What is Samhain? Myths and Misconceptions. All Hallow Mass

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "What is Samhain? Myths and Misconceptions. All Hallow Mass"

Alexander Nelson
5 years ago
Views:

What is Samhain? Samhain is known by most folks as Halloween, but for many modern Pagans it's considered a Sabbat to honor the ancestors who came before us, marking the dark time of the year.

1 What is Samhain? Samhain is known by most folks as Halloween, but for many modern Pagans it's considered a Sabbat to honor the ancestors who came before us, marking the dark time of the year. It's a good time to contact the spirit world with a seance, because it's the time when the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest. Myths and Misconceptions Contrary to a popular Internet-based (and Chick Tract-encouraged) rumor, Samhain was not the name of some ancient Celtic god of death, or of anything else, for that matter. Religious scholars agree that the word Samhain (pronounced "sow-en") comes from the Gaelic Samhuin, but they re divided on whether it means the end or beginning of summer. After all, when summer is ending here on earth, it s just beginning in the Underworld. Samhain actually refers to the daylight portion of the holiday, on November 1st. All Hallow Mass Around the eighth century or so, the Catholic Church decided to use November 1st as All Saints Day. This was actually a pretty smart move on their part the local pagans were already celebrating that day anyway, so it made sense to use it as a church holiday. All Saints became the festival to honor any saint who didn t already have a day of his or her own. The mass which was said on All Saints was called Allhallowmas the mass of all those who are hallowed. The night before naturally became known as All Hallows Eve, and eventually morphed into what we call Halloween. The Witches' New Year Sunset on Samhain is the beginning of the Celtic New Year. The old year has passed, the harvest has been gathered, cattle and sheep have been brought in from the fields, and the leaves have fallen from the trees. The earth slowly begins to die around us. This is a good time for us to look at wrapping up the old and preparing for the new in our lives. Think about the things you did in the last twelve months. Have you left anything unresolved? If so, now is the time to wrap things up. Once you ve gotten all that unfinished stuff cleared away, and out of your life, then you can begin looking towards the next year. Honoring the Ancestors For some of us, Samhain is when we honor our ancestors who came before us. If you ve ever done genealogy research, or if you ve had a loved one die in the past year, this is the perfect night to celebrate their memory. If we re fortunate, they will return to communicate with us from beyond the veil, and offer advice, protection and guidance for the upcoming year. If you want to celebrate Samhain in the Celtic tradition, spread the festivities out over three consecutive days. You can hold a ritual and feast each night. Be flexible, though, so you can work around trick-or-treating schedules!

Halloween Traditions Even if you're celebrating Samhain as a Pagan holiday, you may want to read up on some of the traditions of the secular celebration of Halloween: BLACK CATS Every year when

2 Halloween Traditions Even if you're celebrating Samhain as a Pagan holiday, you may want to read up on some of the traditions of the secular celebration of Halloween: BLACK CATS Every year when people begin putting out their Halloween decorations, and we start dressing our homes for Samhain, inevitably the image of the black cat comes up. It's usually portrayed with its back arched, claws out, and occasionally wearing a jaunty pointed hat. Local news channels warn us to keep black cats inside on Halloween just in case the local hooligans decide to get up to some nasty hijinks. But where did the fear of these beautiful animals come from? Anyone who lives with a cat knows how fortunate they are to have a cat in their life -- so why are they considered unlucky? Divine Cats The ancient Egyptians honored cats of every color. Cats were mighty and strong, and held sacred. Two of the most amazing goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon were Bast and Sekhmet, worshiped as long ago as 3000 b.c.e. Family cats were adorned with jewelry and fancy collars, and even had pierced ears. If a cat died, the entire family went into mourning, and sent the cat off to the next world with a great ceremony. For thousands of years, the cat held a position of divinity in Egypt. The Witch's Familiar Around the time of the Middle Ages, the cat became associated with witches and witchcraft. Around the late 1300's, a group of witches in France were accused of worshipping the Devil in the form of a cat. It may be because of the cat's nocturnal nature that it became connected to witches -- after all, night time was the time they held their meetings, as far as the church was concerned.

3 Contemporary Cats Around the time of World War Two, when the American tradition of Halloween as trick-or-treat time really got underway, cats became a big part of the holiday decoration. This time around, however, they were considered a good luck charm -- a black cat at your door would scare away any evil critters that might come a'calling. Most people are far less superstitious today than they were in the Middle Ages, but the black cat remains part of our late October decor. Black Cat Folklore and Legends Sixteenth-century Italians believed that if a black cat jumped on the bed of an ill person, the person would soon die. In Colonial America, Scottish immigrants believed that a black cat entering a wake was bad luck, and could indicated the death of a family member. The Norse goddess Freyja drove a chariot pulled by a pair of black cats. A Roman solder killed a black cat in Egypt, and was killed by an angry mob of locals. Appalachian folklore said that if you had a stye on the eyelid, rubbing the tail of a black cat on it would make the stye go away. If you find a single white hair on your otherwise-black cat, it's a good omen. In England's border countries and southern Scotland, a strange black cat on the front porch brings good fortune. Interestingly, each year around the Halloween season, there are warnings everywhere about keeping your black cat indoors - apparently rooted in a fear that roaming black kitties may be the target of some sort of nefarious wrongdoing, like ritualized abuse and even animal sacrifice. The connection between black cats and Halloween is complicated and frequently unclear. There are many claims made about connections, but many of them lack historical backing. Witch Familiar During the European witch-craze, witches were widely believed to keep familiars, which were malevolent spirits or demons that disguised themselves in the shape of animals and often fed off the witch's blood. Cats were certainly considered potential familiars. After all, everyone had them to help control vermin population. But there were plenty of other animal familiars as well, including dogs, ferrets, birds, spiders, goats, toads, and hares, all of which could easily be found in the vicinity of most suspected witches. Nature of Cats Cats do have some qualities that can make them creepy to suspicious people. They are relatively intelligent, but they are also not terribly social with humans, unlike dogs. They're harder to train and more often live on their own. They are naturally nocturnal, and humans naturally view nighttime as a time of danger before the invention of electric light because humans have terrible night vision.

Papal Bull Against Cats Two papal bulls are sometimes pointed to as evidence of official persecution of cats. The first is the Summis desiderantes affectibus decreed in 1484 by Innocent VIII.

4 Papal Bull Against Cats Two papal bulls are sometimes pointed to as evidence of official persecution of cats. The first is the Summis desiderantes affectibus decreed in 1484 by Innocent VIII. This is the document commonly used to mark the beginning of the European witch-craze. However, while the document accepts the reality of witchcraft and threatens lay people with excommunication if they do not cooperate with Inquisition investigations on the matter, it doesn't mention cats. The second document is another papal bull, Vox in Rama, theoretically released by Gregory IX around The problem with this document is there's doubt as to whether it actually existed. The first reference to it is relatively modern, a good 500 years after the reign of Gregory IX. The Color Black In Christian cultures, white is generally a symbol of goodness and purity, and black is a symbol of danger, corruption and evil. Any sort of black animal therefore could be more suspect than animals of other colors. Natural Superstitions about Black Cats Many urban legends state that Europeans have a long history of folklore vilifying black cats. In fact, there's a wide variety of folklore about black cats, of which some are positive and some are negative. Cat Worship in Egypt It's certainly true that cats were held in extremely high esteem in Egypt. However, there is absolutely no reason to think that things that happened thousands of miles away would color beliefs in northern Europe hundreds or thousands of years later. Some claim that the Church vilified cats to counteract their divine status in Egypt, but there's no evidence of this, and it really reaches beyond common sense. This belief presumes that large numbers of people in Europe had every aspect of their lives ruled by the Church, which is simply not true. There were all sorts of folklore that was not only separate from Christianity, but even ran counter to it. Modern Tradition Regardless of how black cats became associated with Halloween, the mere fact that it has become associated with Halloween is a reason for it to remain so. Seeing black cat decorations at Halloween reinforces the connection between black cats and Halloween. As a comparison, consider the green-skinned witch often used in Halloween decorations. The first known depiction of a greenskinned witch was in The Wizard of Oz, a source that has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween. But, for whatever reason, we started making witches green in Halloween ornaments, and now it s an accepted part of Halloween.

A jack o'lantern typically holds a candle (you can also get battery-powered tealights, which are a lot safer) which illuminates the carved out design.

5 Jack O'Lanterns Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Smiling Bright One of the most enduring symbols of Halloween is the jack o'lantern. Carved pumpkins are a mainstay of the Samhain season, and for some folks, the more elaborate the carved design, the better! A jack o'lantern typically holds a candle (you can also get battery-powered tealights, which are a lot safer) which illuminates the carved out design. School children are alternately delighted and terrified by them -- but how did the whole idea of carving up a pumpkin evolve in the first place? The Turnip Issue Some authors have claimed that the idea of a hollowed-out vegetable with a candle in the middle originated with the Celts. However, the Celts didn't have pumpkins, which are a North American plant. They did have beets, turnips, and other root vegetables. Have you ever tried to hollow out a raw beet? It's quite an experience, believe me - however, there have been a few finds of vegetables with carved faces, which are spectacularly creepy. In addition, scholars say it's pretty unlikely that the Celts turned many of their vegetables into decorations - they were too busy saving them to eat during the cold winter months. So the tradition of the jack o'lantern as a Halloween decoration is probably a fairly modern invention, by historical standards, although no one has been able to figure out exactly when it began. American Jacks As mentioned, the pumpkin is a vegetable known primarily to North Americans. The native tribes here used it as a source of food for years before white men even set foot on their soil. The first example of the jack o'lantern appearing in American literature is in an 1837 story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote The Scarlet Letter. The carved lantern didn't become associated with Halloween until around the time of the Civil War. The Jack Story In many cultures, there exists what is known as a "Jack story." These are basically a series of folktales that revolve around a trickster-type character -- Tricky Jack, Clever Jack, etc. -- and usually start off with Jack getting in some sort of trouble. They always end with Jack resolving his problem, often at his own expense -- in other words, a Jack Story is a typical cautionary tale. You can find these types of tales around the world, from Germany to the Scottish Highlands to the hills of Appalachia. In the case of the jack o'lantern, the story that inspired it is one in which Jack tries to outsmart the Devil himself. In the tale, Jack tricks the Devil into agreeing never to collect his soul. However, once Jack dies, it turns out he's led too sinful a life to get into heaven, but because of his bargain with the Devil, he can't get into hell either. Jack complains about how dark it is, wandering around earth with no place to go, and someone tosses him a hot coal, which he places in a hollowed-out turnip. Now poor Jack uses his turnip-lantern to guide him, and he is known as Jack of the Lantern. In some variations of the story, Jack comes out only on Halloween night, and is looking for someone to take his place... so watch out, if you see him wandering your way!

6 Tricks or Treats? While many of us Pagans celebrate the holiday called Samhain, for some of us, it's also the secular event of Halloween. The tradition of trick-or-treating isn't quite as old as the holiday itself, but it's certainly been around for a while. Let's look at how this unique custom evolved. All Soul's Night In Britain, people celebrated All Soul's Day for many years. Poor people went begging, and the middle-class wives handed out special treats known as Soul Cakes. When a beggar was given a Soul Cake, he promised to say a prayer for the dead. This practice was known as going "asouling". In Ireland, rather than begging for cakes, the poor went about asking for donations of eggs, butter and other food in preparation for a festival honoring St. Columba. In County Waterford, the night was known as "mischief night." Trick-or-Treating in America By the nineteenth century, there were a lot of Americans who could trace their ancestry back to Britain, Ireland and Scotland, and they brought their traditions with them.begging for sweets became something that was no longer the domain of the poor, and now instead was a children's activity. However, it was typically organized in the manner of the home country's traditions -- girls stayed inside, playing games of divination, and boys went out and caused trouble in the neighborhood. The Depression Hits An interesting thing happens in America's Halloween history around the time of the Great Depression. As poverty and crime increase, as does the industrialization of America, the "mischief night" pranks become more and more malicious and harmful. At this point, we start seeing people -- typically adult leaders of various municipalities -- organizing Halloween events. Rather than having roaming hordes of boys out vandalizing the community, instead they are presented with more structured, safer activities. In 1939, the phrase "trick or treat" appeared for the very first time. Modern Tricks and Treats What we know today as trick-or-treating, complete with costumes and candy, became popular decades ago. There was a slight lull during World War II, when sugar rationing limited candy production, but since then it has become a multimillion dollar business. In 2005, nearly eighty percent of adults said they'd be giving out at least $40 worth of candy on Beggar's Night. Although trick-or-treating for candy is primarily found in America, the British Isles, and Canada, thanks to mass media the custom has begun to see an increase in the rest of Europe, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Come Celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day on Lily-Rose island, home of the God, Johnny Depp, and worship the beloved Jesus squirrel, Jimmy Sprinkles

Come Celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day on Lily-Rose island, home of the God, Johnny Depp, and worship the beloved Jesus squirrel, Jimmy Sprinkles on January 21! How did Squirrel Appreciation Day come