Welcome to a brief history of Halloween - a collection of frequently asked questions that form an introduction to the weird and wonderful story of the feast of Summer's end.
The facts and extracts in this history were gathered from the book 'Halloween'.
For how long this time of year been specially marked?
How did the Celtic tribes celebrate?
Was their really a druid God called 'Samhain'?
..and did she really have Kings for consorts?
How many bad faeries does it take to change a lightbulb?
Wasn't Hallowe'en the 'Celtic festival of the Dead?
What are the origins of pumpkin lanterns?
...and where did Trick or Treat come from?
For how long this time of year been specially marked?
..as the days grow ever shorter and the strength of the sun fades the Pleiades rise at sunset. Seven stars shine as the sun slips away to the west. Now is the dawning of the dark half of the year, the time when winter draws in.
As the winter gradually drew in ancient peoples gathered beneath the canopy of the stars, they sat in rough circles about glowing bonfires to keep themselves safe and warm and some among them would tell tales. They would point up at the groups of stars and give them names. Constellations became the beasts that they hunted, the creatures they feared. The night sky became a vast illustration, a tapestry of magical characters whose stories came alive in the winter's tales. With their fingers they painted these pictures on the bare rock of cave walls.
...A prehistoric map of the night sky has been discovered on the walls of the famous painted caves at Lascaux in central France. It is a map of the prehistoric cosmos which is thought to date back 16,500 years... A map of the Pleiades star cluster has been found among the Lascaux frescoes
How did the Celtic tribes celebrate?
With huge feasts and lots of drink..
...One hundred vats of every kind of drink were provided, and Conchubur's officers said that the excellence of the feast was such that all the chieftains of Ulaid would not be too many to attend.
'The Intoxication of the Ulaid'
In a tale known as 'The warning sickness of Cú Chulaind and the Only Jealousy of Emer' the annual assembly at Mag Muirthemni was held over Samuin.
Each year the Ulaid held an assembly: the three days before Samuin and the three days after Samuin and Samuin itself. They would gather at Mag Muirthemni, and during these seven days there would be nothing but meetings and games and amusements and entertainments and eating and feasting. That is why the thirds of Samuin are as they are today.
What does 'Samhuinn' mean?
'Samhuinn' literally means 'Summer's end'.
Samhuinn is the Scot's Gaelic spelling. In Old Irish it is 'Samain' and in modern Irish 'Samhain' while the Manx version is 'Sawin'.
Was their really a druid God called 'Samhain'?
NO!!
Not even a little bit.. Samhain 'the Druid God of Death' is totally fictional - he is just the grim reaper masquerading as a non-existant Celtic deity. Samhain is the modern Irish version of Samain and simply means 'Summer's end'. No scythe, no harvesting of souls..
So who is the Cailleach?
The Cailleach Bheur is the ancient Queen of Winter. Possibly the eldest Goddess of the British Isles: worn down over the centuries from deity to giantess, from giantess to the archetypal witch. Her name now is Gaelic, from the 'Q' Celtic goidelic culture that spread through the Highlands - but it seems she was there from ages before, waiting for them to come and call her crone.
'Cailleach' means old women. 'Bheur' is sharp.
...The wizened old hag goddesses appear closely linked to particular locations throughout the British Isles. 'The Cailleach' is not a national deity of a whole country but is rather bound closely to the land - associated with particular mountains, rivers, lochs and other wild places. Her form - the powerful old giantess - may be almost identical wherever she appears but her name and her tales are localised.
..and did she really have Kings for consorts?
Yes
The Irish Triads say there are three great ages: 'the age of the yew tree, of the eagle and of the Hag of Beare.'
In 'the Hag of Beare' the ancient crone recalls her past..
...It is riches Ye love, it is not men: In the time when we lived It was men we loved. My arms when they are seen Are bony and thin: Once they would fondle, They would be round glorious kings...
How many bad faeries does it take to change a lightbulb?
It depends what they want to change it into..
Wasn't Hallowe'en the 'Celtic festival of the Dead?
We have no grim descriptions of a 'Celtic festival of the Dead'. These are not solemn rites or mournful gatherings; they are the liveliest social events of the season.
In the 'Dictionary of Celtic Mythology' we find the following description. By abundant testimony, Samain was the principal calendar festival of early Ireland... 'In part Samain ceremonies commemorated the Dagda's ritual intercourse with three divinities, the Morrigan, Boand, and Indech's unnamed daughter. ... in Irish and Scottish Gaelic oral tradition, Samain time is thought the most favourable for a woman to become pregnant.
Hardly suitable activities for a 'festival of the dead'
What are the origins of pumpkin lanterns?
Will-with-a-wisp, or Jack-with-a-lanthorn, a meteor known among the people under these names but more usually among authors under that of ignis fatuus.
Encyclopaedia Brittanica - first edition 1771
The 'Jack-with-a-lanthorn' is one of many folk names for the mysterious glowing balls of light seen hovering over marshes across Britain.
Children made 'Jack O' Lanterns' out of turnips they 'borrowed' from heaps of farmyard winter cattle fodder. When Hallowe'en customs emigrated to America with the Scots they found the native pumpkins were a lot easier to carve and hollow out than the rock hard turnips and so the pumkin lantern was born.
...and where did Trick or Treat come from?
The mass exodus from Scotland and Ireland brought waves of new folk to American. They brought their old traditions and beliefs with them. Among the earliest America Halloween symbols are the Scottish thistle, the kail cabbages, kilted men and tartan patterns.
Vintage American Halloween cards depict young ladies bobbing for apples, looking for their future lover's refection in a mirror and reaching out, blindfolded, towards three bowls of water - divination rites that Robert Burns wrote about in his poem 'Hallowe'en'.
The facts and extracts in this history were gathered from the book 'Halloween'.
