From Samhain to Halloween

The Gaelic Celts
Our modern-day Halloween has its beginnings in the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced Sou'win). The Celts had a great reverence for nature; the passing of the seasons was of great significance to them. This particular festival marked the end of the summer, and their new year, beginning November 1.

The Celtic New Year was a very fragile time of endings and beginnings, full of divinations and protective rituals for the coming year. The 48-hour period from October 31 to November 2 was called Oidhche Shamhna, "The Vigil of Samhain"; (Schauffler, ix) the fabric between this world and the next was at its weakest, spirits and faeries were abroad, and even the bravest folk stayed indoors at night. (Although the Celts gave great reverence to their dead, who were thought to be always close by, they still didn't want too close of a contact with them!)

During the Vigil of Samhain, the Lord of the Dead, called Samhain, assembled the souls of all who had died during the previous year. (according to Walker, 372, Samhain was named for the Aryan Lord of Death, Samana, meaning "The Leveller.") At death the souls of the good entered the body of another human, and the souls of the ones who had sinned were confined to the bodies of animals. (Linton, 5; Douglas, 565; Schauffler, ix) Samhain then decided what form they should take for the next year; some were released to go to the Druid's form of heaven.

The Sun god was also celebrated at this season. Fires were lighted on hilltops and open spaces in his honor. "The Sun, as ripener of the grain, was thanked for the harvest, now safely stored against the winter." (Linton, 4) The bonfires also strengthened the Sun for his coming battle with cold and darkness. (Linton, 4) The fires had other purposes; to welcome the winter season, purify the people and land, and ward off evil spirits, then at their strongest. (Hole, 87) In the home, all cooking fires were put out and new ones kindled for the new year.

As the British Isles came under Roman influence, some of the rites of the Roman festival of Pomona were incorporated into the Samhain activities. Pomona was the goddess who cared for the fruits and presided over harvests; (Douglas, 565) her festival was held around November 1. (Schauffler, ix)

The Middle Ages
The Celtic festival of Samhain continued in one form or another through the Dark Ages, although the original meanings were probably lost, and vague superstitions put in their place. Folk still believed, however, that the dead walked abroad, and were allowed to visit their former homes during these 48 hours.

In 834 A.D., the Church took note of this, and moved their Feast of All Saints from May 13 to November 1. (Linton, 6; Douglas, 576) This was a feast in honor of all the saints, known or unknown. All Saints' Day became known as All Hallows Day, and October 31 as All Hallows Eve. (All Saint's Day is one of the highest ranking feasts, along with Easter, in the Roman Catholic church; its observance displaces all others. The feast was retained by the Protestants after the Reformation, and it is observed by the Anglican church; Douglas, 576) "Hallow" means "to make sacred or holy." (American Heritage Desk Dictionary, 444) Christianity had sanctified the pagan season.

In 988 A.D., the Church set All Souls' Day on November 2, rounding out the 48-hour Vigil of Samhain. All Souls' Day is a festival set apart for those who have died in the faith, although they have not suffered martyrdom or achieved sainthood. (Linton, 13) Part of this festival was the return of the spirits of the dead to visit their former homes, and naturally, everything possible was done to make them welcome. (Schauffler, 10)

The family spent the day in prayer and at church-services. After supper was cleared away that night, food and drink were set out on the table, and the fire was banked. The family then went to bed, and the souls of the ancestors came at midnight to eat and warm themselves by the fire. "In southern Italy in the 14th century, every family prepared a special feast for its dead members on All Soul's Day. In Salerno especially this custom reached elaborate heights. There a table was set and laid with a bountiful meal. Then all the members of the household went to the church and stayed there the entire day, leaving the house open for the ghosts. It was a very bad omen if any of the food remained uneaten when the family returned, for this meant that the ghosts were expressing disapproval...As a matter of fact, there was seldom any food left when the family returned; the practice was known to all the surrounding villages and on the morning of All Souls' Day thieves and beggars from near and far gathered on the outskirts of the town. When all the good people were in church, they swarmed into the town and enjoyed a fine feast. The church banned this custom in the 15th century, proclaiming that it smacked of paganism. No doubt the housewives of Salerno were relieved at no longer having to cook dinners for all the thieves in the countryside." (Linton, 18. Also see Linton, 19-21, for other cultures.)

The theme of the dead assembling and returning to their homes is common to other cultures as well; the Latvians believed that during the October Feast of the Dead, the departed spirits returned on horseback to visit their families. "As late as the 17th century, Latvians would lay the skin and guts of a horse on a grave, to help the return of the dead." (Simpson, 39)

Halloween Fires
In the Gaelic countries of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Brittany, the old traditions associated with the Celtic Samhain survived into the 19th century. The Halloween fires, called Samhnagan by the Scots, were still lit at dusk, although they were not for Samhain, the Celtic god, but for Halloween gaiety and a defiant welcome to the winter season. (Linton, 24)

In the Scottish Highlands in the 18th century, "each family would carry lighted torches into the fields on October 31 and march about the fields sunwise (clockwise) in the belief that good crops would thus be ensured for the coming year. At dark the torches were taken home and thrown into a heap for a bonfire. Each member of the family would put a stone in the fire and mark a circle around it. When the fire was burned out the ashes were raked over the stones. If any stone was found misplaced in the morning, or if there was a footprint near it, the person to whom the stone belonged believed that he would die within a year." (Douglas, 568)

In Wales, people carried armloads of straw, gorse, and other easily-ignited materials up to hilltops, and lit fires at dusk. The people roasted apples and potatoes, danced around the bonfire, and leapt through the flames. "The end of the ceremony was usually a headlong flight down the hill to escape the hwch ddu gwta, the tailless Black Sow who was one of the terrors of Hallowe'en. Out of the shadows of the pagan past she came at the moment when the flames died down, and all fled before her, crying 'May the tailless Black Sow take the hindmost!' She might sometimes be encountered elsewhere on All Hallows Eve, and always, like the other strange wanderers of that night, she was dangerous." (Hole, 88)

Guising
To the spirits originally gathered by the Lord of the Dead were added troops of goblins and fairies. In the Middle Ages, due to the Church's uprising against what they considered to be "witchcraft," ugly old witches and their black cats also began to be associated with Halloween. (Linton, 7) Prudent folk stayed indoors to avoid encountering all these strange creatures.

However, there are always a few brave souls willing to challenge the night. "Guisers" were people decked out in strange costumes intended to impersonate the returning dead, going from house to house and singing and dancing to keep evil spirits away.

In England, prior to the Reformation, women and girls went "souling," visiting houses and begging for "soul cakes." In return for the cakes, prayers were offered for the souls of the donor's dead relatives. (Schauffler, 12-13) In time only the children kept to this, singing instead