Halloween: All You Need To Know

Halloween is a vacation celebrated every year on October 31, and Halloween 2021 will happen on Sunday, October 31. The custom originated with the traditional Celtic competition of Samhain  (pronounced sow-in) when folks would gentle bonfires and put on costumes to beat back ghosts. This day marked the tip of summer season and the harvest and the start of the dark, chilly winter, a time of year that was typically related to human loss of life.

Origins

People have recognized the competition by many names: Samhain, All Hallows, Hallowmass, Hallowe’en, All Hallowe’en, All Hallows’ Eve, & All Saints’ Eve.

Halloween. The phrase Halloween is of Christian origin, and means “Saints’ evening”. The identify ‘Halloween’ comes from “All Hallows’ Eve”, being the night earlier than the Christian holy days of All Hallows’ Day (All Saints’ Day) on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November.

Halloween and the Day of the Dead share a standard origin within the Christian commemoration of the useless on All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day. But each embody sturdy pre-Christian beliefs. In the case of Halloween, the Celtic celebration of Samhain is important to its pagan legacy, a declare that has been foregrounded in latest years by each new-age fans and the evangelical.

Samhain. Samhain comes from the Gaelic phrase ‘sam’ which means ‘summer’ and ‘fuin’ which means ‘end’, “Summers End”, which was celebrated by the Celtics who lived 2,000 years in the past within the space that’s now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France.

Celtics celebrated their new year on November 1. What is it that they have been celebrating?

• The finish of sowing and harvest season – due to this fact it’s the tip of the year celebration.
• The cycle of residing and dying – after a time of harvest and many, the flora dies
• Of honouring the useless, and people who have handed earlier than us

Over time, Halloween advanced right into a day of actions that embrace trick-or-treating (or the associated guising and souling), attending Halloween costume events, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination video games, enjoying pranks, visiting haunted points of interest, telling scary tales, in addition to watching horror movies!

What is All Saints Day?

It was the Christians who added the useless to the Samhain celebrations once they established the feast of All Saints on November 1. Purgatory was a central idea of All Souls Day. It was the hinterland of the afterlife the place most Christian souls may anticipate to go after loss of life. Neither heaven nor hell, purgatory was the place the place the not wholly righteous served their time earlier than they have been lastly deemed worthy of heaven.

To assist your deceased cherished one shorten the time in purgatory, households may dedicate as many prayers as doable throughout Mass to help the souls of their ancestors. Those who couldn’t afford a full mass or who merely wished to purchase further prayers may recruit the poor to say prayers for them. And so the custom of Souling was established.

For many poor folks, it was additionally a helpful approach of gathering alms over the colder months. Now as an alternative of providing prayers once they went door to door, the poor would sing for his or her supper, asking for “soul cakes, a pear, a plumb, a cherry’  in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers’ friends and relatives, with the added hint that if the householder gave the alms, the Soulers would stop making a nuisance of themselves.” This was known as “souling”.

“Soul cakes were small cakes baked as food for the deceased or offered for the salvation of their souls. They were therefore offered at funerals and feasts of the dead, laid on graves, or given to the poor as representatives of the dead. The baking of these soul cakes is a universal practice”.

Soul truffles have been additionally supplied for the souls themselves to eat, or the ‘soulers’ would act as their representatives. As with the Lenten custom of scorching cross buns, soul truffles have been typically marked with a cross, indicating they have been baked as alms.

‘Trick or Treat’

Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for youngsters & early teenagers on Halloween. Children go in costume from home to deal with, asking for treats akin to sweet or generally cash, with the query, “Trick or treat?” The phrase “trick” implies a “threat” to carry out mischief on the owners or their property if no deal with is given. Soulers added pranks to their repertoire of door-to-door leisure. Knock and run turned a favourite prank, or else doorways have been pelted with cabbages. Livestock or items may be ‘misplaced.’These pranks led to Halloween turning into referred to as ‘Mischief Night.

In the 1840s, a large-scale inflow of Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine took up residence within the New World. In 1866 that the Daily News of Kingston Ontario recorded the primary use of a pumpkin lantern throughout festivities within the city. Some years later, in 1911, the identical publication described the resurgence of souling and guising as a part of the brand new custom of trick or treating. The reinvention of Halloween had begun.

CELTIC LORE……Should the present or the donation not be beneficiant, “Muck Olla” is alleged to destroy the home of anybody who was not beneficiant (Muck Olla might have been an historic Celtic god named Macalla).

Guising

“It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints’ Day, and All Hallows’ Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes”.

Guising or dressing up in disguise was a observe that went hand in hand with Souling. Guises have been to idiot the spirits at Samhain by making the wearer seem like one in every of them or on the very least unidentifiable, and so in a position to escape their fury. Later, disguises have been assumed when souling door to door, based mostly on characters related to the season with the intention of hiding the identities of the guisers from neighbors, not any spirits of the season.

This year the preferred costumes are coming from fashionable films/collection such because the guard from Squid Games, or the comedian e book character Harley Quinn.  Other fashionable costumes are witches, ghosts, vampires, and ghouls. So one may argue that in case you’re sporting a Halloween costume that’s related to human loss of life, you possibly can be within the spirit of Halloween! Samhain is a vacation of loss of life.

Still, that’s to not say you shouldn’t have enjoyable on this vacation and benefit from the festivities together with your family and friends. Anything to do with the dark spirits, dark energies, ghosts, and the afterlife is enjoyable!

Halloween is a time of celebration.

The Thinning of the Veil

During this era, the veil between the fabric and non secular worlds diminished. This thinning allowed these on both aspect of the invisible barrier, a passage between the 2 worlds. What does this imply and what ought to you already know as someone within the fantastic world of witchcraft:

1. You may penetrate the veil and acquire perception into the unknown.
2. The spirits from past the veil, are free to discover our world

These spirits might be useful however they might additionally do nice hurt. It very a lot relied on their temper and whims. These unpredictable attributes clarify why these nature spirits are personified right this moment as tricksy fairies, evil witches or demons. Because the spirits have been simply offended- and the after-effects of their in poor health will would linger even after the veil closed, it was important for folks to courtroom them similtaneously defending in opposition to their fury.

The worry of the malevolent facet of those gods has translated down the ages into people customs and beliefs that folks broadly noticed in components of Britain up till the nineteenth century. Each area had a specific personification. In Wales, as an example, Hwch Ddu Gwta personified the malevolent spirit of the season, a tailless black sow that brought on mayhem, and chased anybody it came upon overseas on Nos Calan Gaea.

Elsewhere, as in Ireland, the capricious nature of the gods was preserved within the Puca, a nature spirit/goblin who was good or dangerous, relying on temper. In the Shetland Irelands, Norse beliefs prevailed, and each measure was taken to guard the newly gathered harvest and cattle within the residence pastures from marauding trolls.

These non secular threats have been most likely methods of deciphering the pure risks of winter. Tribes and households, due to this fact, did one of the best to win the spirits over, to guard the gathered harvest and their remaining livestock- and the folks themselves. So one of many elements of Summer’s End/Winter’s Beginning was the sacrifice- the sharing of a few of the summer season’s bounty with the spirits within the hope that this might fulfill.

So, the beasts culled in preparation for winter would turn out to be half communal feast half collective sacrifice, because the group supplied a portion to those gods.

The Bonfire & the Jack-o-lantern

Fire has at all times been a software of safety, and through this time of celebration, it has a number of fabulous functions. “As soon as night fell on Samhain Eve, the clan would light the flames.” Personally, we prefer to have lights at our home windows, to gentle a path for the spirits particularly the misplaced souls! For different folks, a candle positioned within the window would warn off the evil spirits and maintain them away out of your door.

Rosemary Guiley, within the Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca, wrote, “According to most legends, the jack-o’-lantern is a wandering soul who has been denied entry into both heaven and hell. In Ireland, children who are caught outdoors after dark are told to wear their jackets inside-out in order not to be lured astray by a jack-o’-lantern. In Sweden, the spirit is believed to be the soul of an unbaptized child, who tries to lead travelers to water in hopes of receiving baptism. In American lore, the jack-o’-lantern is associated with witches and the Halloween custom of trick-or-treating. It is customary for trick-or-treaters to carry pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns to frighten away evil spirits.”

There is a well-liked Irish Christian folktale related to the jack-o’-lantern, which in folklore is alleged to characterize a misplaced soul:

On route residence after an evening’s ingesting, Jack encounters the Devil and tips him into climbing a tree. A fast-thinking Jack etches the signal of the cross into the bark, thus trapping the Devil. Jack strikes a cut price that Satan can by no means declare his soul. After a lifetime of sin, drink, and lying, Jack is refused entry to heaven when he dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to let Jack into hell and throws a stay coal straight from the fires of hell at him. It was a chilly evening, so Jack locations the coal in a hollowed out turnip to cease it from going out, since which period Jack and his lantern have been roaming on the lookout for a spot to relaxation!

What else to do when the Veil is skinny?

With the Veil between the realms of the residing and the useless the sheerest, it’s the time all over the world to:

Contact your ancestors –  At Samhain, the “spirits” have been appeased to make sure the folks and livestock survived the winter. Offerings of foods and drinks, or parts of the crops, have been left exterior for them.

The perception that the souls of the useless return residence on one evening of the year and have to be appeased appears to have historic origins and is discovered in lots of cultures. In nineteenth century Ireland, “candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin”

One approach to do that is an fascinating custom known as a Dumb Supper. This feast is for any ancestors or family members who had handed away, and you retain them at your desk tonight with one further place set for the dearly departed.

• Food is served on their plate
• All of the visitors ought to eat in silence
• The door is left open for the useless to affix.
• After the meal was completed, the meal is taken exterior and left within the open.

Necromancy – One may additionally interact in necromantic practices of assorted sorts.

Lost & Wandering Spirits – Hungry ghosts & misplaced souls are additionally believed to abound:

• • Place choices of milk and barley exterior beneath the celebs to ease the ghosts’ starvation, forestall their mischief, and to accrue their blessings.
  • Those ghosts with out household or buddies to feed and honour them, ought to be fed and honoured too!
  • If you don’t need them hanging out with you, dangle contemporary boneset branches over doorways, or burn younger boneset branches and twigs inside a cauldron to drive away current ghosts.
  • Keep ghosts joyful and goodnatured by sustaining the perfume of benzoin and sandalwood within the residence.
  • To present aid from harmful and mischievous ghosts and poltergeists, place bay laurel branches and/or leaves inside the residence.
  • At midnight on Halloween bury apples at crossroads to feed hungry ghosts.

 

Something to consider

It’s necessary to do not forget that earlier than trendy religions akin to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, we have been all following earth-based religions/non secular practices, and all of those religions have been based mostly upon nature the place humanity lived in tune with mom earth. As Pagans, we adopted and celebrated the cycles of the solar and of the moon. Celebration of the seasons and respect of our ancestors and people who have lately handed. So the celebration of Samhain (pronounced sow-in) is the celebration of the tip of the Summer.

To be goal, one may argue that the medieval Christian festivals of All Saints’ and All Souls’ present a basis for the best way we rejoice Halloween right this moment? From emphasizing useless souls (each good and evil) to adorning skeletons, lighting candles for processions, constructing bonfires to beat back evil spirits, organizing group feasts, and even encouraging carnival practices like costumes, the medieval and early trendy traditions of “Hallowtide” match properly with our trendy vacation.

So what does this all imply? It implies that once we rejoice Halloween, we’re undoubtedly collaborating in a practice with deep historic roots. But, whereas these roots are firmly located within the medieval Christian previous, their historic connection to “paganism” and particularly Samhain is reasonably extra tenuous.

So on the lighter aspect, you possibly can say that like all the things else in historical past, this time of year has advanced to be a celebration with one thing for everyone.  Samhain and Halloween might be celebrated as two distinct occasions in your calendar, or as strictly the unique Pagan vacation with out all the commercialized bling, or one thing of your individual creation!  The actuality is that for many people who find themselves celebrating Halloween, the historical past of each, is totally forgotten and it’s all in regards to the costume, the treats, and the celebration. Thankfully these will not be the burning occasions and also you do have a alternative.

For instance, our buddies within the southern hemisphere, are additionally beginning to rejoice Halloween. Australians, New Zealanders, and others in Southern Asia, love to decorate up and trick-or-treat inside their neighbourhoods. For the southern hemisphere Pagans, Wiccans, and Witches, it’s the time for the celebration of Beltane[1] on October thirty first. Samhain is widely known on April 30/May 1. Therefore, you possibly can argue that those that rejoice Halloween within the southern hemisphere, are collaborating in Halloween both completely for the Christian traditions & festivities, or simply for the celebration! Happy Halloween.

I’d love to listen to your ideas on this matter, or what you’re doing as a contemporary man or girl right now of year.

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References:

• https://frightgeist.withgoogle.com/
• “Guess what? Halloween is more Christian than Pagan”. Barr, Beth Allison (28 October 2016).The Washington Post.

[1] Beltane, the start of the summer season months is on the November cross-quarter. This is the competition of the Great Rite – of sexual union between Goddess and God. Beltane is the spring fertility competition and there’s feasting and celebration – an awesome competition for lovers! Beltane is the preferred time for Witches to be handfasted.

 

is before everything, a bunch of people with a deep respect for the environment, the spirits of the land, and nature. The guardians of those components are these which we comply with and join with for our knowledge and steering. These are the TRUE Gods.