Happy Halloween!
Happy Samhain!
Remember that the mythological origins of Halloween stem from the Celtic rituals and traditions of Samhain (pronounced SOW-in). It was said that October 31 represented the end of the harvest season (in the northern hemisphere). Feasts were held to celebrate a successful season and gifts (treats) were exchanged. These important dates actually marked the new year.
The dark side origins? Celts believed that on the night of October 31st, the veil between the living world and the supernatural realm was at its thinnest. The dead could return as ghosts, carrying with them malice and ill-intent. The ghosts were thought to have intentions of damaging crops and wreaking havoc. To prevent any potential devilish trouble from occurring, animal bones from the annual slaughter and parts of already harvested crops were burnt in bonfires as a sacrifice to the Celtic deities. To ward off ghosts and evil spirits, people dressed up as demons and spirits themselves. This was both to disguise themselves from the evil spirits, and to scare off the spirits with their ghoulish costumes.
To try to suppress these rituals, the Catholic Church tried to superimpose various Holy Days, including All Saints Day, All Hallow’s Eve, All Martyrs Day and so on.
The history of ‘bobbing for apples’ goes way back to the Romans, who also tried to control the events with their own traditions. In this case, it was Pomonia, which celebrated the harvest of apples. Not as exciting as ghosts and evil spirits, right?
There’s a gender-driven consideration to all of this: the leaders of many Celt tribes were women (Boudicca, Scathach (Sac-hah), Queen Maeve) and after Rome fell, some Irish women held the rank of bishop. This was truly horrifying to the Church, which eliminated such equality.
Eventually, many of these leaders were recast as witches and we all know the trouble they went through over the last 2,000 years or so. As part of this, we may have lost many traditional remedies and understanding of our place in nature. Maybe this is why we are so quick to help innocent kids load up with highly processed glucose-fructose ‘food’ products instead of healthy snacks.
As you can see, there are many unique aspects to this fun and fascinating day in the calendar, and I feel like I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg!
With that, I wish you all the best for the new year and I’m sure I’ll get caught in the web of unhealthy snacks, but promise to get back to healthy eating for Halloween!