HALLOWEEN
Halloween
is the oldest holiday with origins going back thousands of years. The
holiday we know as Halloween has had many influences from many cultures over
the centuries. Hundreds of years ago
in Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts.
The
Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1st. It was celebrated every year
with a festival and marked the end of the "season of the sun" and the
beginning of "the season of darkness and cold."
On
October 31st after the crops were all harvested for the long winter
the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids, the Celtic
priests, would meet in the hilltop in the dark forest .
The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of
crops and animals. As they danced around the the fires, the season of the sun
passed and the season of darkness would begin.
When
the morning arrived the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each
family who would then take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires
would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits.
The
November 1st festival was called Samhain (pronounced "sow-en"). The
festival would last for 3 days. Many people would parade in costumes made from
the skins and heads of their animals. This festival would become the first
Halloween.
Romans
brought with them many of their festivals and customs. One of these was the
festival know as Pomona Day, named for their goddess of fruits and gardens. It
was also celebrated around the 1st of November. After hundreds of years of
Roman rule the customs of the Celtic's Samhain festival and the Roman Pomona
Day mixed becoming 1 major fall holiday.
The
Halloween we celebrate today includes all of these influences, Pomona Day's
apples, nuts, and harvest, the Festival of Samhain's black cats, magic, evil
spirits and death, and the ghosts, skeletons and skulls from All Saint's Day
and All Soul's Day.