Every year I see the signs of Halloween in the shops come
mid-September and I’m reminded of the strange relationship that modern society
has with our ancient European customs. On the one hand, all the major festivals
are still annually represented. Easter, Christmas (as well as New Years,) and
Halloween are after all the three biggest festivals we celebrate in the Western
world today. On the other hand, the meanings have been so far removed as to
make them feel culturally impotent. Our main festivals have been butchered by
capitalism to the point where in many instances, they no longer bring joy but financial despair.
I’m sure everyone will be familiar with the commercialisation of Christmas
and to a lesser extent Easter, but when it comes to Halloween I’m probably not
wrong to assume that the vast majority of the public don’t really know what
Halloween is, or what it represents. If the public did, I would like to think
that we as a society wouldn’t be so quick as to treat the festival with such
disdain.
Halloween, like Christmas and Easter, is a European festival that comes from way beyond the dawn of Christianity. Simply put, in almost all European cultures Halloween is a time for honouring the dead and was originally observed by our pagan ancestors. The word Halloween literally means ‘holy evening’ when taken under the Christian guise, but is also known within most of the pagan community as Samhain. As a pagan festival, it is often presumed to be of Gaelic or “Celtic”, in its origin. However that been said, this is an overly simplistic view. Aspects of Halloween were seen all across Europe, and I really don’t understand why everything pagan pertaining to Northern Europe has to be given the “Celtic” title.
Jack-O-Lanterns were said to scare aware evil spirits which on Halloween could cross over the spiritual plains, except they were originally carved from turnips in Ireland seeing as pumpkins originally only grew in America. In Scandinavia and certain Germanic tribes, children who were coming of age that year dressed up in the clothes of their dead ancestors and walked about the village as a sign that they had effectively been “reborn”, a symbol if you like of a biological link which in a literal way means eternal life. Other places would light bonfires and even jump over the flames in a bid to ward off evil spirits. The connection with apples (candied apples, or apple bobbing) is a link to a pagan symbol of everlasting life, especially within Germanic or Scandinavian lore. Basically what we have today with modern Halloween is essentially a mash-up of varying but ultimately very similar cultural celebrations, mainly from Northern Europe.
As this blog is intended to bring about musings on English culture though, I feel it rather pertinent to defend the Anglo-Saxon celebration of Halloween. Most places you go to on the internet for reference will claim that Samhain is strictly a Celtic thing, but as we’ve already discussed this is not necessarily the case. In all honesty, it seems highly unlikely that the Catholic, Orthodox and certain Protestant churches would have adopted All Saints Day across Europe if the cultural event it was replacing (this was common practice, hence Easter is recognised in Spring, and Christmas at Yule) was only observed in the far flung extremities of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Perhaps it is more realistic to assume that those mountainous isolated regions saw the least amount of persecution which enabled more of the old traditions to survive.
We also have to consider other evidence, such as the ‘Witches Sabbath’, which was said to have been held on the night of the 31st of October in isolated regions across England and on the continent too including Germany, France, Italy and Hungary to name but a few. A night where those who still keep the old ways would meet in secret to do their traditional, pagan rituals. This cannot be seen as a coincidence, but more as a re-affirmation that Halloween is a real festival, probably older than most give it credit for.
The Anglo-Saxons called November ‘blotmonað’, or blood month. That sounds like something pretty barbaric, but the blot is a ritual in which an offering (usually cattle) were offered up to the Gods and ancestors. Given that the month starts with Halloween (remember that in those days, a day began with the sundown of the previous day) it makes perfect logical sense. Especially when we consider that after Christianisation, the day was observed with an abstinence of meat. This could either mean the foregoing of meat was done by the pagans and carried over into the new faith, as meat on that evening was reserved solely for the departed as a gift, or it was an attempt by the Church later on to try and prevent cattle being offered to ‘false’ Gods. Either way, it still makes a pretty good case for a European-wide festival, or at least Germanic celebration. Clearly not just Gaelic.
What happened to England’s Festivals Though?
In England today, just like in Scotland, some of these festivals survived. There is still a number of villages that celebrate the night in weird and wonderful ways, but in England I have a sneaky suspicion that something that’s considered a relatively new thing is actually something very pagan. Guy Fawkes Night today might be celebrated with the letting off of annoying pyrotechnics, but traditionally it’s marked by the burning of an effigy of Guy Fawkes. I’m sure most in England will be familiar with the story of Guy Fawkes and the whole ‘Burning the Guy’ thing, if you don’t please google it.
Halloween, like Christmas and Easter, is a European festival that comes from way beyond the dawn of Christianity. Simply put, in almost all European cultures Halloween is a time for honouring the dead and was originally observed by our pagan ancestors. The word Halloween literally means ‘holy evening’ when taken under the Christian guise, but is also known within most of the pagan community as Samhain. As a pagan festival, it is often presumed to be of Gaelic or “Celtic”, in its origin. However that been said, this is an overly simplistic view. Aspects of Halloween were seen all across Europe, and I really don’t understand why everything pagan pertaining to Northern Europe has to be given the “Celtic” title.
Jack-O-Lanterns were said to scare aware evil spirits which on Halloween could cross over the spiritual plains, except they were originally carved from turnips in Ireland seeing as pumpkins originally only grew in America. In Scandinavia and certain Germanic tribes, children who were coming of age that year dressed up in the clothes of their dead ancestors and walked about the village as a sign that they had effectively been “reborn”, a symbol if you like of a biological link which in a literal way means eternal life. Other places would light bonfires and even jump over the flames in a bid to ward off evil spirits. The connection with apples (candied apples, or apple bobbing) is a link to a pagan symbol of everlasting life, especially within Germanic or Scandinavian lore. Basically what we have today with modern Halloween is essentially a mash-up of varying but ultimately very similar cultural celebrations, mainly from Northern Europe.
As this blog is intended to bring about musings on English culture though, I feel it rather pertinent to defend the Anglo-Saxon celebration of Halloween. Most places you go to on the internet for reference will claim that Samhain is strictly a Celtic thing, but as we’ve already discussed this is not necessarily the case. In all honesty, it seems highly unlikely that the Catholic, Orthodox and certain Protestant churches would have adopted All Saints Day across Europe if the cultural event it was replacing (this was common practice, hence Easter is recognised in Spring, and Christmas at Yule) was only observed in the far flung extremities of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Perhaps it is more realistic to assume that those mountainous isolated regions saw the least amount of persecution which enabled more of the old traditions to survive.
We also have to consider other evidence, such as the ‘Witches Sabbath’, which was said to have been held on the night of the 31st of October in isolated regions across England and on the continent too including Germany, France, Italy and Hungary to name but a few. A night where those who still keep the old ways would meet in secret to do their traditional, pagan rituals. This cannot be seen as a coincidence, but more as a re-affirmation that Halloween is a real festival, probably older than most give it credit for.
The Anglo-Saxons called November ‘blotmonað’, or blood month. That sounds like something pretty barbaric, but the blot is a ritual in which an offering (usually cattle) were offered up to the Gods and ancestors. Given that the month starts with Halloween (remember that in those days, a day began with the sundown of the previous day) it makes perfect logical sense. Especially when we consider that after Christianisation, the day was observed with an abstinence of meat. This could either mean the foregoing of meat was done by the pagans and carried over into the new faith, as meat on that evening was reserved solely for the departed as a gift, or it was an attempt by the Church later on to try and prevent cattle being offered to ‘false’ Gods. Either way, it still makes a pretty good case for a European-wide festival, or at least Germanic celebration. Clearly not just Gaelic.
What happened to England’s Festivals Though?
In England today, just like in Scotland, some of these festivals survived. There is still a number of villages that celebrate the night in weird and wonderful ways, but in England I have a sneaky suspicion that something that’s considered a relatively new thing is actually something very pagan. Guy Fawkes Night today might be celebrated with the letting off of annoying pyrotechnics, but traditionally it’s marked by the burning of an effigy of Guy Fawkes. I’m sure most in England will be familiar with the story of Guy Fawkes and the whole ‘Burning the Guy’ thing, if you don’t please google it.
It is interesting that the time at which Guy Fawkes Night is
observed is so close to Samhain. As we’ve
already said, Samhain was very often observed with bonfires. Also, we need to
take into consideration the politics at the time in 1605 at the time of the gun powder plot. England was under the
control of an increasingly Puritan Government. The culmination of the Puritan
power would eventually lead to Cromwell trying to ban Christmas fifty years
later because it was too ‘pagan’. When
we consider that Guy Fawkes was hung, not burnt to death for his attempted
terrorism, the whole thing about burning an effigy of him seems pretty absurd.
Perhaps the timing of the attack was coincidence, or perhaps the whole thing was
some sort of conspiracy by the state to try and take control of the meaning of
Halloween as a festival, but either way I find it amazingly too coincidental. Two
cultural events within one week both burning bonfires. I suspect that the State at the time simply said that the bonfires would be accepted, so long as the effigy of Guy Fawkes was placed upon it. In this way, the public managed to keep their tradition, but the meaning was forever skewed.
I think it’s probably important to point out that except from some isolated villages (at least in the United Kingdom,) many of these festivals disappeared almost entirely until America amalgamated the varying traditions into a commercial product to re-sell to Western Europe. In a way, we should be thankful that at least some of the traditions have been saved, albeit in a perverted form, but like I said in the beginning, if people truly knew the real meaning behind Halloween, it wouldn’t be celebrated with such mockery. Whilst dressing up as horror characters and eating vast amounts of E-numbers may seem fun, the real meaning behind the night is meant to be respect for the dead. In a society today which fears growing old and laments too much on the present – maybe a more serious observance of Halloween is what society is missing.
The Church in recent years has certainly shirked away from keeping this festival in the limelight, so I suppose that the onus should fall once again in the hands of pagans to re-spread the true meaning once more.
All that been said, enjoy the evening and stay safe this Halloween!
All that been said, enjoy the evening and stay safe this Halloween!
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