Halloween Orthodoxy

I’m being insincere when I apologize to you about all of the Halloween commentary lately. I’m sure you can tell that I think this is one of the best holidays of the year, and it jazzes me like few other holidays do—it rivals even my birthday and the winter holidays! Halloween is a big part of the culture where I live, and just like everything else in this country it came from someplace in the past and over the ocean. I like to think pretty liberally about the whole “Remember past orthodoxy” thing and apply it generously to culture, history, business, as well as religion, but for now I’m going to focus on the origins of Halloween because I’m pretty confident that many of you don’t know!

Introducing Samhain

Did you know that Halloween’s roots can be traced to the Celtic (Located in Ireland, UK, and Northern France) superstitions and a festival called Samhain (pronounced sow-een) celebrated October 31st- November 2nd? The Celts were superstitious folks concerning transitional periods (sunset into night, the change of the seasons…) and the end of harvest and darkening days was one of their most superstitious periods. They believed that at the close of October into the beginning of November was a special period in which time lost all meaning and top became down and the dead were able to ascend to Earth while the living decayed into the Nether. It should feel like no coincidence to you that this time punctuated the end of the harvest season and signaled the beginning of darkening of days: the colder winter months.

The “Dumb Supper” was one method of celebrating where the Celts would prepare a meal to share with their ancestors. An honorary plate was set at the head of the table, and the meal was eaten in silent reverence. Looking up at the empty chair was forbidden (as it was considered rude) and would land you with bad luck! After the meal the uneaten food would be thrown into the wood for the faes or shared with those in the village who were lesser off in wealth, and the bones and inedible would be burned in a giant bonfire that’d incinerate them into ash in further offering. Other food sources—such as apples—were thought to be the fruit of the Nether and were additionally used for such activities as divination (apparently the “starlike” seed pattern when cutting an apple from the side was an auspicious thing for the Celts) along with hazelnuts which were a sacred fruit in neighboring Scottish and Irish mythology. One particular activity that hazelnuts were used for involved writing all of the names of all of the eligible bachelors and bachelorette’s upon before throwing into the fire. The order in which they popped allegedly linked the names and foretold a likeliness of matrimony in the tides of time.

Trivia!

• Jack-O-Lanterns were originally made from turnips to look like skulls!
  
• Druids would encircle a fire with skulls in order to prevent demons from crawling out and escaping into the Overworld
  
• Halloween was the only day of the year where you could rescue your snatched-up loved ones back from faries (Ugh. Damn those boogers.)
  
• The origin of the phrase: “Trick-Or-Treat” is ambiguous. For certain one of its earliest published appearances was in in a Peanuts’ comic strip.
  

Enter the Invaders...
(and the Missionaries)

In trying to place the age of this holiday, historians concluded that due to the orientation of the sun to a specific doorway in the man-made geographical structure “Mound of the Hostages” on the Hill of Tara, Samhain was likely celebrated as long ago as 500 BCE. Now, historically we know that Christianity began to spread into these Pagan lands in the ninth century BC, and in their sweep we are aware that they appropriated traditions from other cultures and religions—likely for the purpose of facilitating easier conversion. November 2nd was designated “All Souls Day” and is still celebrated by Roman Catholics world-wide as a way to honor the dead. Its proximity to Samhain is not coincidence as they appropriated the Celt’s manner of celebrating before adding true Christian flare: the Christian manner of celebrating All Souls Day included the rich buying prayers for their dearly departed from the impoverished with special bread. This practice of exchanging “soul prayers” for food became known as “souling,” and may be a predecessor of today’s concept of “Trick-Or-Treating.” Another predecessor may lie in Scottish history (Again, neighbors of the Celts) where kids would dress up in ghoulish and spirited outfits (as Celts would do in Samhain to confound the evil entities creeping forth), and would sing, tell a poem, a joke, or some kind of other nifty “trick” in order to earn their treat.

20th Century America

Continuing along our timeline into the modern era… I suspect that not a single one of this site’s readersship was alive for the great potato famine of 1890 (and if you think you were, I humbly request you to crawl back into the grave), but it was a pretty big deal that forced a lot of emigration from Ireland, and with their immigration to the United States, they brought their rich culture and customs—and Halloween along with it, which included a variant of “Trick-or-Treating.” When the Great Depression first hit after the 20's stock market crash a gradual shift began to take place from the emphasis of “Treat” to “Trick,” and in short time some metropolitan areas saw more than $100,000 worth of damage from pranks and vandalism that’d gotten out of hand. While the culture of Halloween continued to grow, it’s understandable that the larger community would quickly tire of these sort of antics, so pre-WWI small communities began to form in the suburbs that promoted a focus on the “Treat” trend instead of the destructive nature. This is where the door-to-door “safe trick-or-treating” concept really began to flourish…Unfortunately, the pendulum of life will always swing back in the other direction, and when rationing of sugar became a challenge to keep the spirit of the holiday on sweets that focus began to devolve into destruction, mischief and chaos once again…and the tumultuous balance rocked back and forth until those rations were finally (permanently?) lifted post-WWII and candy production began to soar due to the enhanced industry in post-war America.

You know the rest from here. We spend over 6 billion every year on candy for this holiday alone according to the History Channel—for whatever they may know about it. Make sure you indulge in sweets tomorrow, fellow Satanists...go ahead. Rot your teeth out.

Hail Satan!

---

Sources

Black, Susa Morgan. “Deeper into Samhain.” Order of the Bards: Ovates and Druids, Oak Tree Press, 10 Sept. 2018, www.druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druid-festivals/samhain/deeper-samhain.

Redpath, Tyna. “Samhain/Halloween.” The Goddess and the Green Man, The Goddess and the Green Man, www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/samhainhalloween/.

“Samhain.” Celtic Roots, Boyne Valley Tours, 4 June 2013, www.newgrange.com/samhain.htm.

Where to, next?