As autumn proves and Robert Frost reminds us, “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”
In October, daylight wanes, fields empty and much of the Northern Hemisphere turns itself towards full blown memento mori.
All of this death is not without ceremony, found most notably in Halloween, a holiday whose origins trace back to the Iron Age and a feast of fire.
Samhain or Samhuinn, pronounced sow-wen, is the pagan precursor to Halloween, a festival honoring the end of the harvest, the onset of winter and the beginning of the “dark half” of the Celtic calendar year.
The word Samhain translates to “summer’s end,” and as practicing witch Dacha Avelin richly describes, “It is the threshold to the season of Death.”
Apropos of this, Samhain coincides with the suns journey through the eighth house of sex, death and regeneration.
Samhain traditions
Sitting square between the “fire festivals.”
In the ancient tradition, while the last of the crops were collected, hearth bonfires in individual homes were left to burn out. After the harvest was complete, “celebrants joined with Druid priests to light a community fire using a wheel that would cause friction and spark flames.”
Original Samhain celebrations included a bonfire with a take home flame, a kind of goth-tinged “this little light of mine” vibe.
“The wheel was considered a representation of the sun and used along with prayers…participants took a flame from the communal bonfire back to their home to relight the hearth.”
This torch offered both warmth and protection for the home, a kind of goth-tinged “this little light of mine” vibe.
Can dig.
Mandatory bender
Some sources maintain that OG Samhain celebrations were a bit of a bender, a full few days of excessive mead drinking and gratuitous feasting.
Participation was mandatory, and punishment for abstaining came in the form of death and illness dealt by the gods of yore.
Anyone who used weapons or committed a crime during the festival of Samhain faced a sentence of death. Sharp retribution for those that would harsh the mellow.
Divine intervention aside, Samhain was held sacred and kept separate from violence; anyone who used their weapons or committed a crime during the festival faced a sentence of death.
Sharp retribution for those who would harsh the mellow.
Hungry ghosts and animal hides
Ancient Celts believed that during this auspicious time of year, the proverbial veil, that divide between the living and the dead, the godly and the creaturely, was at its most permeable.
The word “bonfire” comes from bone fire, the practice of offering the bones of animals to ceremonial flames.
Very heavy metal.
Food was left on doorsteps and forest edges to honor the departed, appease hungry spirits, and protect the living, while crops and animals were offered as ritual sacrifices to be burned.
Fun fact: the word “bonfire” comes from bone fire, the practice of offering the bones of animals to the flames.
Very heavy metal.
Divination was thought to be aided by this thinning of the veil and fortunes were cast by the thrown light of the towering bonfires.
The familiar tradition of wearing Halloween costumes was born from these early revelers who disguised themselves in animal skins to deceive marauding spirits that sought to harm them.
Christian propaganda campaign: Samhain becomes All Saints Day
As Christianity conquered Celtic communities, the form and function of Samhain was amended.
The church, recognizing that rebranding was more effective than total eradication, assigned new meanings to old practices and sacred sites.
In-kind, Samhain became All Saints Day, when martyrs and saints, rather than the free-range spirits of the dead, were honored.
This substitution was pseudo-seamless, as saints often have a whiff of the supernatural about them—a veritable mixed bag of born-again virgins, necromancers, stigmatics, incorruptibles, and dragon slayers.
What the pagans called magic, the Catholics called miraculous, same same but different.
What the pagans called magic, the Catholics called miraculous, same same but different. The night before All Saints Day became known as All Hallows Eve, later Hallow Evening, and eventually Halloween.
