*Ø* Blogmanac October 31 | Samhain (Halloween) origins and folklore
An American custom? Many Australians think it is.
Not so. Trick-or-treating was going on in some parts of Australia before it was ever seen in some parts of the USA.
And the Scots have trick or treating for 500 years. Halloween itself is millennia old, and seems to be in Australia to stay.
Witches and spooks might come a-knocking on your door on the night of October 31. Send them away if you will, by all means, but not because they're enacting a foreign custom. Most Aussies unwittingly have Halloween customs deep within their rattling bones.
Halloween was already an ancient festival of souls 2,000 years ago. It has long been commemorated in countries from Ireland and Poland to Mexico and the Philippines (where trick-or-treating is called Nangangaluluwa, and your chickens are in danger of being purloined).
Halloween customs are relatively new to Australia, but are rapidly establishing themselves. When you come to think of it, every old, cherished custom was once a new-fangled idea, even in the BCE.
The ancient Druids of Britain, whose mysteries held sway for centuries before the Romans came to Britain, celebrated a spooky night on October 31. These pagans called it Samhain. In the northern hemisphere, the day which falls slap bang between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice, is November 1. The eve of Samhain, October 31, was the night the lord of death was said to judge the souls of the departed.
What you could have expected on Samhain eve if you were a suburban Briton in 300 BCE, was to go to the mall bonfire and watch a neighbour being roasted alive, while you nibbled roast chestnuts with your diet cola. This was an 'end of summer' ceremony, and the druidic priests built a bonfire (bone-fire) to represent the sun which they wished would return, dispelling bitter cold and famine.
The Romans invaded Britain, and outlawed human sacrifice, so the Druids put another horse on the barbie. In 834, two centuries after St Augustine had brought Christianity to Britain, the Pope in Rome ordered that the ancient pagan rituals, which couldn't be stamped out among the masses, be Christianized. Spring fertility rites became Easter. Winter solstice, or yule, rites became Christmas. Samhain became All Saints' Day. Another word for saint was 'hallow', and 'even' meant 'evening before': All Hallows' eve became called ... Halloweven, or Hallowe'en ...
Trick-or-treating, then, is not strictly American, despite assertions to the contrary by some Australian xenophobes. British Catholic and Protestant emigrants, and others from Europe, took Halloween customs to America, but they were spread unevenly. Catholic customs went to Maryland, Dutch and Swedish Lutheran to Delaware, English Protestant to New England, and so on. Texas children started trick-or-treating in the 1940s. Some regions didn't see it before 1955 ...
Lex Lammoy, public relations officer for the Scouting Association in New South Wales says that he first saw trick-or-treating in Cairns, Queensland, as far back as the early 1950s, which is earlier than the Halloween promenade appeared in some parts of Florida and North Carolina ...
Read on at the Scriptorium's Halloween origins and folklore page
Halloween party fun ideas
The Yarn of Fisher's Ghost: An Australian ghost story
Ancient Greek Samhain festivals
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
Happy Samhain, dear friends!
(Or if you're in the South like me, happy Beltane!
October 31 is 'Out Of The Broom Closet Day', named by the Pagan Pride Project in 2001 as a day to support and encourage followers of Pagan, Heathen, and other earth-based and ethnic religious paths to publicly declare and support their chosen religion to those who they encounter in everyday life.
Source
An American custom? Many Australians think it is.
Not so. Trick-or-treating was going on in some parts of Australia before it was ever seen in some parts of the USA.
And the Scots have trick or treating for 500 years. Halloween itself is millennia old, and seems to be in Australia to stay.
Witches and spooks might come a-knocking on your door on the night of October 31. Send them away if you will, by all means, but not because they're enacting a foreign custom. Most Aussies unwittingly have Halloween customs deep within their rattling bones.
Halloween was already an ancient festival of souls 2,000 years ago. It has long been commemorated in countries from Ireland and Poland to Mexico and the Philippines (where trick-or-treating is called Nangangaluluwa, and your chickens are in danger of being purloined).
Halloween customs are relatively new to Australia, but are rapidly establishing themselves. When you come to think of it, every old, cherished custom was once a new-fangled idea, even in the BCE.
The ancient Druids of Britain, whose mysteries held sway for centuries before the Romans came to Britain, celebrated a spooky night on October 31. These pagans called it Samhain. In the northern hemisphere, the day which falls slap bang between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice, is November 1. The eve of Samhain, October 31, was the night the lord of death was said to judge the souls of the departed.
What you could have expected on Samhain eve if you were a suburban Briton in 300 BCE, was to go to the mall bonfire and watch a neighbour being roasted alive, while you nibbled roast chestnuts with your diet cola. This was an 'end of summer' ceremony, and the druidic priests built a bonfire (bone-fire) to represent the sun which they wished would return, dispelling bitter cold and famine.
The Romans invaded Britain, and outlawed human sacrifice, so the Druids put another horse on the barbie. In 834, two centuries after St Augustine had brought Christianity to Britain, the Pope in Rome ordered that the ancient pagan rituals, which couldn't be stamped out among the masses, be Christianized. Spring fertility rites became Easter. Winter solstice, or yule, rites became Christmas. Samhain became All Saints' Day. Another word for saint was 'hallow', and 'even' meant 'evening before': All Hallows' eve became called ... Halloweven, or Hallowe'en ...
Trick-or-treating, then, is not strictly American, despite assertions to the contrary by some Australian xenophobes. British Catholic and Protestant emigrants, and others from Europe, took Halloween customs to America, but they were spread unevenly. Catholic customs went to Maryland, Dutch and Swedish Lutheran to Delaware, English Protestant to New England, and so on. Texas children started trick-or-treating in the 1940s. Some regions didn't see it before 1955 ...
Lex Lammoy, public relations officer for the Scouting Association in New South Wales says that he first saw trick-or-treating in Cairns, Queensland, as far back as the early 1950s, which is earlier than the Halloween promenade appeared in some parts of Florida and North Carolina ...
Read on at the Scriptorium's Halloween origins and folklore page
Halloween party fun ideas
The Yarn of Fisher's Ghost: An Australian ghost story
Ancient Greek Samhain festivals
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
Happy Samhain, dear friends!
(Or if you're in the South like me, happy Beltane!
October 31 is 'Out Of The Broom Closet Day', named by the Pagan Pride Project in 2001 as a day to support and encourage followers of Pagan, Heathen, and other earth-based and ethnic religious paths to publicly declare and support their chosen religion to those who they encounter in everyday life.
Source
Pip Wilson posted item above at 11:22 AM | Permalink
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home