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TOC (Table Of Contents)
2014-OCT-25 [SAT] 17:44 (PMT) - THE HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN
2014-OCT-25 [SAT] 17:44 (PMT) Table Of Contents
Halloween, in all its different forms, has been celebrated for at least three thousand years, starting with the Celtic tribes, located in what is now present day Ireland, as their way of appeasing those who had died before them, or something along those lines. The time chosen for this celebration was significant because it was at that time of year when the harvest season had ended and winter was right around the corner. Winter symbolized death to them (the Celts), and we kind of get it, because if we had been around at the time, and only knew what they knew, we would have both thought the same thing. Winter symbolizes death, but Dave even goes further by putting his own spin on the whole death thing. To him, it just made sense that they would think that when life (summer, or harvest season) changed over into death (symbolized by winter) that the worlds between life and death would also be open and the dead could once again roam about amongst the living and cause mischief. And it also made sense to him that they would chose this time of the year (the end of October) as the best time to remember those who went before them. It was also a scary time, because no one knew what death really was, it was a time when the imagination ran wild, and for some reason, the consenses was that for some reason, the dead weren't friendly and that they were there to "trick" the living into crossing over into the world of the dead, and they figured that if they left them offerings or "treats" outside the village that would stop them or somehow divert their attention so that they wouldn't go into the village and do "tricks" and cause trouble for their families, like trying to drag them into the world of the dead, and hopefully they could divert their attention long enough for that time to pass and the dead could no longer try to "trick" the living. And that's why halloweeners today say, "trick or treat" in many of the places that still continue to celebrate Halloween, but of course, no one's really trying to drag anyone into the world of the dead. That only happens in the movies... we hope anyway, but we have heard rumours about that kind of thing really happening, so I guess we'll have to look a little closer at those rumours some day, some day. At least that's how Dave sees it, and I got that same impression while doing my own research which was basicly watching the DVD, "The Haunted History of Halloween"[1], with Dave. We've also read through most of the webpages listed in our Related Webpages list below, so this is not going to be a cut and paste job. We used the DVD as a way to write a general outline, which we've included at the end of this blog post. It's just a quick list of notes Dave took while we watched the DVD. We'll use that as our general outline, and of course, We'll be adding our own little twist to what's considered accepted history. In other words, we're going to do a little speculating. ONE WORD OF WARNING. We are a big believer in having others double-checking our work, so we highly suggest that you always go back and read our sources yourself. Never take our word for anything. Always check for yourself to make sure our information is accurate. Now I know we said this wasn't going to be a cut and paste job, but Wikipedia explains Irish Mythology and it's relation to early Irish Literature and how it all ties together with the birth of Halloween, that we decided to just cheat a little bit, and post three of them below. Anyway, like we wrote earlier, the beginnings of Halloween can be traced back 3,000 years to what is now Ireland. It was celebrated by the Celts and called Samhain. Here's a little something about that from Wikipedia, just to get us started. FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain "Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year. It is celebrated from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November, or about halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, and later the Isle of Man and Scotland. Kindred festivals were held at the same time of year in other Celtic lands; for example the Brythonic Calan Gaeaf (in Wales), Kalan Gwav (in Cornwall), and Kalan Goañv (in Brittany)... "[2] According to Wikepedia, the celebration of Samhain (Halloween) is known to predate the Christian religion by around a thousand years. Of course we have to take Wikipedia at its word here, at least until we get a hold of this literature and read it for ourselves and than verify the dates, but for now, we'll assume it's true. Which brings us back to 3,000 years ago when a lot of the Irish Mythology at the time was built around the celebration of Samhain, that they either happened on, or began on that day. It was also the time when the cattle were brought down from their summer grazing grounds and also when the livestock was slaughtered to get ready for the long winter months ahead. And also according to the Wikipedia page on Irish mythology[3], there isn't a whole lot of the original literature specifically about Irish mythology still out there, but (and the following dates are our estimations and not Wikipedia's) you can still read a lot about it in plain old Irish Literature (written around 1000 AD), which is easier to find today than books about Irish Mythology (written about 1000 BC). FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain "The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity. However, much of it was preserved in medieval Irish literature, though it was shorn of its religious meanings. This literature represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology. Although many of the manuscripts have not survived and much more material was probably never committed to writing, there is enough remaining to enable the identification of distinct, if overlapping, cycles: the Mythological Cycle, the Ulster Cycle, the Fenian Cycle and the Historical Cycle. There are also a number of extant mythological texts that do not fit into any of the cycles. Additionally, there are a large number of recorded folk tales that, while not strictly mythological, feature personages from one or more of these four cycles... "[3] It then talks about the main sources for Irish mythology. "The three main manuscript sources for Irish mythology are the late 11th/early 12th century Lebor na hUidre which is in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, the early 12th century Book of Leinster in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, and the Rawlinson manuscript B 502 (Rawl.), housed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. Despite the dates of these sources, most of the material they contain predates their composition. The earliest of the prose can be dated on linguistic grounds to the 8th century, and some of the verse may be as old as the 6th century... "[3] What that all means, to us anyway, is that those are the books we have to get and read to verify the Irish mythology connections. We like reading the original literature on anything we research. We believe, the original source is always the best source. Anyway, during Samhain,
OUTLINE:
3,000 years
Ireland
Celtic tribes
Rocky green fields
Britain
Northern France
At the mercy of the elements
celts asked to
last day of the harvest
first day
Souls roamed the Earth
November
Samhain nights
appease
parade outskirts of village
leave offerings
attempt to keep the dead in their graves
Samhain
the best night of the year to predict the future
since the Earth gave so much of itself
to them, it only polite to offer
something back
mysterious celtic mounds were called fairy mounds
romans hamona a festival to honor her
conquered northern europe bringing the
festival with it
At the dawn of the millenium was dominated by
paganism
that was soon to change
Constantine 4th century
vision on the battlefield and converted to
Christianity
council of Nicea
leaving fruits including apples out for
offerings
this is in fact where the tradition of bobbing
for apples originated
early christians attacked pagan beliefs which
they saw as align with the forces of evil
which were opposed to the forces of good
Pope gregory I 600 AD
turning them away from their paganism beliefs
was not an easy task
the pagan practices were grafted onto the
practices of the church
Nov 1 All Saints Day
Oct 31, All Hallows Eve morphed into Halloween
een being a bastardization of Eve
10th century
one step further
Nov 2 All Souls Day
Cats, bats, owls (familiars) were the spiritual
forms of witches
worst of paganism was witchcraft
1400s witches were hunted down and punished
1486 Pope Innocent 8th wrote a book which
proved a direct link between witches and
the devil
St Joan of Ark was also burned at the stake as
a witch
Guy Falke's day 1605
blow up the House of Lords
Mexico's day of the dead celebration
tell stories of the dead at gravesites
1517 catholic Church was undergoing immense
changes
Puritans in America were bitterly opposed to
Halloween. Too pagan
Early 1800s play parties
halloween got its biggest boost when Irish
began swelling the shores of America
Late 19th century
pumpkins were easier to carve than the turnip
was in Ireland
WWI broke out in 1919
newspapers began focusing on real news of
substance rather than just for
entertainment
1930s
1,000 windows broken in Queens on Halloween
Halloween pranks kill 3
Anoka, Minnesota Halloween capital of the world
first social halloween event
Collages of junk on people's houses
tp a house
WWII second world war broke out
giving out candy was frowned upon
in many places, Halloween was canceled
after the war
this new geeration embraced halloween
you could only win prizes from a local radio
station if you were home by 30 minutes
after the halloween party ended
groups of contemporary covens (pagans)
Halloween is one of their more important
holidays
If you cut an apple in half you can a
representation of the 5-point star
sacred symbol of the harvest is the apple
Children began trick or treating and going to
halloween parties
1970s, 80s
Detroit
thousands of buildings were set a fire
orgy of arson
devil's night
1970s
rumours of razor blades and poisons in candy
and fruit
some razor blades were found but no one ever
died
children were poisoned, but not by strangers,
but members of their own family
Safety became a byword of Halloween
popular culture (Hollywood) didn't help
dispel those fears
lately it's becoming more and more of an adult
holiday
haunted houses
2.5 billion dollars
2nd only to Christmas
REFERENCES (SOURCES):
[1] DVD: Haunted History of Halloween, The
RELATED WEBPAGES:
http://www.examiner.com/article/top-10-halloween-lists-fun-facts-trivia-jokes-and-events-atlanta
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The History of Halloween
2014-10-25 05:44 PM PST