Holloween History

Holloween History

Halloween History: A Celtic Celebration October 31, two thousand years ago, in an area that is now Ireland, Celts gathered to celebrate the New Year. This day was known to them as the end of summer and the beginning of a long, dark winter. They associated winter time with human death occurring the most often. They believed Samhainwas a time when the division between the two worlds became very thin, when hostile supernatural forces were active and ghosts and spirits were free to wander as they wished. "During this interval the normal order of the universe is suspended, the barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily removed, and all divine beings and the spirits of the dead move freely among men and interfere sometimes violently, in their affairs" (Celtic Mythology, p. 127). The Celtic priests who carried out the rituals in the open air were called Druids. The members of pagan orders in Britain, Ireland and Gaul, generally performed their rituals by offering sacrifices, usually of crops and animals, but sometimes of humans, in order to calm the gods; ensuring that the sun would return after the winter; and frightening away evil spirits. To the Celtics, the bonfire represented the sun and was used to aid the Druid in his fight with dark powers. The term bonfire comes from the words "bone fire," literally meaning the bones of sacrificed animals, sometimes human, were piled in a field with timber and set ablaze. All fires except those of the Druids were extinguished on Samhain and householders were levied a fee to relight their holy fire which burned at their altars. During the Festival of Samhain, fires would be lit which would burn all through the winter and sacrifices would be offered to the gods on the fires. This practice of burning humans was stopped around 1600, and an image or statue was sometimes burned instead. Some trace the origins of present day "trick-or-treat" to Samhain, which was the supreme night of demonic jubilation....

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