Halloween is here again. Although I’m not a big fan of
Halloween, I’ve been interested in the origin of this time year when kids and
adults alike dress up. Halloween or All Hallows Eve is the Christianized feast
of the Celtic harvest festival known as Samhain. Samhain is the celebration of
the ending of summer and the beginning of winter. The festival was usually
celebrated halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.
According to Irish mythology, Samhain is the time when the doorways between
this world and the Otherworld opens allowing spirits and the dead to return.
Beltane is a similar festival in the spring which celebrates the living while
Samhain celebrates the dead. During Samhain, the Celts would wear costumes,
going mumming, and guide the spirits back to the Otherworld.
When the Celts wore their costumes, the theme was humor and
ridicule to confront the power of death and the coming of winter. Scholars have
postulated that the Celts wore costumes in order to confuse the spirits and
possibly avoid being possessed. The masks worn possibly were to represent and
honor their dead ancestors.
Mumming is the ancient form of modern day trick or treating.
Mumming involves a group of costumed individuals going house-to-house
performing a folk play in order to receive some form of reward usually food.
With the introduction of Christianity to the British Isle, mumming became
souling. Souling is a form of trick or treating where the small cake is handed
out to the children who come the door on Halloween. The children would either
sing or say prayers for the dead and each cake eaten would represent a soul
being released from Purgatory.
The Celts used carved turnips as lanterns to the spirits
back to the Otherworld and the ward off evil spirits. The term Jack-o-lantern
comes from the popular Irish Christian folklore about a man named Stingy Jack
who tricked the Devil so much that he wasn’t allowed in Hell and his sinful
life prevented him from going to Heaven. The Devil gives an ember from the
fires of Hell and Jack places it in a turnip lantern to light his way. Stingy
Jack was doomed to roam the world looking to rest his soul.
“So the moral of the
story
Is that it’s time to
mend your ways.
Be generous and
giving
For the remainder of
your days,
For if the Devil
doesn’t want you,
And Heaven turns you
away,
You’re doomed to
wander in darkness,
With only a turnip to
light your way.”
Everyone have a safe
and happy Halloween!!!!