Say it with us : " sow - win . " That ’s how celebrants pronounce " Samhain , " the name of an ancient Pagan festival that helped lie the groundwork for modernHalloween .
Not that one displaced the other . Samhain ’s still around and is still fete today . Around the world , contemporary Pagans — from Wiccans toDruids — gather each year to observe the traditions and ritual associate with it . Bonfires are blazed ; feasts are devoured . But Samhain is n’t just another scary costume political party . For Pagan community , it ’s a deeply spiritual prison term of manifestation and recollection .
Medieval Samhain
Historical recordsdon’t give us a very clear delineation of what the first Samhain celebration entailed . The festival is Celtic in origination and its name total from the Old Irish language . During Ireland ’s early medieval period , which lasted from about 400 to 1100 C.E. , Samhain mark theonset of winter .
Transition has always been a central theme of this fete . Samhain is said to be " when the summer goes to its rest " in the " Tochmarc Emire " ( " The Wooing of Emer " ) , a chivalric Irish narrative .
Nowadays , Samhain is usuallyobserved from Oct. 31 through Nov. 1 . That puts it about halfway between theautumnal equinoxandwinter solstice . Medieval Samhain fests were likewise celebrated as October pay way of life to November .
( Side musical note : The Northern and southerly hemispheres experience autumn at different times . So modern Pagans livingbelow the equatoroften wait until April / May to hold their Samhain rituals . )
By the time Samhain undulate around , the summer harvests were over and done with . Yet the harshest part of the winter time of year was still a few weeks aside . This , fit in to the 2003 Scripture " Stations of the Sun : A story of the Ritual Year in Britain " by historian Robert Hutton , made Samhain a perfect background for important tribal group meeting in pastoral Ireland . Some lasted for days .
Samhain Spirits and Customs
Quite a fewIrish folk storieswere arrange during Samhain . Many involved the deaths of kings and other morbid or dangerous natural event . Supernatural force became consort with the festival . Fairies , for example , were said to be especially participating during Samhain .
While historiansdebate its inception , at some compass point , the notion stand up that Samhain was also a time when the life of one ’s dead root had easy access to our world — opening the door forcommunicationbetween the living and the deceased .
Samhain got some contest latterly in the 9th century C.E. More than 300 year earlier , Pope Boniface IV had established May 19 as a Christian day of remembrance honoring those who ’d die for their religious belief .
Rebranding as All Saints Day
But in 873 C.E. , the Feast of All Holy Martyrs was moved to Nov. 1 . later on , it would be rename " All Saints ' Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . "
Was the date change a bid to " Christianize " Samhain ritual ? The thought ’s been suggested , but some scholarly person have their doubts .
Nevertheless , Halloween as we now eff it owes ahuge debtto All Saints ' Day . Another name that Christian custom pass away by is " All Hallows ' Day . " Past generations gave the nighttime before ( i.e. , Oct. 31 ) a deed of its own : " All Hallows ' Eve . " As time passed , this was foreshorten to " Hallow - ee’n " before the labelditched its punctuation mark marksand became " Halloween . "
Is n’t etymology fun ?
Samhain in the 21st Century
illusion - or - treating . Costume company . Watching the classic " It ’s the Great Pumpkin , Charlie Brown " special on TV . Halloween fan lie with to cosset in some — or all — these nervous pastimes . If you ’re a modern - day Pagan , you might have a slightly unlike route on Oct. 31.(And Nov. 1 , for that topic . )
" Dumb supper " are among the tradition Samhain celebrator may choose to observe . This custom call for a place setting to be left empty at an otherwise satisfying repast . By intention , the gesture reward a deceased root or kinsfolk member . All the living invitee consume in secrecy as they speculate on the departed .
Sometimes , attendeesburn messageswritten for the somebody in head . Sometimes , the dinner ’s courses are handed out inreverse order . With dumb supper , there ’s a circle of elbow room for variation .
Pagans can also get into the emotional state of Samhain through tranquil meditation . Or soothsaying ceremonies . Orredecorating their personal altarswith gourd vine , dry out Zea mays husks and other autumnal symbols . Because anamnesis is such an authoritative look of Samhain , the ensemble often includes photos exhibit have sex ones who ’ve died .
Outdoors , bonfire ritualsare a Samhain staple among Druids . Pagan grouping that keep gardens have also been have sex to treat the festival as a toilsome deadline for their harvests . Any edible material that is n’t accumulate by the time Samhain terminate is left behind — as a gift to thespirits .
And in keeping with this festival ’s vehemence on transition , some Pagans treat Samhain as the beginning of theCeltic New Year .
Does all this intend Wiccans , Druids and other contemporary Pagans swear off Halloween ? Not inevitably . There are those who relish the laic Halloween time of year , butdon’t engagewith it Oct. 31 . Othersmake timefor both caper - or - treating and Samhain ritual .
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