The Ancient Festival of Samhain: The Origins of Halloween
Halloween, as we know it today, is a predominantly secular festival, however, its historical origins are in fact religious, dating back to the Celtic festival of Samhain. This ancient celebration marked the transition from summer to winter, falling precisely halfway between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. Samhain, the equivalent of New Year’s Eve for the Celts, symbolised the end of summer and the beginning of winter. It was a time to gather the harvest and prepare for the colder months. The Celts believed that this transition, from life and growth in the summer to death and dormancy in the winter, created a thinning of the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead. This made it a time to honour ancestors and guard against evil spirits.
Traditions of Samhain
During Samhain, it was customary to light bonfires, wear animal costumes to ward off evil spirits and conduct religious ceremonies led by druid priests. Communities came together to celebrate the harvest, and offerings of food were left for spirits. The customs observed during this festival carried a strong connection to nature, harvest, and spiritual beliefs.
The Transformation of Samhain into Halloween
Like many Pagan festivals, the Romans aimed to integrate these traditions into the new Christian Church. Samhain, just like Christmas and Easter was absorbed by newly created Christain festivals. Samhain became intertwined with the Roman Catholic Festival of All Saints Day in the 7th century. Based on the principles of remembering the spirits of the deceased, All Saints Day focussed on remembering the spirits of the saints and the martyrs. When it was initially conceived in the 4th century it was celebrated in May, an effort to merge it with the Celtic Beltane festival but it was later moved to November 1st and combined with Samhain. Over time, the customs and beliefs of Samhain evolved and integrated more Christian elements. The night before All Saints Day became known as All Hallows Eve, hallow meaning ‘to honour’ and later shortened to ‘Halloween’.
Samhain and other Days of the Dead from Around the World
Samhain shares similarities with various festivals celebrated around the world that honour deceased ancestors and mark the transition between the seasons:
- Obon: A Buddhist festival in Japan, Obon, often nicknamed “Japanese Day of the Dead,” is a time when it’s believed that the spirits of family members return to visit. At this time, people often return to their hometowns to spend time with family, light bonfires and perform the traditional ‘bon odori’ dance which incorporates movements from the acts of harvesting in order to guide spirits home. People also hang lanterns to illuminate the way to help the spirits find their way. At the end of the festival, the lanterns are placed into rivers, lakes and the sea to guide the spirits back to the underworld.
- El Día de Los Muertos: Celebrated by Mexicans around the world, The Day of the Dead also coincides with All Saints Day in early November. Families create altars for deceased ancestors, visit graves with offerings and children dress up and go door-to-door for a calaverita or treat. Like Halloween, El Día de Los Muertos is a blend of ancient indigenous practices and modern Christian traditions of All Saints Day brought to Mexico by Catholic Spanish Conquistadors.
- Chuseok: This traditional festival celebrated in North and South Korea combines a harvest celebration with honouring deceased ancestors at the time of the Harvest Moon. The festival is a family celebration, often hosted at the grandparents house with a focus on food. Families gather to give thanks for a fruitful harvest, perform ancestral rituals, and perform the Ganggangsullae dance which is performed by women, under the light of the full moon with movements made in a clockwise rotation.
- Zhong Yuan Jie: Often nicknamed The Hungry Ghost Festival, Zhong Yuan Jie is celebrated by Chinese Buddhists and Taoists in several Asian countries. This annual festival involves offerings to ancestors in the form of money, possessions, or food. It also features a type of opera with puppets known as Getai where the front row is always left for spirit visitors.
- Pchum Ben: Celebrated in Cambodia in September or October, this festival centres around the belief that the veil between the living and the spirit world is thin at this time. People gather at pagodas to make food offerings to spirits.
The Ritual of Leaving Food for the Dead
In Samhain and all of these other ancient festivals, we find a common practice of leaving food offerings to deceased spirits. This demonstrates the importance of food offerings to the deceased in many ancient indigenous cultures worldwide. This ritual is often referred to as a “dumb supper” or silent supper by modern Pagans. Although spirits clearly cannot physically eat these offerings, it is believed that spirits consume the energy provided by these offerings. Some practitioners reportedly observe that the food decays more rapidly, indicating that the energy has been consumed by the spirits.
Samhain: The Dawn of Winter and the Thinning of the Veil
Intriguingly Samhain and other Ancient festivals from around the world all share a strong association between Autumn, harvest and a thinning of the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Perhaps this autumnal association with a thinning of the veil is linked to spending less time in the presence of the sun as we move into Winter. The effects of this time of year can clearly be seen in nature with signals felt by hibernating animals, a time for trees to shed their leaves and a time for many species of plants to die and give way for rebirth in the spring. Perhaps our ancestors, more intricately connected to nature and aware of the forces of celestial events understood more than we now know about the link between these forces and the effects on the membranes of other dimensions. As we move into the Age of Aquarius, will we discover more evidence of this knowledge that was understood by many ancient cultures from around the world?
