Research Paper Draft 1: All Hallow's Eve

Rebekah Robbins

REL2100-01M

Ms. Spring

1 November 2010

All Hallow’s Eve

On the evening of October 31^st, children around America dress up in costumes and trawl the local neighborhoods for gifts of candy, nuts, and small toys. The night is devoted to fun and games and – if the child or adult is so inclined – to pranks and tricks of both well-meaning and malicious nature. Billions of dollars are spent in America over the course of several weeks for that one night of enjoyment, that one night of abandonment – abandonment of inhibitions, of accountability, and of identity. This night of ‘go as you aren’t’ is the holiday known as Hallowe’en.

            The name Hallowe’en is derived from the full name All Hallow’s Eve, which is the night before the Christian holiday of All Saints’ Day. All Saints’ Day, originally held on May 13^th, was the celebration of those Christian saints who had been purified and reached the glory of heaven, there to offer the prayers of the earth-bound Christians to God Himself. The holiday was moved to November 1^st, when Pope Gregory III dedicated a chapel of the St. Peter’s Basilica to house the relics of “the holy apostles and all the saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world.” Many scholars believe that the holiday was declared on that particular day in order to combat the influence of the pagan holiday Samhain (McKinney). However, it must be understood that the Celtic celebration of Samhain was so integrated with All Hallow’s Eve and All Saints’ Day as to become near inseparable.

The Celts, just as most other peoples, gave thanks to the powers which afforded them their abundance and celebrated the end of the harvest by consuming the fruits thereof. This celebration of thanksgiving was Samhain, which literally means, “end,” or “sleep of summer”; this was the Druidic New Year. November 1^st marked the beginning of winter and the end of a productive harvest year. Samhain manifested a turning point, a doorway between seasons, and between years; and, just as with all doorways, it allowed for many different things to travel between realms of reality.

The Celts correlated the coming winter with darkness, cold, hunger, and ultimately, death; not only was the old year dying, but nature itself was perishing in the cold, and all food and warmth with it (Rogers 20). As such, Samhain was a time when the living had the most access to those who had passed on before – and vice versa. Druidism, like most other religions, held to a belief in the afterlife; thus, on the days when barriers between worlds wore thin, the souls of the dead could reach out and touch the souls of the living.

Despite many common superstitions, the Celts did not fear the dead spirits; instead, families of the dead would “stack their parti-colored skulls in a corner to watch the fun” of the Samhain celebration, along with food and wine for the spirits to enjoy (Morrow 8). Many reminiscences would follow, praising the lives of those who had passed on. The Celts were cautious of the spirits which roamed the earth throughout Samhain, however. It was the spirits who had no family to welcome them who became mischievous, even sadistic towards the living. Because of this, many Celts would leave bowls of milk or food on the doorstep to appease those wandering spirits. Those who traveled during the night on Samhain often disguised themselves as ghosts so as to thwart any evil spirits which might be lurking about (Bannatyne 4).

The Celts’ belief that spirits returned on that night was shared to a great extent by Christians. For the Roman Catholic Church of that time, the saints were venerated as holy and pure, having achieved stature in heaven before God Himself; there, the saints interceded on behalf of those Christians still on earth or in Purgatory. On All Hallow’s Eve, the saints on earth and the saints in heaven might together pray that the suffering souls would have freedom on the earth for the space of a single night; during this night, prayers would be offered up in an effort to shorten a soul’s time in Purgatory. This belief was held so firmly in Briton that the people there would pass the night in solemn and fervent prayer, fasting, and careful vigil, allowing no celebration or joy; to rejoice or act in celebration would be to dismiss the torment of the dead souls and to disregard the threats of those evil spirits which would prey upon the unwary (Newland 271).

Part of the fear of evil spirits in both the Celtic and Christian traditions was the fear of retribution by hateful or vengeful spirits. To combat that fear, and to provide help to those spirits who had merely lost their way, a tradition arose that people would make huge bonfires in grave yards and town centers; these fires were symbolic of the purification of evil which both pagan and Christian subscribed to. The pagan Celts and the later Christians used the common symbol of fire as both an expulsion of evil, and a call for purity, healing, and renewal by its heat and light (Newland 273). Many Catholic grave yards can be clearly seen from a distance on All Hallow’s Eve, for Catholics would leave candles and lanterns on the graves of family members.

References to sacrifices at Samhain are made in many ancient manuscripts; whether these sacrifices were human or animal, the idea that a sacrifice was necessary in order for the purification of the old, and the renewal of the new year puts one in mind of the Christian idea of redemption (MacCullough 69). These sacrifices were eventually performed in effigy, which later came to be the idea of past saints’ martyrdom, as befitted the vigil before All Saints’ Day.

The practice of disguising yourself as a spirit also came to be Christianized. Instead of copying the perceived twisted and dead appearance of spirits, the Christian influence brought about the idea of dressing up as famous saints. Churches would hold parades, wherein throngs would gather to celebrate the lives of those saints who were in heaven.

Even the idea of our modern trick-or-treating has evolved through the Celtic and Christian traditions. When the Celts put food and milk out for the wandering spirits, the poor and needy were often the beneficiaries of such gifts. Later, on All Souls’ Day – the day after All Saints’ Day which was devoted to not only the saints but also to all souls which had passed on into the afterlife – poor people would join in parades, and go from door to door ‘souling.’ The poor would collect small ‘soul cakes’ from each house in exchange for the promise of praying for dead relatives; the more soul cakes each person collected from a house, the more prayers the receiver promised to offer up.

The practice of dressing up in costume also underwent an evolution. Not only did the people dress up as ghouls and spirits in black face paint and white robes in order to move unnoticed amongst evil spirits, but other costumes were added: Christians celebrated the lives of the saints by dressing as the saints themselves, as well as costuming themselves as the devils and angels which were battling constantly on the night of All Hallow’s Eve. Mumming, this practice was called, and it has carried on into the present day.

Many, many aspects of the Samhain celebration have been carried over into our modern Hallowe’en. Examples of these Celtic customs include bobbing for apples, carving pumpkins, and the ever popular tricks of ‘evil spirits’. These customs survived and even flourished under the disapproving eye of the Roman Catholic Church. Despite the church’s best efforts, the pagan practices of the druids carried on throughout all of the British and Scandinavian lands, and even into the rest of Europe and the Americas.

All of these various elements of both the Celtic Samhain and the Christian All Saints’ Day can still be found today in the modern celebration of Hallowe’en. Despite the differing beliefs and origins, or perhaps because of them, the practices have continued in popularity. Though perhaps no longer of such religious nature as the Celts and Christians might originally have intended, the customs and practices of Hallowe’en still proudly bear the marks of spiritualism and superstition; it could even be said, perhaps, that those customs are made more personal, and thus more spiritual, in their secularization. Whatever the case may be, the rites and traditions of our modern Hallowe’en can be seen even still as a proud declaration of a culture which celebrates life and death and renewal.

Word Count: 1542

  

     

           

Works Cited

Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt. Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History. New York: Facts-on-File, 1990. Print.

MacCullough, J. A. Religion of the Celts. New York: Cosimo Inc., 2005. Print.

McKinney, Michael. "Sugarcoating Halloween." vision.org. Vision Media, October 28, 2010. Web. October 29, 2010.

Morrow, Ed. The Halloween Handbook. New York: Citadel Press, 2001. Print.

Newland, Mary Reed. The Year and Our Children. New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1956. Print.

Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford: University Press, 2003. Print.