Did you know Halloween began in Ireland? Halloween began as a Druid pagan holiday called Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween). Samhain is the name for the Celtic God of the Dead. An appropriate title for this favored Pagan festival as it was believed that on this night the veil between the world of the living and the dead was said to be the thinnest.
Samhain began at at sundown on October 31st. (which for the Celt's was "Summer's End.") Samhain was the last gathering before winter's arrival and it was celebrated by the Celtics in Scotland, Ireland and the British Isles and Wales more than 2000 years ago. They honored deceased loved ones and ancestors with Samhain's Feast of the Dead. Offering food and tidbits for the spirits of those gone before. In fact, the tradition of trick or treat actually started with the leaving of food on your doorstep to feed these spirits and keep them from making mischief.
Halloween bon fires were originally called "bone fires" as the feasting that accompanied the Celtic celebration of fire including throwing the bones of the meat as offerings upon the fires that burned to cook the food as well as to keep warm this chilly night. And attendees may have dressed as ghosts believing it gave them the ability to walk amongst the spirits unrecognized and unharmed.
Some other Halloween traditions borne from the Celtic Samhain include;
- The name Jack O'Lantern (Jack of the Lantern) comes from an old Irish tale.
- Apples were left or buried on the roadsides to provide for those spirits without family or
destination.
- Black cats became a Halloween symbol as it was believed spirits could return in the body of an animal and black cats were certainly the one of the most ominous. Cats were believed to be the spirit of a deceased person.
- Witch history is so large no one could hope to cover it all. But the name"Witch" comes from the word Celtic "Wicca" meaning "wise one."
