Halloween - Not just fancy dress 'Trick or Treat' an important time of the year

What is Halloween?

Halloween or 'All Hallow's Eve' is the night of October 31. It is now the eve of All Saint's Day, 1^st November, in the Christian faith. It is however an important time in the Celtic calendar.

Samhain – mid solstice (pronounced sah-win or sow-in) is the first and most important of the four quarter days in the Celtic Calendar, the Celts are believed to have measured time by nights rather than by days - the nights are getting longer, it's the 'darker half' of the year, winter is beginning.

Samhain marks the end of the harvest, the bringing in of food, the land is ready for winter. The year is over and a new one is beginning. Samhain was the festival that marked the 'New Year' for the Celtic peoples.

Links to the dead and other spirits

Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the ‘other world’ thinned - it is therefore an important time in Celtic ‘spiritual’ time, the feast, or memorial, of the dead. 

As in many other cultures, Celts believed that the souls of the dead return home on one night of the year. Candles would be lit, and places were set at the dinner table, and by the fire, to welcome them.

In some Celtic countries it was believed that the ‘wilder spirits’, fairies, elves etc. could more easily come into our world and were particularly active at Samhain. It was believed that the Aos Sí, as they were called in Ireland, (pronounced ees shee), needed to be appeased to ensure that livestock and harvest, survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left outside and there is some belief that bonfires were lit to ward off the spirits.

Getting dressed up

From at least the 16th century mumming and guising became part of the activities in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales - people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food. This may have been a development of a tradition where people impersonated the Aos Sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf. Impersonating these beings, or wearing a disguise, was also believed to protect oneself from them.

Modern Halloween

So where does Dracula, Mummies, Frankenstein, Witches and others fit in?  - they don’t! Samhain isn't about evil, it is about ancestors and their spirits - ghosts, family ghosts, coming home to be with families for the evening, and it is about mischief, elves and fairies and other mystical Celtic spirits being appeased so they don’t cause mischief. Trick or Treat anyone?

This post has been influenced by a range of sources 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

http://www.newgrange.com/samhain.htm

https://archive.archaeology.org/online/interviews/butler.html