The Origin of Halloween

Halloween is a festive tradition celebrated in some parts of the world had its origin from an ancient pagan ritual. The term 'pagan', while by the Christian mythology standard comes to mean rudely and wrongly something like "devil worshipper” merely meant "country people" in the language of the times.

Halloween, or Hallowe'en, is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. The activity includes trick-or-treating, ghost tours, costume parties, visiting "haunted houses" and the all too familiar carving of the jack-o-lanterns. Irish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late 20th century.

The ancient origin of Halloween began as the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced Sow-in). Samhain was one of four "fire" festivals of the Celtic calendar year that marks the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. The day before Samhain was considered the last day of summer, or Samradh, (pronounced sow-rawth), and was the day that marked the end of the old year. Just as Samhain marked the end of the old year it also marked the beginning of the New Year, or Geimredh, (pronounced geim-reth), otherwise known as the winter or dark half of the year. The autumn part of the year, or Foghamhar, (pronounced foth-am-ar), was considered to be part of the light half of the year. Spring, or Earrach, (pronounced air-rock), was considered to be part of the dark half of the year. The celebration of Samhain began with every home owner extinguishing their hearth fires, which symbolized the winter season/or dark half of the year. Later at night they were all relit from a community fire. This rekindling was symbolic of the spring season when life would return.

2000 years ago, the Celts (pronounced Kelts) believed that on the night of Samhain the ghosts of the dead returned to earth to cause great mischief and destruction. The Celts viewed their ancestors not as ghosts or spirits of the dead, but rather as loving on the 'other side' but not on a physical level. Ancestors were viewed as guides and helpers for their family still in the mortal world and not as something evil to be feared. They believed that when a person died they went to a place called Tir nan Og and became young again and happy

Samhain was, and still is, considered to be a very mystical and magical time that was 'between' the seasons and the years. The Celts believed that during Samhain, the boundaries between this world and the otherworld became blurred and the spirits of those who had departed walked the earth. Those beliefs survive to this day in the form of ghost stories and divinations: asking for helpful hints or guides to the future from those who have second sight.

Samhain lasted for three days in the old times and these three days were considered the time of "no time". It was during the days of 'no time' that people were allowed to do things that normally were frowned upon by the highly structured society of the Celts. This was where the tradition of 'trick or treat' came from. The children would go from dwelling to dwelling knocking on the doors asking for food or treats of some kind, and if those who dwelt within did not oblige, might find themselves receiving a rather nasty trick. There would be bon-fires and dancing and, of course, plenty of mead.

By the year 43 A.D. the Romans had conquered much of the Celtic lands and over the next 400 years two Roman festivals became combined with Samhain: the Feralia, celebrated in late October which is a commemeration of the passing of the dead and the second being the Roman festival in honor of Pomona the goddess of trees and fruit.

With the rise of Christianity, the Catholic Church tried it's best to stop this festival but they were unsuccessful in their attempts. So, what the church did was to take the three days of Samhain and named it All Hallows Eve or All Saints Day, and All Soul's Day. The term Halloween is shortened from All-Hallow' eve, as it is the eve of "all Hallows Day", which is now also known as All Saints' Day. These are, respectively, October 31, November 1, and November 2. It was not until Christianity came to the Isles that the Christian devil ever became associated with Halloween. There was no concept of a devil or Satan in the earth-based religions, nor was there anything even remotely evil about Samhain or as it is now called halloween.

Halloween, no matter how we celebrate it today is still very mystical. But the tradition is traceable to the primordial past. It just proved Mircea Eliade's theory that great events, even the cyclical ones are derived from the events of the very distant past.
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Sources:

ghost stories. Retrieved October 3, 2008 from http://www.answers.com/ghost

history of halloween. Retrieved June 27, 2008 from http://www.history.com/minisites/halloween

halloween. Retrieved June 27, 2008 from http://www.wikipedia.com/halloween

halloween. Retrieved October 5, 2008 from http://www.google.com/images