Travel back in time to the Halloween's origins, into the world of the Celts. That region is now called Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France. The ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).
The Celts, lived 2,000 years ago in these areas and celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death.
Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the other worldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future.
Druids, the Celtic priest, built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities or gods. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, consisting of animal heads and skins, and practice telling each other's fortunes.
By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain that explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated a pagan celebration on November 1 and called it, All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. The pope attempted to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.
In A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.
The Pope brought into today a pagan holiday that had nothing to do with Christianity which forbid worshipping anything but God. The Christian faith was polluted into a marriage of paganism and religion which God hates. The pure Christian faith does not permit the worship
of the dead, nor dressing up in costumes and the building of sacrificial fires. This is a demonic holiday meant to fool people into thinking that is OK to celebrate All-hallows Eve now known as Halloween.
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