The origin of Halloween
Halloween is one of the oldest celebratory rituals, originating from ancient times. In the Catholic tradition, many saints are commemorated on specific calendar days, but November 1st is the day on which all saints are celebrated. The day dedicated to "All Saints" (in English, All Saints' Day) had an ancient name: All Hallows' Day. In ancient cultures, the celebration of "All Saints" began at sunset on October 31st, and thus the evening before November 1st was called "All Hallows' Eve" ("Eve" means evening), which was shortened to Hallows' Even, then Hallow-e'en, and finally Halloween.
However, the celebration of Halloween has much older pagan origins and is rooted in Celtic civilization. Indeed, the ancient Celts who lived in Great Britain, Ireland, and France celebrated the start of the New Year on November 1st, marking the end of the "warm season" and the beginning of the "season of darkness and cold."
The night between October 31st and November 1st was the most solemn moment of the entire Druid year and represented the most important celebration of their calendar, known as the night of Samhain. All the most significant legends involving epic cycles, ancient sagas, great battles, and stories of kings and heroes took place on the night of Samhain. Many of these legends were about the Earth's fertility and the cosmic overcoming of terror and panic at the start of the six-month reign of the God of Darkness: Samhain (also known as Samain or Samhuin). For the Celts, an agricultural and pastoral people, this event marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, taking on particular significance as life radically changed: flocks were brought down from the green summer pastures, and people closed themselves in their homes to spend the long, cold winter nights telling stories and doing handicrafts.
The Celts believed that on the eve of each new year (October 31st), Samhain, the Lord of Death, Prince of Darkness, would call all the spirits of the dead to himself and feared that on this day all laws of space and time were suspended, allowing the spirit world to merge with the world of the living. They believed that the dead resided in a land of eternal youth and happiness called "Tir nan Oge." A legend states that all the people who died the previous year would return to Earth on the night of October 31st, seeking new bodies to possess for the coming year. Thus, in the villages, every hearth was extinguished to prevent evil spirits from dwelling there. This ritual involved extinguishing the Sacred Fire on the altar and lighting the New Fire (symbolizing the arrival of the New Year) the following morning.
Druids would meet at the top of a hill in a dark oak forest (considered a sacred tree) to light the New Fire and offer sacrifices of seeds and animals. Dancing and singing around the fire until morning, they marked the transition from the solar season to the season of darkness. When morning came, the Druids would carry the glowing ashes of the fire to each family to relight their domestic hearths. Extinguishing the fire symbolized the approaching dark half of the year (hence death), while relighting it symbolized hope and a return to life, thus giving this ritual a cyclical representation of time.
The modern custom of dressing up on Halloween originates from the Celtic tradition that, after the ritual sacrifices on the night of October 31st, celebrated for three days by wearing the skins of the animals killed to exorcize and scare away the spirits. Dressed in these grotesque masks, they returned to the village, lighting their path with lanterns made from hollowed-out onions in which embers from the Sacred Fire were placed.
In Scotland, on the night of Samhain, people buried stones in the earth covered with ash and left them until the following morning. If a stone had been moved by morning, it meant that the person who buried it would die by the end of the year.
When the Romans invaded Britain in the first century, they came into contact with these celebrations. Around November 1st, they also honored Pomona, the goddess of fruits and gardens. During this holiday, fruits (especially apples) were offered to the deity to propitiate future fertility. Over the centuries, the cults of Samhain and Pomona merged, and the custom of sacrifices was abandoned, replaced by the burning of effigies and the custom of dressing up as ghosts and witches, becoming part of the ceremony. Despite the advent of Christianity, these traditions were deeply rooted in the population, and even though many were converted to the Catholic Church, the ancient Celtic-Roman ritual remained. However, paganism transformed; the existence of witches and witchcraft was believed. One of the most important aspects of witchcraft was the celebration of the Witches' Sabbath. The two most important Sabbaths were April 30th and October 31st. April 30th (the eve of May 1st) was celebrated in what is now Germany, particularly in the Harz Mountains, and was known as Walpurgisnacht, the night of Walpurga. It was believed that on that day witches gathered at the top of mountains to perform their witchcraft and summon devils and demons. The other Sabbath, on October 31st, was called Black Sabbath. Since the Catholic Church was unable to eradicate these ancient pagan cults, in 835, Pope Gregory moved the feast of All Saints from May 13th to November 1st, thus attempting to give new meaning to the pagan cults. However, the nefarious influence of the cult of Samhain was not eradicated, and for this reason, the Church added a new feast in the 10th century: November 2nd, All Souls' Day, in memory of the souls of the departed who were celebrated by their loved ones, who, dressed as saints, angels, and devils, lit bonfires. The ancient Celtic ritual of the Sacred Fire still survives in England, where November 5th is celebrated as Guy Fawkes Day.
The Origin of Pumpkins
Jack O' Lantern (also known as "Lantern Man," Hob 'O Lantern, Fox Fire, Corpse Candle, Will O' The Wisp) is part of Irish folklore. An Irish legend tells of a ne'er-do-well named Stingy Jack, a notorious gambler and drinker who one Halloween evening invited the Devil to drink with him. After leaving his house, Jack bet the Devil that he couldn't climb a tree. Once the Devil had climbed up, Jack carved a cross into the tree. At this point, the Devil could not descend because of the sacred symbol, so Jack proposed a deal: if the Devil promised never to tempt him again, then Jack would remove the cross from the tree. The Devil agreed. But when Jack died, the gates of Heaven were closed to him because of his vices, and the Devil also denied him entry to Hell because of the trick Jack had played on him. However, the Devil gave Jack a glowing coal to light his way in the darkness. Jack placed the coal in a hollowed-out onion to make it last longer. Legend has it that every Halloween night, Jack still wanders in the darkness with his burning ember. When the potato famine struck Ireland in the early 19th century, many Irish immigrated to America, bringing their ancient traditions that dated back to Celtic times. In America, they found pumpkins, which were better suited than onions for carving. From that moment, the traditional Halloween Pumpkin or Jack O' Lantern was born.
