The History Of Halloween & Samhain
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I figure it was about time to share my knowledge about the holiday. Actually Halloween has morphed into something that isn’t a holiday but a secular gathering for the masses.
Halloween was once known as Samhain to the Celts. It was a New Year’s celebration. The end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark months ahead….winter. It was also beleived that the deceased could come back and visit their loved ones. To appease the gods and honor the deceased, the Celts left food on their doorsteps. Once the Church gained power and worked their way through Europe they found that the Celts weren’t so easily convertable. So the Church dubbed Nov 1 All Saint’s Day. The idea was that people were still honoring the deceased but it was still “holy” in the Church’s eyes. The Celts weren’t so easily persuaded so the Church added Nov 2 as All Souls Day and “allowed” the Celts to continue leaving food on their porches for the saints and souls of passed loved ones. At some point the Church convinced people that demons and evil spirits were roaming the earth on Samhain (which by now was All Hallow’s Eve, the night before All Saint’s Day). As an effort to scare them away, people worse scary clothes in attempt to scare the demons and evil spirits away first. Now you see how costumes and trick or treating got started!
When the Irish came over to America they brought with them All Hallow’s Eve traditions. And over time it exploded into what we now know as Halloween. Samhain has not been forgotten. Many people don’t know that Samhain is still celebrated but that is ok. Many of us have “dumb suppers” or some variation. A Dumb Supper is a meal eaten in silence with an extra plate at the table for your ancestors and deceased loved ones. Because I live in a home of mixed religions we do not engage in a Dumb Supper, we just add a plate to our dinner table. I know many people who do this, especially if they have non-pagan company at home. In addition some of us gather in ritual. In my town we have a coven and a grove who hold public rituals where anyone is welcome to attend and participate. We gather, we honor the gods and our deceased, we perform various divinations and we may even do a spiral dance.
Unfortunatley there are people who have done some horrible things that have been attributed to witches, witchcraft, wiccans, pagans, and satanists. Just to clarify LaVeyan Satanists (the most common satanist, rarely do you find a theist satanist) do not worship the Christian Devil. They are more atheistic in their beleifs and they DO NOT perform blood sacrifices. For that matter neither do the rest of us. Now I will mention practitioners of Vodoo and Santeria might, I honestly am not well versed in their practices. I will say that anyone doing a blood sacrifice on Halloween night is either doing it because they want to be “badass”, are mental cases, or want to draw attention to themselves. Some will claim they are witches or wiccans or any other form of pagan. These same people are NOT a proper representation of what most of us beleive. In all honesty, it would be like me comparing all Christians to the Westboro Church or the Amazing Grace Baptist Church (extreme fundamentalists in case you don’t know).
Bottom line: Dressing up and trick or treating is not going to make anyone a pagan. Yes, it has pagan roots….but so does most every other holiday. So if your not gonna stop celebrating Christmas or Easter, there is no reason to stop celebrating Halloween.
I’d like to add that Christians were already celebrating All Saints before the time you mentioned… There were several different days it was celebrated by one group or another and wasn’t really unified… until they tried to convert the Celts and decided – hey this is perfect! Now most of us celebrate it that day. I remember awhile back someone at Church mentioned that we have an entirely different All Saints day (I’m Maronite Catholic) but its not considered a Holy Day of Obligation like the Roman day is (for us as well as Romans). Confusing much? LOL I can’t even remember when our “second” All Saints Day is… I should really look that up!
Agreed on pagan roots not being a reason to stop celebrating it… I’m sorry but we’d have to stop doing a lot of things if we went that route… and besides, the pagan aspects that were adopted were ones that could be used to teach Christianity. Personally I see nothing wrong with that. I like teaching tools. I look forward to being able to use them with my children.
As for the LeVayan Satanists… I actually hadn’t heard of them until CafeMom… My husband had, but I had no clue… interesting. Back home we know if something crazy like you mentioned happened its not satanists… its bruja’s… even my wiccan cousin is freaked by that kind of witchcraft.. and unfortunately the area is overrun by it.
2 All Saint’s Days?? LOL yea that would confuse me.
I hadn’t heard of bruja’s before. I am gonna have to google that one.
Brujaria – Is Spanish for witchcraft (so bruja is witch) but its not the same thing as Wiccan at all. Lots of curses and stuff like that. Animals are sacrificed from time to time. My dad actually had a family try to give him a vial of stuff to curse his opponent at his last election.. he didn’t, but still. To make matters more confusing they call themselves Catholic… Where dad lives we’ve had priests speak out against it (and be transferred) and on the other hand have had at least one that dabbled in it. Its crazy. Where I went to HS wasn’t as bad… is still there, but not as rampant.
So are they like Santerian’s? I know they mix Catholicism and Voodoo and do animal sacrifices. Oh and is bruja pronounced brew ha? LOL sorry for the phonetic silliness but it seems like I might have heard the term somewhere and I just can’t remember where.
Yeah that’s how its pronounced lol.. Not a silly way to ask at all though, is prob how I would have lol.
And its a lot like Santaria, except Santaria grew around Cuban culture? (something like that) and Brujaria around Mexican… There are some differences, but still very similar.
Ahhh ok, I understand it a bit more than. I haven’t really studied Santeria alot because I am a little bothered by the use of Voodoo. Ok scratch that…alot bothered. And it’s not just the voodoo part but it’s the animal sacrifice that bothers me so much.
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