Our kids tell us this is the time of year when they get to dress up as witches and skeletons and get lots of free candy. Kids love to get stuff. I love them to death but they're sometimes like little capitalists - albeit, more mature than AIG execs. So, for them, there’s the holiday (that’s not their birthday) when they get stuff wrapped in presents and the holiday they get chocolate bunnies and eggs and the holiday they get heart-shaped stuff and the holiday where they dress up in costume and get stuff in bags. It’s, therefore, a challenge to break through all this and talk to them about why we celebrate these particular days and what their real significance is.
There are several layers we have to get through to really understand the significance of our holy days - or "holidays." The first layer is the one of marketing and commodification. Marketers are very skilled at creating obligations to buy and this marketing puts a layer of interpretation on these days which is not helpful in getting at the true meaning. The estimate for 2007 was that Americans spent $2 billion on Halloween costumes alone. This is the “stuff” layer.
The next layer we have to get through is even more difficult to penetrate. It is clear that these holidays have deep roots. Many of which go back beyond recorded history and into pre-Christian times. Nevertheless, all but a tiny amount of the historical records of these holidays were written by Christian authors with a very strong bias against what they were recording. But it's even worse than that. Not only did they record their evidence in a biased way but they actively, and in most cases, quite successfully attempted to take over these holidays in the name of Christianity and turn them into Christian religious celebrations. And this is the “Christian” layer, which lies beneath the “stuff” layer.
The final layer is what I would call pagan fantasy. Since we have almost no actual evidence of what the first people who celebrated these holy days had in mind and, since the evidence we do have is fatally distorted by Christian rewriting of history, there is left a vacuum. We do know the roots of these celebrations were pre-Christian and we do know a little about pre-Christian people so there has sprung up a very large body of what could be called imaginative speculation. Things that people have made up themselves and then sought to validate by claiming ties to ancient practices. And this is the “fantasy” layer beneath the “Christian” and “stuff” layers.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with speculation and creative fantasy. This is not a pagan fundamentalist piece, and fundamentalists do exist in every tradition. We simply do not have enough accurate information about actual pre-Christian practices to construct an authentic ritual that might have actually been practiced in ancient times. But there are a few things we do know about the ancient Celts and Samhain that are historically accurate.
When we trace the archaeological and historical evidence we do have it becomes clear that what all these holy days had in common was honoring an intimate connection with the earth and the cycles of the seasons. Every point on the cycle of the year had a significance. From the winter solstice through the vernal equinox to the summer solstice and back to the winter solstice. And at each of these points in the year something different was happening between the sun and the earth. Many people began to personify this changing relationship as the activity of various gods and goddesses.
For our ancestors a holy day was a matter that involved all aspects of living - and was tied to basic survival. The importance of determining the time of the vernal equinox, for example, or Easter as it has become now, was that an inaccurate determination could lead to planting seeds too early - and losing the crops necessary to survival due to frost - or planting too late and not being able to harvest mature crops before winter set in. These days were crucially tied to the cycles of nature.
What we know about the earliest religious impulses we get from studies of ancient burials. It seems that the point at which we as a species began to have religious and spiritual rituals may well have been the point at which our ancestors began giving some of their limited energies to preparing and burying their dead. This was probably the first and most essential spiritual question: What happens to us when we die? Our ancestors were not only thinking about death and wondering about it, but placing special ritual emphasis upon it.
It is only natural, then, to expect that there might be a holy day devoted to remembering the dead. What is remarkable about this day is that many unrelated cultures in various parts of the world have chosen this time of year to celebrate their dead - like El Dia de los Muertos - "The Day of the Dead" in Mexico.
For the Celtic tribes of Europe, this day was called Samhain, or "summers end." It may have been the most important of all their festival days.
However, the calendar we have today is not at all like the calendar they used. The sun does not travel around the earth in a convenient even number of days - that’s why we have leap years, leap centuries and why astronomers are even adding leap seconds occasionally. For the ancient Celts the determination of the time to celebrate Samhain was most likely observing the place the sun rose and/or set. As the cycle of the seasons move the sun rises at different points on the horizon. What they probably did was determined the time for Samhain by local tradition, setting it as the time the sun rose over a crag on the crest of a particular hill or something. Therefore it cannot be said that Samhain eve is the same thing as our Oct. 31.
Samhain was the time when they gathered their animals from the summer pastures into their homesteads. Since it was not possible to keep all the animals over the winter it was also the time when they slaughtered the ones that seemed least likely to survive the winter and preserved the meat. And, with the killing and slaughtering of animals, it was a time of becoming intimate with death. So it is not surprising that many feelings and anxieties about death were expressed in this holiday. The ceremonial fire at Samhain may have been used to burn bones of their slaughtered animals as a ritual of purification. This is where the term bonfire - “bone fire” - originated. You can imagine how Samhain was different from other holidays when you imagine the tribe celebrating around a huge fire burning bloody bones from slaughtered animals.
Over time the Samhain harvest festival came to mark the Celtic New Year. They divided their year into two seasons - Summer began at Beltain, on May Day, and Winter began at Samhain. At Samhain the old year ended and the New Year began. And at this place in the cycle of the seasons, between the old year and the new, Samhain began to represent a point outside the normal order of time. A time when the veil between the world of the dead and the living was at its thinnest and one could most easily communicate with those who had passed on into the other world. The Dead were thought to return to the places where they had lived. If a close relative or friend had passed on during the year a place may have been set at the table in remembrance of them.
It was also thought that along with the souls of the dead, many other creatures were out and about, like fairies and demons. Treats were placed outside to pacify these creatures. And, since fairies were looking for particularly attractive children to abduct, parents often "uglified" their kids at this time, messing up their hair, smearing their faces with charcoal and otherwise disguising them so the fairies wouldn't choose them.
These beings were also thought to be responsible for illnesses suffered by the livestock - such an event was a disaster which could pass quickly through and decimate a confined herd of animals - so many of the symbols and ceremonies surrounding Samhain may have originated as charms for protection. The carving of vegetables into scary faces with lit candles inside is an example of this, although there are rumors of darker origins for the Jack O'Lantern.
When the Christians came along, as it was their practice, they sought take the older holidays over in the name of the church. Recognizing the power and popularity of Samhain they worked especially diligently on this day. It was assigned to not just one Saint but to every saint in the book. In the 6th century November 1 became All Saints Day - a day where all those who had been Hallowed by the church as Saints were to be honored. This is where the name All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, originated.
But this turned out to be a difficult holiday to subdue. Many people continued the older ways - so the church in the 9th century added Nov 2 as "All Souls Day" - a day when the living prayed for the souls of all of the dead, especially those in Purgatory. But even with all their Saints and two holy days in a row the church was never able to completely suppress the older rituals of Halloween. Even though the old Celtic Gods were reduced to leprechauns and nature sprites it still retained its otherworldly focus upon Death and the spirits of the Dead.
So when we take this time to reflect upon those who have passed on among us we are participating in a long and ancient tradition which goes back deep into prehistory. We contemplate the mystery of Death and consider the approaching season of cold and darkness. We seek comfort together while acknowledging the reality of Death. Looking into the face of the coming winter we gather together and celebrate the final harvest and learn to move within the deeper cycles of the earth we inhabit.
I would like to honor the memory of my father this year at Samhain. He died last year on October 29. I spend Oct 31 viewing his body in his coffin. I would like to think I was a good son. We had a good parting. No regrets.