Samhain == Halloween, literally

[acroyear]

Originally posted as a comment, now echoed here:

Being historically specifical, Samhain is the Celtic new year. The Celtic religion was slightly different from other pre-christian religions on that they had holidays *between* the major solar events. So whereas most cultures, including the Romans (Saturnalia), Norse, and Germans had celebrations on the Equinoxes and Solstices, the Celts also has celebrations at the half-way points. The two most significant are Samhain (pronounced Sa-wane or Sa-wen) and Beltane (which is the springtime between March and July, modernly translated into "May Day" or Whit-Sunday). Samhain is, to some, the original Celtic New Year.

The thing about traditions in the british isles (and their american descendents) is that some traditions moved when the calendar moved, in some areas, and others stayed where they were in the solar year regardless. So with the New Years tradition in Scotland and Ireland of the "First Footer" (the first person to step into your house after midnite of the new year was to be given the best that Highland hospitality could offer), the Irish in America gave that tradition to their kids in the form of Trick or Treating...only they kept it associated with their original New Years at Samhain, aka All Hollows Eve, rather than move it to the calendar new year. First Footers, on the other hand, moved to January 1st in Scotland and Wales.

Patrick had a knack for realizing that converting Ireland wouldn't work if he didn't account for what people already were doing, so many Saints' Feast days were set to be the same days as Irish pagan holidays, hence All Hollow's Eve and All Saints Day matching the already practiced Samhain tradition. This was exactly the same as the earlier Christians picking Saturnalia as a safe time to celebrate Christmas. Similar practices and rituals, originally to Pagan gods, occur all over England throughout the year, modified to be venerating saints instead of Celtic gods...in a few cases, the god or goddess themselves were re-written into being a non-existent saint. The Catholic church has had some difficulty in deciding what to do about it, like the case of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travellers, who never really existed.

The springtime traditions get even more mixed up, as different parts of England moved their practices based on when the different shires each adopted the various changes in the calendar. So Morris dancers have *3* significant spring holidays: the original Whit Sunday (now just a bank holiday, our Memorial day monday), May Day (May 1st, which is the more appropriate Beltane I think), and April 1st. The April Fool and the May Fool are historically one and the same.

Comments

[waider.livejournal.com]

I'd just point out that I've lived in Ireland for 30 years without ever coming across the First Footer tradition. I do know the tradition still lives on in Scotland, immortalized in, of all places, a Marillion track titled "The Uninvited Guest" where the singer sings, "I'm your fifteen stone first-footer".

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Well, supression of some cultural aspects of Ireland is well known, and in some cases occurred internally, such as the creating of "Ceili" dancing as a safe form of "folk" dancing when compared to the amount of physical contact in the square-set dances. That it may have been gone from Ireland for decades is not surprising. Many other things are long gone as well, from all 6 celtic cultures. At certain points usually between 1890 and 1930, people just, literally, *stopped* doing something, like hard-sole dancing in Scotland (which survived in Cape Breton Island in Canada, long after it was dead in the highlands). Nobody really can give a clear answer why, it just...stopped. often rather suddenly, too. In England/Scotland, WW1 was the main reason, but there were others.

The Famine was the end of a number of villages (and with them their traditions) in the mid 19th century, but with 1 million of them coming to the states, and among them the halloween trick or treating tradition began, then there's some evidence that Ireland likely had the practice or something similar to it.

As for Marillion, I'm well aware of *that* one. Whether Helmer or Hogarth wrote that particular line, I don't know, nor do I know if it was in reference to a specific, moderately heavy-set, Scotsman we all know. Hogarth himself is Scottish on his mother's side, or so he claimed in the Stoke Row video.

If you come back to read this, may I ask how you found out about this post? I really don't have time to play six-degrees-of-livejournal-friends to find out... ;)

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

ah, through "dwenius" (friend of mine from college, though I haven't seen in person in about 10 years).

[waider.livejournal.com]

Ha, I was about to check. I read what you'd written through lj's friendsfriends feature. I'd initally posted to complain about "All Hollows Eve" since we'd always been taught it was Hallows, and that makes more sense to me, but a little research (research first, then post!) showed me that it's not a mistake, it's a derivation from holy. Apparently, anyway.
Dwenius is one of the coolest people I know, and he and his wife are the world's most perfect couple.

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

A question and a nitpick (though the question may be considered nitpicky as well):

First, the Christian holiday that got stuck on top of the Celtic one to distract people is "All Hallows" ("All Saints") Day, not "Hollows".

And that leads to the question: I was under the impression that All Hallows was stuck on top of Samhain, which would suggest that All Hallows Eve (Hallowe'en) is Samhain-eve. Have I been mistaken in wishing folks "happy new year" on the first of November all these years?

(And I've seen one source, but not managed to verify it, claiming that Samhain actually lasts ten days. You ever hear that, and is it a bogon or is there something to it?)

Anyhow, the notion of Samhain proper being tomorrow (or starting tonight, not this morning) makes sense to me -- after all, the big parties for the Gregorian new year all start the evening of 31 December, right? -- so I hadn't questioned it, but since I'm thinking of it, have I been mistaken?

In either case, blessed be, on this holy night between the years.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

jeanie or kat are the better ones to ask...and sorry 'bout the mispelling, but my brain gave up on proper spelling years ago. Andrew Jackson : "Its a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word..."

[waider.livejournal.com]

Hah, just saw dglenn (another friend of a friend) picking up on the spelling of Hollows. Hmm. I'm now wondering if I'd've been right to take you to task over that. It's just that I did find a fairly lucid page which contained both the words Hallowe'en and All Hollows Eve, and went on to explain that Hallow in Hallowe'en comes from Hallowed Evening, and Hollow in All Hollows Eve comes from something like Old English for Holy Places or some such. Now I'm ALL CONFUSEDEDED.