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The History of Halloween
Trick or Treat origin
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Jack-O-Lantern Myth
Bone Fires From Europe
Halloween, The Devil's Trick?
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Glossary of Terms used
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The History of Halloween



          Before we begin, let me say that this whole document was written to inform the reader about the history and the different traditions of Halloween. It is written from a Christian view point. At the end I have included a glossary of different terms often heard during Halloween (in this document they are in bold and underlined. To view the definition, click on the name). All the word in Brackets [ ], are texts inserted by me. All the quotations references have been put at the end, after the glossary, in a section called Links

          First let's deal with the origin of Halloween, and where it comes from. It can be traced back from the time of the Celts (about 300 years before the birth of our God and Savior Jesus Christ) but it was different from what we know today. The Celts lived in Europe:
« Traces of Celts can be found almost anywhere in temperate Europe. Their fortification -hillforts and oppidia- are to be seen spreading in a broad arc from Yugoslavia to the north of Scotland; while many of our great cities, including Budapest, Paris, Belgrade, stand on Celtic foundations. Other famous cities are built on Celtic foundations; London, England is a prime example. As to the identification of modern Celts, Ireland, Wales and Scotland are populated largely by Celtic blood and retain the indigenous Celtic languages, as do the cities of Cornwall, England and Brittany, France. » 1


          The name of the festivity is called Samhain and means: Summer's End, in Irish Gaelic, and it is also the beginning of their New Year. The Celts observe two seasons in a year, summer and winter. The one we're looking for is the transition between the end of the summer season and the beginning of the winter season. In other words, it is the transition from the Celt's summer goddess (the season of the sun) to the god of the winter solstice (the beginning of the season of darkness and cold). Samhain, is pronounced: « sow-in (in Ireland), or sow-een (in Whales), or sav-en (in Scotland), or (inevitably) sam-hane (in the U.S., where most wouldn’t know and don’t speak Gaelic). » 2  According to the modern pagan, Samhain is the name of the festivity, not of a god. « Samhain is not a Celtic God. Samhain is not a Satanic deity either. » 3


          « Samhain is known as the feast of the dead, for it was believed that during this time the dead could return to the land of the living to celebrate with their family, tribe, or clan. The great burial cairns of Ireland (sidhe mounds) were opened up with lit torches lining the walls, so the dead could find their way. Extra places were set at the tables and food set out for any who had died that year. It is still customary to set an extra place at your supper table on Samhain Eve in honor of the departed.» 4


          How did the transition from Samhain, the Celtic's New Year celebrated on October 31st, change such that we have the Halloween as we know it today? « These grand and glorious pagan celebrations were assimilated by the Catholic Church. Rather than extinguish old customs, the Church leaders provided Christian versions of them From the Middle Ages on, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day replaced the ancient Celtic celebrations of the dead. » 5


           « "Hallowe'en," was originally a festival of fire and the dead and the powers of darkness. It is the evening of October 31st, the night before the Christian festival of All Hallows' or All Saint's Day. All Hallow's Day commemorates the saints and the martyrs, and was first introduced in the 7th century. Its date changed from May 13 to November 1st in the following century, probably to make it coincide with and christianize a pagan festival of the dead. All Soul's Day in the Roman Catholic Church is November 2nd. It is marked by prayers for the souls of the dead. While the Roman Catholic Church enjoyed success in converting the originally pagan holidays of Christmas and Easter to more "Christianized" counterparts, this was not the case with Halloween. The intentional effort by the Catholic Church to stamp out the pagan ceremonies failed. » 6


          That celebration was first introduced by Pope Gregory III in the 7 th Century and was changed by the Pope Gregory IV around 835 AD. The day was changed from May 13th to November 1 st , and then called All Saints Day to celebrate all the Saints that died during the year. I believe the Pope moved it because Samhain was too popular, even though some converts to Christianity. It still had a great influence on the new converts.

          Now let's look at the transition of the name of this pagan holiday:
-It was called the evening of "All Saints Day" (to celebrate ALL the Saints),
   for it was celebrated on the eve of that holiday.
-Eventually it became called "All Hallowed Evening" or "All Hallowed Eve" the
  evening for all saints.
-Then it progress to "All Hallow E'en" ("E’en" is an abreviate term like eve, and
  means evening).
-With linguistic sliding and through the years, we now have the term Halloween
  has we know it today.
           If we look around us, we notice that this celebration is closely related with death and all that surrounds it. People consult more mediums and do more divinations during this "holiday". Though it contains christian terms, this festival and its practices have occultic roots and NOT Christians...Since the Celts celebrated the dead, the Christians also had a holiday to celebrate the dead (called All Saints Day). The pope moved it to "compete" with the pagan holiday Samhain, so that they wouldn't celebrate the dead the way the Celts did, but that they would remember the "HOLY" Christians that died during the year.

           « All Saints Day came to be called "All Halloweds" since it was a day to honor all the 'hallowed ones', the Christian dead. Since Samhain always occurred the evening before All Halloweds, it came to be called 'All Hallowed Evening' or just Halloweds E'en. From this it evolved to Hallows E'en and finally, to ' Halloween' as we know it today [E'en is the term for evening. Hallow, also means Saints or Holy one. By joining Hallow and E'en, with time and little transformation, we finally got our modern term for that holiday: Halloween].

           Because of the relationship in the names, and the adjacent dates, many today entertain the unfound idea that Halloween is somehow a Christian Holiday. It was easier for the ungodly festival to move right into the Churches each October and flourish there, spreading its occult poison. In the midst of the darkness that prevailed during the Middle Ages there was a mighty revival of witchcraft and Satanism... Then in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there came a flood of Celtic immigrants to the New World [they came to America], mostly from the British isles, and they brought with their folk belief and pagan superstitions; they brought with them Samhain, the Festival of Death. »
7

          Today the festival called Samhain is still celebrated on October 31st in the witchcraft circle and is one of the biggest Sabbaths on the witchcraft calendar (the other big one is call Beltane and they celebrate it the eve of April 30 th ). Halloween is a big celebration because (they say) it is the time of the year where it's the "easiest" to communicate with the dead.

          Talking about Halloween, we have to talk about witches. Most people associate witches (the ugliest ones and their broom) with Halloween. Modern day witches do use their brooms, not to fly as we see in the movies, but as a part of their rituals in their Samhain festival. Most people would think that there is a big difference between a good witch (usually beautiful), and a bad witch, (usually ugly). There is NO SUCH THING as good and bad witch. The people who practices theses things may not agree with me, but I base my understanding with Biblical principles. They use the same magical power to do their deeds. A hockey player is a hockey player, though he is good or bad. The same principle apply to the witches for they use the SAME POWER (called white magic or black magic) to perform their crafts.

          By the way the modern witches that are practicing their crafts are often seen with black cats. Bob Larson (a Christian author who wrote several books cults and the occults) says that the cats are sensitive to the spirits (demons) when they come to them, so if the cat would react, they would know that their spirit(a demon) was around. I believe that they choose the BLACK cats because evil has ALWAYS been done in darkness, at night, and the witches (as well as Satanists) will wear mostly dark (mostly black) clothes. Unfortunately, during this end-time period, ghosts are getting more common, even friendly (we know there was a cartoon, now a movie with Casper the "friendly" ghost. In the USA, they say that you can even have a "friendly" ghost at home). People are deceived and they need to know THE TRUTH! There is no such thing as good ghosts (or spirit), they may seem "good" at first but they are not friendly. There was a movie called Casper the "friendly" ghost, and with that movie, Hollywood tried to show us that ghost could be friendly. They can't because they're all coming from the same source (the devil).

          Today we have several shows involving witch, magick, occult pratices, etc. There is "Sabrina the teenage witch", "x-files", "Northern mysteries" and the list goes on. There are as well movies inciting teenagers into the occult. The famous "Harry Potter" who depicts playing with magick as normal... There are many other movies who introduces occult principles so slightly, some believe to be "normal" those practices. Al Lindsay, on the video Halloween (from the (Pagan Invasion series), report that the day after Halloween, police forces have found (mostly in the country side) a lot of animals killed in rituals. We know that they have been killed in rituals because of the way the incisions are made (We will talk about sacrifices in the next section, called
Trick or Treat).



References for this section :

1  
http://hem.passagen.se/phzyco/ie/History.htm
2   http://www.ucc.ie/fecc/samhain.html
3   http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_sa.htm
4   http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Cottage/6936/backsets/samhainset.htm
5   Halloween An American Holiday, An American History. (Page ix,x)
6   http://www.hiero.com/40/halloween/halloween2.html
7   http://www.hissheep.org/occult/christianity_and_halloween.html

 

 
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Last modification: October 28, 2010