Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Samhain – a feast by many names and if you’re anything like me you’ve probably mispronounced that last one more times than you’re willing to admit. For anyone wondering, it’s pronounced: sow-win, the more you know. So how did it morph from Samhain, to Halloween? And how did it go from a celtic celebration to children dressing up and asking for candy? Well, let’s find out.
The name Samhain comes from Old Irish samain, literally “summer’s end,” from Old Irish sam “summer” + fuin “end.” (https://www.etymonline.com/word/Samhain)
Samhain is one of the four Gaelic festivals, the other three being: Imbloc, Beltane, and Lughnasa. Samhain is a celtic festival celebrated on the 1st of November, marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, or the ‘darker half’ of the year. Now, I can hear you from here; if it’s celebrated on the first of November, why are we celebrating it on the 31st of October, and honestly, fair question. And this is where I came across one of my favourite new little facts: for the Celts days began and ended at sunset. So celebrations would start after sunset on the 31st of October and last till sunset on November 1st.
Because dark preceded light for the Celts, they also believed that the start of the new year began with darkness. So, Samhain not only marked the end of the harvest season, it also marked the start of a new year, the beginning of the dark half.
As with many other things, when Christianity took over, this holiday needed to be reshaped to fit with the new narrative. Pope Boniface IV first attempted to move the celebration to May 13th, but this didn’t take. Later, Pope Gregory IV moved it back to its original place in the year, but it was renamed All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows’ Day, which made October 31st, All Hallows’ Eve. Which brings us to Halloween.
Growing up, Halloween really wasn’t a thing around my part of Europe. It was an American thing which I only really saw in movies, and it all seemed to just be about consumerism and candy. As it makes its way to Europe (or should I say, back to Europe) I hear it all the time: ‘Ugh, it’s just one of those American things making its way over here’
WELL – that is not true at all. Let’s look at these traditions and where they actually came from, because with most of this I had no idea what the origin actually was.
You think Halloween, you probably think Jack-O-Lanterns, the big smiling pumpkins. I found two possible sources from European mythology. One is that they are a variant of the will-o’-the-wisps: fairies resembling a lantern to mislead travellers. The other is from the Irish story of Drunk Jack or Stingy Jack. Jack is a man who has misled the Devil several times, because of his bad ways he could never get into heaven, but the Devil definitely doesn’t want him in Hell, so the Devil gives him an ember to light his way through a twilight world of lost souls. Jack puts this light in a turnip. Before pumpkins the jack-o-lanterns were often made from turnips.
What about trick-or-treating? Also several possibilities there. There’s the tradition of mumming, which wasn’t limited to Samhain but took place around several holidays throughout the year. A group of actors would go from door to door to act out a play in exchange for food or money. There’s also guising, which has been recorded in Scotland since the 16th century. Children would go door to door in disguise, sometimes promising mischief if not given a reward.
I even found a story relating to Ancient Greece and the island of Rhodes, where children would dress up, specifically as swallows, and sing a song in exchange for food or drink. In the song they apparently promised all kinds of bad fortune if they were not given a reward.
Of course this is just the European side of things, there are many other traditions that go alongside Halloween/Samhain.
Something else you might have heard of in relation to Samhain/Halloween is the ‘thinning of the veil’. Very simply put, the veil is what separates the physical world from the spiritual world, and it’s thought that at this time of year that veil is at its thinnest.
Many of the traditions relate to this thinning of the veil. Wearing costumes and lighting bonfires were ways to protect against possible malevolent spirits which would come through the veil. It was a time to honour ancestors as they might be able to visit now that the veil was thin. It was thought that this thinning of the veil made it easier to dabble in divination, spirits from the other side could aid in tarot readings or scrying.
Now, I have googled my way around many-a sources and they all say basically the same thing, but I have yet to actually find where this idea really comes from. Of course I can imagine that it is linked to nature dying or receding into itself and from there the leap to our own ancestors and honoured dead is easy to make. But I will definitely have to do more digging into this specific idea.
For this year though, the children in my street will honour the tradition of trick-or-treating, and I will play my part as the witch.
Happy Halloween!
thewitchywanderings.com 