Samhain - The Origin of Halloween

Samhain - The Origin of Halloween

Samhain, the ragged Celtic holiday, literally means "summer's slay." The Celts divided the year into two seasons, representing light and gloomy. The first day of each season held a celebration, with Beltane on May 1st and Samhain on November 1st.

Samhain was an principal festival, as it welcomed original beginnings and a unusual year for the Celts. It also symbolized a union or communality between people. Bonfires were lit by people within a village. While the bonfire blazed, villagers extinguished all other fires. Each family would then light its hearth from the celebrated flame of the bonfire, bonding the families of a village together.

Samhain Eve was a time of reflection for the Celts, and a time for honoring the wearisome. This particular time of year signified the final harvest, a time of gathering and preparing for winter. Often winter was a time of famine and some would not survive through the long months ahead. Samhain was a map of honoring those who had died, a celebration of the spirit remembered.

It was a celebrated understanding that the "camouflage" between the world of the living and the world of the uninteresting was thinnest on the eve of Samhain. In novel times, many have crooked this view to obnoxious intent, though its origin is powerful more grand. The slow could return on this one night to the places where they had lived, and food and entertainment were provided in their honor. This symbolized a village existing in harmony with its past, show and future.

This also led to the tradition of lighting a single candle in a window, to light the plan for ancestors to regain their procedure home. Food offerings were also left on doorsteps for the spirits (which led to our recent "trick or treating") .

It was the Romans who added their "Feast of the unimaginative" to the celebration of Samhain. The Christians destabilized the holiday by introducing "All Saint's Day" on November 1st, and re-naming October 31st to All Hallow's Eve, which later became Hallowe'en. For Christians, All Saints Day celebrates the spirits in Heaven and Purgatory. It became old to bang pots and pans together on the eve of All Saint's Day, to let the souls in Hell know they weren't forgotten.

Samhain is also a major celebration of Wiccans, one of their eight holy Sabbats. For Wiccans, it is also a time of celebrating the past and the future to arrive. Many Pagans celebrate the unusual Year at this time.

Though the holiday has changed over the years, its intent remains determined - it is a celebration of respect for the dreary and a celebration of the unique beginning that is to reach. It is a holiday that commemorates the togetherness of a community.