Y Safle

It’s that time of year again. Kids getting ready to demand money (or something) with menaces. Kids dressing up a broom with an old sock stuffed with paper and demanding money (without menaces). Kids throwing fireworks around and loud bangs in the night. Bah humbug!

So where does this all come from? Halloween, we are told, derives from the Celtic festival of Samhain, and heralds the end of the Celtic year, the night when the world draws close to the otherworld. Only it has often struck me as odd that the pre-Romanised Celts would just happen to end their year so neatly on the last day of a Roman calendar month.

And what is Bonfire Night? Isn’t that all about some Guy who wanted to blow up parliament and install a Catholic king? Why mention it on a page all about Celtic interests?

Guy Fawkes, it turns out, has very little to do with Bonfire Night. Yes, the gunpowder plot was foiled on November 5th, but this just happened to be the Bonfire Night already. Guy Fawkes was not burned at the stake, as some suppose. He was hanged drawn and quartered (the normal punishment meted out at that time to traitors).

The bonfires of the start of November were a much older (Celtic) tradition. The throwing of an effigy onto these bonfires was also an old tradition - the effigies were the Celtic green men.

Sir James Frazer wrote extensively about the fire festivals of Europe in his 1922 magnus opus, “the Golden Bough”. In this work he points out that the Celts, early farmers, timed the end of their year with the time when herdsmen would bring their cattle down from the hills to winter pastures, and after the harvest is gathered in and stored.

Since ancient times, Celts have reckoned the year to end on Bonfire Night, and as autumn gives way to winter, this world and the otherworld are indeed supposed to be at their closest point (an idea perhaps helped by autumnal mists which can turn to heavy fogs in early November).

The Bonfire celebration, and the burning of effigies covered in evergreen boughs, are a memory of a log forgotten superstitious past. Much of this is detailed in the Golden Bough, Chapters 62-64.

However, Sir James Frazer missed one point. He speaks, as so many of us do, of the Celtic New Year as starting on November 1st, and Samhain as being 31st October (see chapter 62, section 6). This is a mistake.

Long before the Roman calendar, the Samhain fires were burning year in and year out. We know that Celts based festivals on dates calculated from astronomical recordings, and it is worth noting that the night of November 5th is located exactly half way between autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. Beltain is half way between vernal equinox and summer solstice. Thus the significant date is indeed 5th November. The Celtic festival is 5th November - not 31st October.

Halloween derives from a Christian festival on another date that just happens to have similarities with Samhain, but the true Celtic festival is Bonfire Night. So when some child rings your doorbell this week, tell them to come back next week.

And while you are at it, you may like to point out that guising, of which trick or treat is a mere corruption, involves the recital of a piece of poetry, or the singing of a song for some reward. You can offer them such a reward at your bonfire celebration if you like… at least if they are really obnoxious, you can (however fleetingly) consider throwing them on it instead! On second thoughts, perhaps not… but at least the idea might give you a warm fuzzy feeling. :o)

The BBC reports:

More than 300 registered Pagans are in Britain’s prisons Pagan prisoners in Britain are to be given time off work duties to allow them to observe a religious festival on the day of Halloween. Pagans observe the Celtic New Year’s Eve on 31 October, which they see as Britain’s indigenous New Year event.

Now, notwithstanding that they have the wrong day, and what they are actually celebrating is either the night before All Hallows, or perhaps the night before the Roman Pomona festival, there is another major flaw with this woolly headed notion of religious inclusivity.

You see, Pagan Celts (that is Celt pronounced Kelt, for American readers), had a very specific practice on the autumnal fire festival (Samhain in Irish - pronounced something like Sow-[h]in).

According to T D Kendrick’s excellent book “The Druids”, the practice of human sacrifice amongst the Celts probably arose with a need to dispense with prisoners that were a danger to the society and which the community could not support in a prison community. Thus the Celts kept no such prisoners. They sacrificed them.

And they did this, according to the (mostly Roman) sources that are extant, by constructing wickerwork cages or effigies within which the prisoners were caged and then the wickerwork was set alight as a Samhain sacrifice.

So those 300 pagan prisoners who are demanding that their religion be recognised within the prison service should get more than they bargained for tonight, if they really are celebrating the old pagan festivals.

When I stated, as I have done on this forum, that:

The Samhain festival, whilst lost in history, clearly has a bearing on the modern celebration of Guy Fawkes night (AKA bonfire night) in the UK. The lighting of Samhain bonfires was clearly a celtic practice and one that is seen still all over europe in various guises.

I drew this objection:

“How do you figure that Stephen? Guy Fawkes is a gunpowder plot having to do with treason. It is celebrated on Nov 5 because on this date in 1605 a group of Roman Catholics tried to blow up the houses of Parliament with the government, King James 1, his Queen and their son. It is a day of Thanksgiving because this plot was foiled … “

The question we might ask then is why do we not celebrate the Rathbone plot with bonfires?

The answer is that the pagan practise of lighting bonfires at the start of November had survived (as it has also survived elsewhere in europe) from ancient times, and the state decided to “christianise” the practise by celebrating the foiling of the Gunpowder plot which happened to coincide with the more ancient bonfire night (more closely than one might suspect perhaps).

Of course, you rarely hear of Christians suggesting we not celebrate Guy Fawkes night in the UK simply because it has pagan origins - instead people concentrate on the celebration instead (fireworks, bonfires, candy floss and such like). This is in marked contrast to the Halloween celebration, which has become soe embroiled with occultism and every kind of foolishness, that many Christians feel they have no choice but to oppose it.

My correspondent continued:

“Childrens rhyme goes ..Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. “

In fact, the more ancient rendering goes:

Please to remember the fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder, treason Should ever be forgot...

The “please to” is considered antiquated and is thus altered to “remember remember…” in the more modern rendition.

This correspondent continued:

‘”We see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot!” Sure there are bonfires. I was raised in Australia and we celebrated Guy Fawkes night .. I knew it was gunpowder and treason from the time I was a young child. We had no candy or going door to door and no hidden meanings ‘

But, of course, the burning of the “guy” does have a very ancient and hidden meaning. The difference is that (unlike halloween) the hidden meaning is forgotten.

Our information about Celtic practices, largely second hand accounts from Roman documents, is incomplete and it is hard to arrive at definite conclusions, but it seems that at least some Celtic tribes would burn prisoners in wickerwork cages on their bonfire nights, and that others may have burned wickerwork “green men” in a mock sacrifice associated with fertility or somesuch. The burning of a guy on bonfire night surely derives from tis practice, rather than the gunpowder plot.

None of the Gunpowder plot conspirators were burned to death. Their sentences were, in fact, rather gruesome but ended with them being hanged, drawn and quartered.

We don’t re-enact the execution of Guy Fawkes - we re-enact something far older.

“.. the bonfire was it and I knew why. No occult type hidden meaning there, just patriotism if you will. “

Well there is the celebration of the preservation of liberty and democracy, that is true, and I do not suggest we ban bonfire night, but we should note that the origin of the festival is as old as Samhain.

“Every church does not have an “all hallows festival” and the world surely isn’t out there following something that has to do with Church … “

Like Christmas you mean?

The origins of the “Christmas” date are just as convoluted as the origins of the “All saints day” date. (Christmas coincides with the Roman Saturnalia date, just as All Hallows coincides with Pomona).

“Witches are following the powers of darkness who are the real orchestraters of this day and the significance of this date. “

I have no doubt that the powers of darkness have used Samhain, as they have used any other means, to obstruct the work of the kingdom of God, but we might note that the date has a much more mundane origin.

The Celts were farmers as well as hunters. They lived in settlements and grew crops, and their two most important festivals mark the two most important times of the farming year - completion of sowing, when herds were taken to summer pasture, and the time after the completion of harvest, when herds were brought down to winter pasture.

Beltain takes place in May, when crops have been sown and begin to grow and the herds are taken to summer pasture. Samhain takes place at the end of the harvest and start of Winter, and marks the end of the year.

Indeed, the celebration of completion of harvest has a similarity with the Jewish festival of Pentecost. Both festivals concern crops and harvest and were originally devoid of any other beliefs. Pentecost gives thanksgiving to God, but Samhain arose amongst a people who did not know God. The spiritual void in their lives caused them to give thanks to their own gods for the completion of harvest in the Samhain festival.

Perhaps we ought to emphasise this aspect of Samhain and suggest that we treat Halloween like a harvest festival. We can draw out how the pagan celts had a need for God (and indeed embraced Christianity long before Augustine was even born) and how the festival shows their need for God.

We could celebrate the day with parties envolving apple bobbing and other games that involve fruits of the harvest, and in those countries that involve in the obnoxious habit of trick or treating you could play along with the practise on the basis that you are “sharing the fruit of the harvest”.

We can point out that witches costumes and the like are a modern day accretion to this festival, and we might discourage such occult overtones, but we need not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Kids will celebrate halloween, whatever we do. The question is, what will you do to make the celebration a positive experience as opposed to a negative one?

As we approach the end of October, and more and more shops are trying to sell us sweets to hand out to strange children as part of some American end of October custom called “trick or treat”, children are deciding what grisly thing they will dress up as for their halloween party.

Halloween is the eve of All Saints day - celebrated since the ninth century, and much of the superstition surrounding the day developed from superstitions surrounding this date. But the date was not idly chosen. Like many Christian festivals, the date was chosen because of related pagan festivals at or about the same time.

Now which pagan festival was originally on the night before November 1st? Many people will tell you this is Samhain or the Celtic New Year - one of the Celtic fire festivals.

I disagree.

I don’t think the historical Samhain is the 1st November, which would be an illogical choice adapted only to suit the Roman system of counting of the months.

Before I go on, I make the point that November 1st may now be celebrated as the Celtic New Year, in much the same way that April 6th is celebrated as the start of the fiscal year. Not because April 6th is special, but because the start of the year has become disconnected with the reasons for it.

I make this point, because it makes no difference on what day we celebrate such things - but when people make spurious special claims for a certain night of the year as being somehow distinct from other nights, based on Celtic history - then it is worth noting that the night they celebrate is not the night the ancient Celts probably celebrated.

My argument is that prior to the spread of Roman culture throughout the Celtic world, and the Roman calendar with it, the more likely date for Samhain would have been the day that we now call November 5th (although 6th November is also a candidate).

There is good evidence that the Celts of northern Europe kept an accounting of the passing of time by use of standing stones and such like, so whilst we do not need to delve into too much fantasy over how good astronomers they were, there is clear evidence that they would have known the dates of key events such as the solstices and equinoxes. We also know that they held the Beltain and Samhain festivals as especially significant, but prior to the Roman accounting of time there would be no way that we could get an exact record of the date of these festivals except by the astronomical method and counting.

Now consider the calendars I have reproduced below. The Autumnal equinox on 21st September, and winter solistice on 21st December are two well known significant astronomical dates. Recent evidence suggests that the winter solstice in particular was celebrated at Stone Henge (not the summer solstice, as many suppose).

Whilst Stone Henge pre-existed the Celts in Britain, we know that the current arrangement of the stones was carried out by the pre-Roman Celts. Thus it is important information that these Celts held 21st December to be a key date.

In the calendar below I have marked 45 dates starting on the autumnal equinox in orange. I have marked in green the 45 days prior to the winter solstice. Notice that leaves one day unmarked between the two dates - November 5th.

This date, equidistant between equinox and solstice, is - I suggest - the date on which pre-Romanised Celts would celebrate their fire festival, and begin their year. This would be the historical date of Samhain.

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
                1  2
 3  4  5  6  7  8  9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
          1  2  3  4
 5  6  7  8  9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
                1  2
 3  4  5  6  7  8  9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31

The Romans had their own festival on November 1st - the feast of Pomona, the goddess of the autumnal harvest and orchards. This festival may have been sufficiently similar to Samhain that the two became conjoined on 1st November in the Roman calendar (a calendar which, in any case, knew considerable drift over time, so that 1st November at this point might conceivably have coincided with the observed and derived date for Samhain).

Sir James Frazer notes that every European fire festival other than the Celtic fire festivals was linked to a significant astronomical date, and it is he who (in chapter 62 of the Golden Bough) suggests that the Celtic dates are more siginificant to the herdsman, although he credits another with the revelation.

It seems that Frazer was not aware of the significance of the date of November 5th though, and his survey of customs that were still extant puts most of them on the night of 31st October. That does not, however, mean that throughout history the date was always 31st October, but only that this has become the significant date in modern consciousness, and that - I suggest - is owing to the feast of Pomona, and the spread of Roman culture.

We note that this could also explain the date of Christmas being 25th December - this being also the date of the Roman Saturnalia feast, which again may have drifted from a solstice date on 21st December pnce the Romans introduced their calendar.

Someone may object that we have a Celtic calendar - the Coligny calendar from 1st Century Gaul. Their year was shorter than ours, and they used intercalary days and months on a regular basis to maintain a balance between the lunar and solar year.

Festival days drifted during the course of a calendrical cycle, and could vary as much as month earlier or later in relation to where they fell during the first year of the cycle.

What we don’t know is whether this calendar with its festival drift was representative of an earlier Celtic tradition, or something that arose only after the Roman influence caused these Gauls to start accounting time with a calendar.

If we suppose that the Coligny calendar is representative of original Celtic tradition then the dates of these festivals would drift. Further it would suggest that a full moon was indeed chosen to recognise the date of Samhain.

If this is so then my thesis that November 1st is not Samhain, but the nearest Roman festival to Samhain would remain, but my thesis that the correct night is November 5th would be wrong - it would rather be a full moon close to 5th November (perhaps the first full moon thereafter). We cannot know for sure - and I think that is a good thing.

Whilst the calendar is not itself in any respect Roman, it is certainly quite possible that the whole concept of a calendar (and thus intercalary months) was derived from the Roman practice, and that an older celtic tradition would not necessarily have placed the bonfire nights within specific months at all. I admit that beyond the recognition that Halloween does not seem to historically fit exactly with Samhain, all else is speculation based on whatever pieces of archeological evidence one wishes to cite in support of ones thesis.

However, if a pagan says to you (as one said to me, some years ago) “Halloween is Samhain, and that festival is one of ours”, politely point out to them that Halloween is not the real date of Samhain, and that All Saints day is very much a Church festival, and has been for nearly 1200 years.