Halloween - The Celebration of the Spirits

Halloween - The Celebration of the Spirits

There was never a more controversial celebration than Halloween. Barbarous through its manifestations, but detached famed by the Christians, reinvented by the Americans, but having European roots, the night of the spirits is thousands of years faded.

The beginnings of this atypical celebration are simply lost in time. No one knows when and under what circumstances the mysterious beliefs in the other world appeared, but one things is distinct and that is that this understanding needed to be noted once a year. The distinct thing is that when the Romans conquered Britain, the tradition was already renowned by the entire Celtic people.

The event, which was initially known as Samhain, was strongly connected to the Barbarians' preoccupations from two thousand years ago, these preoccupations coming at the beginning of the winter and on fresh Year's Eve. The event was associated with death and with the outstanding frosty of the frozen season and it was dedicated to the gloomy Celtic god, Anwinn. This god allowed all the astounding creatures to invade the world of the living on the first winter day.

The view was that the spirits which couldn't rest could then peruse the path to the other world, but only if helped by the people and the only method they could do this was to occupy their bodies. In fact, it seems that the outmoded inhabitants of Britain and of Ireland burned the ones who were suspected of being possessed by demons as a warning for the spirits which were supposed to be driven away.

On the 31st of October, the Celts in Ireland stale to make colossal poles made from oak trunks and to complete some rituals around the fire. People frail to paint their faces in sombre motifs in order to mingle with the unsuitable creatures which wandered among them. The same celebration was held in Scotland, the only inequity being that the Scottish plan they could read the future if they looked at the flames.