Song of Samhain

The start

Cutting aside all the modern traditions, and above all, the commercialism rammed at parents from shopkeepers eager to increase profits through the sale of plastic masks, costumes, fake jack-o-lanterns and sweets, Halloween is a festival, a celebration which has its roots in ancient Celtic pagan beliefs and rituals.  I wanted to explore why Halloween comes across as so sinister, so dark and deadly, so I turned to looking for its origins.

Dolmen del Pedra Gentil, near Barcelona, rumoured to be haunted

The name "Halloween" comes from a  much older expression "All Hallows' E'en (or Evening)" which marked the 31st October as the evening before the Christian feast of All Saints (all the hallowed). As Christianity spread across the world, it tended to take existing pagan festivals and absorb it into Christian beliefs.  It was an effective way of persuading pagans into the Christian beliefs and rituals.  Over time, Halloween was demonised to an extent, the traditions and rituals of All Hallows' Eve associated with witchcraft and devil worship - again, a useful way of disassociating people from their pagan roots.

Halloween falls on the Celtic feast of Samhain.  It is one of the most important times of year for Celtic pagans.  It heralds the end of the harvest season and the start of a new year, it marks and end and a beginning, at the time when the sun begins to turn its face away from the northern hemisphere and the cold, and the dark of midwinter begin to set in.  In the Celtic traditions, the winter quarter is a time of restoration and renewal; as the cold and the dark set in, so there is time for reflection and restoration of the spirit - human spirit and the spirit of life, of the world.  Samhain is associated with remembrance of ancestors - hence its link to the ghosts or spirits of the dead - so it is an appropriate time to reflect on the cycle of death and rebirth, on old age and the coming of wisdom, on clarity of thought and freedom of spirit.  Samhain is a time to learn from the lives of wise elders (all the saints, in the Christian traditions) on their deeds and actions which have brought learning and wisdom, peace and resolution to humanity.

Dolmens are places where old tales tell of the gathering of witches at Halloween - perhaps just pagans celebrating Samhain in hiding to avoid Christian persecution.

Song of Samhain

I am the hallow-tide of all souls passing,

I am the bright releaser of all pain,

I am the quickener of fallen seed-case,

I am the glance of snow, the strike of rain,

I am the hollow of winter twilight,

I am the hearth fire and the welcome bread,

I am the curtained awning of the pillow,

I am unending wisdom's golden thread.

(from "Celtic Devotional" by Caitlin Matthews)

Nothing sinister there.  In fact, the roots of Halloween are far removed from the modern day traditions.  Samhain seems to me a rather beautiful and peaceful way of ending one year and starting the next.

To a people living at a time and place where life was precarious and completely linked to the cycles of nature, where death was close at all times, survival rituals became the basis of beliefs and spiritual traditions.  This was the time of year where the last of the harvest was brought in and stored.  People expressed gratitude for a bountiful harvest or had to reflect on how to share out what there was to ensure survival, if the harvest had been poor.  It was a time when livestock was slaughtered to make sure there was food during winter months and that there was enough stored fodder for the remaining animals to survive the harsh winter.  With the possibility of death always so close and the need to learn from the wisdom and experience of those who had gone before, people would invite the spirits of their ancestors, those who had died, to visit them and would welcome them with gifts of food left at window sills and thresholds.

I think there was a further reason for this idea of the spirits of the dead  returning to visit.  There is a sense of instability at certain times of year, notably where spring turns to summer - marked by the Celtic feast of Beltane - and where late summer, autumn, becomes the full harshness of winter - Samhain.  It is that change, that alteration in the weather, the habits of animals, the change in the trees, in the crops, in nature, that has probably engendered a belief in the boundaries between the realm of the dead and the realm of the living dissolving in the changes that are taking place.  Thus the dead can travel from the otherworld, to the human world.  Samhain is a time for veneration of the ancestors, but we can see clearly where if benign ancestors can pass throughout the thinning boundaries at this special time of year, so can less benign spirits.  So Halloween, while a rejoiceful festival with its traditions of a new start and reflection, has its darker side.  As does everything in life - the light can only really shine in the dark.

Post script

As I wrote this post, I decided to listen to some "Samhain" music to see if it made me feel remotely inspired, or at least helped me concentrate (Hubby watching F1Grand Prix in the background).  I found it surprisingly relaxing.  Follow this link (you may need to copy/paste it to your address bar) to the You Tube list and enjoy listening!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4wYm35-20U