HndsmCelt said:
Became sanitized when the Christian Rmans invaded the British Isles. Mst Halloween traditions come from the earlier Pagen Samhain cellebrations.
Happy Samhain to you, Mr. Celt! Although I am a Catholic (lapsed, what else could I be with Irish roots?) I think it's interesting to find the pagan roots of christian celebrations.
Samhain
From Wikipedia.
Samhain (pron: 'sow-in) is the
winter season of the ancient
Celts. The name is also used for one of the
sabbats in the
Neo-Pagan wheel of the year.
Celts
According to the
Celtic calendar, the year was divided into four quarters: Samhain (winter),
Imbolc (spring),
Beltane (summer), and
Lughnasadh (autumn). The Celtic year began in
November, with Samhain. The Celts were influenced principally by the lunar and stellar cycles which governed the agricultural year - beginning and ending in
autumn when the
crops have been harvested and the
soil is prepared for the
winter. Pronunciation differs radically between different groups of
Celtic language speakers. The word "Samhain" is probably derived from the
Gaelic word "samhraidhreadh", or "summer's end". Bealtaine, Lúnasa and Samhain are still today the names of the months of
May,
August and November in the
Irish language. Similarly, Lùnasdal and Samhain are the modern
Scots Gaelic names for August and November.
Samhain Eve, in Irish and Scots Gaelic,
Oidhche Shamhna, is one of the principal
festivals of the Celtic calendar, and is thought to fall on or around the
31st of October. It represents the final
harvest. In modern Ireland and Scotland, the name by which Halloween is known in the Gaelic language is still "Oíche/Oidhche Shamhna".
Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. Even into Christian times, villagers cast the bones of the slaughtered cattle upon the flames, cattle having a prominent place in the pre-Christian Gaelic world. Though a folk etymology derives the English word "bonfire" from these "bone fires," the Gaelic has no such parallel. With the bonfire ablaze, the villagers extinguished all other fires. Each family then solemnly lit their hearth from the common flame, thus bonding the families of the village together.
Like most Celtic festivals, Samhain was celebrated on a number of levels. Materially, it was the time for gathering food for the long winter months ahead and bringing people and livestock into their winter quarters. To be alone or lost at this dangerous time was to expose oneself and one's spirit to the perils of imminent
winter. In the modern age the importance of this part of the festival has diminished for most people, but from the point of view of a tribal people for whom a bad season meant facing a long winter of
famine through which many would not survive to the
spring, it was paramount.
Samhain was also a time for
contemplation. Death was never very far away, yet to die was not the tragedy it is in modern times. Of signal importance to the Celts people was to die with
honour and to live in the
memory of the
tribe and be honoured at the great Feast of the
Dead (in Ireland and Scotland, this would have been the
Féile na Marbh) which took place on Samhain Eve.
This was the most
magical time of the year; Samhain was the day which did not exist. During the night the great
shield of
Scathach was lowered, allowing the barriers between the worlds to fade and the forces of chaos to invade the realms of order, the material world conjoining with the world of the dead. At this time the spirits of the dead and those yet to be born walked amongst the living. The dead could return to the places where they had lived and food and entertainment were provided in their honour. In this way the tribes were at one with its past, present and future. This aspect of the festival was never totally subdued by
Christianity.
From an astrological perspective, the setting of
Pleiades, the winter
stars, heralds the supremacy of night over day and the start of the dark half of the year that is ruled by the realms of the
moon.
In the three days preceding Samhain, the Sun God
Lugh, maimed at
Lughnassadh (
August 1), dies by the hand of his
Tánaiste (counterpart or heir), the
Lord of Misrule. Lugh traverses the boundaries of the worlds on the first day of Samhain. His Tanist is a miser and, though shining brightly in the winter skies, he gives no warmth and does not temper the breath of the Crone,
Cailleach Bheare, the north
wind. In this may be discerned the ageless battle between the light and dark and the cyclic nature of life and the seasons.
In parts of western
Brittany Samhain is still heralded by the baking of kornigou. Kornigou are cakes baked in the shape of
antlers to commemorate the
god of winter shedding his "
cuckold" horns as he returns to his kingdom in the
Otherworld.
When the
Romans made contact with the Celts, they identified Samhain with their own feast of the dead, the
Lemuria, which, however, was observed in the days leading up to May 13. The Christians subverted the recognition of Samhain to honor the saints, as All Saint's Day on
November 1st and named
October 31 as All Hallow's Eve. Significantly the feast was removed from May to November. This latter became a
secular holiday by the name of
Halloween.
**edited to meet the <10,000 characters requirement**
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain