Hallow You…
It all started with the Celts. No-one’s quite sure how they celebrated what we know of as Hallowe’en back in those heady BC days, but tradition has it that they would hold an all-night feast to celebrate the start of a new year in their calendar.
By Medieval times in Ireland, this had become known as the Samhein gathering (pronounced ‘Sah-win’), and it was celebrated at the start of November, when the ‘dark’ half of the year began. It was a time to take stock of the harvest, and to decide which animals would need to be slaughtered to help the rest survive the cold winter. A major feature was the lighting of a big bonfire, to bid farewell to the harvest and to welcome in the darkness to come.
Offerings were made to the ancestors, and some believed that, on this night, the spirits could pass into the world of the living. And the Chamber of Secrets would open. (Sorry. Down, geek!)
Meanwhile, around the 600s AD in Rome, the Catholic Church created a holiday to celebrate the death of Christ and all the martyrs. It called its celebration All Saints’ Day. It was originally in May, but was moved by Pope Gregory IV in the year 835 to 1 November (perhaps not totally coincidentally choosing the day when all those pagans seemed to be feasting anyway).
All Saints’, or All Hallows’ Mass, has since become a day to make offerings to the dead in Mediterranean countries such as Spain, Portugal and Italy. The celebrations start in the evening of 31 October, and continue the next day as All Souls’ Day, to celebrate the deceased faithful who didn’t quite make it to sainthood. And so from All Hallows Mass to All Hallows Evening, to, well, you know. America has a lot to answer for when it comes to how we celebrate things today, introducing such fun gimmicks as trick or treating (which began in the 1950s), carved faces in pumpkins (1860s) and dressing up in silly costumes (1900s). Scaring your neighbours in the cause of demanding free candy has made Hallowe’en the sixth most profitable holiday in the USA, sneaking in just behind Father’s Day.
Which witch?
However, not everyone has forgotten the day’s origins. Morgan Rhys Adams is one of many who celebrate the eve as Samhein (‘I never call it Hallowe’en, that’s the church’s name’), as befits her status as a druid priestess. Yes, we said druid priestess. ‘Samhein is the end of the cycle of growth,’ she explains, speaking from her home in Avebury. She also acts as spokesperson for the Pagan Foundation, a group that promotes paganism in the UK, promoting the beliefs of some 40,000 British pagans and Wiccans (according to Census 2001).
‘At Samhein, we gather together and honour our ancestors. At this time, the veil between the two worlds is thin, and we can make contact with the dead through meditation and channeling. Some pagans will also hold a feast where the ancestors are invited. It’s a time to clear out the deadwood following the harvest, and prepare for our journey into winter. It’s one of the most important of our eight celebrations each year. ‘Some people might spend the evening in a vigil for someone who has died or make offerings to their ancestors, while others see it as a celebration of the healing time of winter, which reminds us that everything has its cycle before being reborn. It’s a very special time of the year, when we can honour the coming of the night.’
Traditional pagan dishes include Soul Cakes – spiced cakes shaped like the moon or stars – and also apples. ‘If you cut an apple open crossways, you get a pentagram,’ Morgan explains. ‘That’s the symbol of the goddess. That might be where apple bobbing originated – though people don’t really do that any more.’
Mischief managed
The belief in spirits and ghouls entering the world was probably the origin of Hallowe’en being known as Mischief Night, when the elves and the fairies enter our world to get up to no good (quite possibly assisted by errant teenagers – you know who you are).One place that has embraced the day’s connection with ghouls and ‘the other side’ is Mexico, where the Day of the Dead is celebrated with fi estas and parades on 1 November. Its origins go back to native Indian traditions, though these have been merged with All Hallows Day, as in Europe, to create a unique festival of joyously morbid (and often alcoholic) celebration. People visit the graves of their loved ones, and build shrines in their homes to the dead. It’s a time of celebration, and of honouring your memories of the deceased. However you celebrate Hallowe’en (or not), there’s one important message that Morgan Rhys Adams would like you to remember. ‘Real witches actually do a lot of good for the community,’ she says. ‘They honour the land and care deeply about the environment.’
You may insert your own ‘clean fuel broomstick’ joke here. We’re off to bob some apples and scare the neighbours silly.
Happy Samhein, everyone.
Get Old School
Why not celebrate in a more traditional style with some of Mary E Blain’s Games for Halloween, published in 1912?
Apple seeds act as charms on Hallowe’en. Stick one on each eyelid and name one “Home” and the other “Travel.” If the seed named “Travel” stays on longer, you will go on a journey before year expires. If “Home” clings better, you will remain home.
Stand alone before mirror, and by light of candle, comb your hair; the face of your future partner will appear in the glass, peeping over your shoulder. (At which point, freak out and run around screaming.)
If a maid wishes to know whom she is to marry, let her, on All-Halloween, take a walnut, hazelnut, and nutmeg; grate and mix them with butter and sugar into pills, and take when she goes to bed; and then, if her fortune be to marry a rich man, her sleep will be filled with gold dreams; if a tradesman, she will dream of odd noises and tumults; if a traveller, there will be thunder and lightning to disturb her.
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