover up the pagan ritual and make it more church friendly. Instead of celebrating the harvest, it became a time to commemorated saints and martyrs. Cultures adopted versions of this and so came holidays like the Day of the Dead, All Soul's Day, All Hallows Eve, and of course our Halloween. 

Although I fully support those who don't like Halloween, I still encourage everyone do go explore further the Celtic tradition of Samhain. It think it is so cool to read about it. It seems so perfectly spooky; everyone is surrounding this huge fire dressed in carcasses and hoping that the pleasant ghosts are in their company and knowing that the evil spirits walk the earth. History is truly fascinating!

And so wraps up day two of Halloweek. Be sure to come back every day until the 31st for a new Halloween (or in today's case Samhain) related post!

THIS IS SO FUN!