The Celtic harvest and New Year festival Samhain was celebrated on 1st of
November. Celts usually lived in Ireland, United Kingdom and northern areas of
France. This festival marked the end of pleasant summers and the beginning of
bitter cold. These people believed in evil spirits and witchcraft and thought
that they get loose on earth and roam about on the night before the 1st
November, in search of preys and victims. So, on the night of 31st October, they
painted their faces and wore terrible costumes to frighten away these ghosts and
witches, so that they would not harm them and their cattle and crops. The
inexplicability of certain natural occurrences was what gave rise to most of
their fears.
Traditionally, during the time of the Samhain festival, the Celtic peasants used
to take stock of their supplies and slaughter livestock for winters. The ancient
Celts held the belief that on the said night, which is now observed as
Halloween, the boundary between the living and the dead was dissolved and the
dead souls became dangerous for the living, by causing them sickness and
damaging their crops. Hence, the Celts arranged for bonfires and slaughtered
livestock, throwing their bones into the raging inferno, to do away with the
evil spirits. In Scotland, the young impersonated the dead with masks, veiled or
blackened faces and dressed in white.
Initially, Celts used to place a skeleton on their windows on the night before
Samhain, to represent the departed soul. They also used the head of a vegetable
to frighten off evil, as they believed head to be the most powerful part of the
entire body, possessing the spirit as well as knowledge. By 43 AD, Romans took
hold of the Celtic territory. When brought together, the social interaction
between the two societies and the cultural and traditional influence of the each
society over the other resulted in the amalgamation of Samhain, the harvest
festival mentioned above, and two Roman festivals - one to please Pomona,
Goddess of fruits and trees and other Feralia, to commemorate the passing of the
dead.
It is the festival associated with Pomona Goddess that gave rise to the custom
of 'bobbing' apples on Halloween. Though, Christians tried to celebrate 1st
November as the peaceful and serene All Saints' Day, but soon the festivities of
Samhain caught favor among the Christian youths and Halloween became the day of
big bonfires, grand parades, costumes, trick-or-treating, Jack-o'lanterns and
carved pumpkin décor. The two main colors that have been traditionally
associated with Halloween are orange and black, which continue to be used today
as well. As for the Halloween costumes, they are usually those of monsters,
ghosts, witches and devils, depicting traditional horror.
|
|
