10/31/2019
Happy Irish New Year - Halloween, its Irish roots – The ancient Roman and Greeks believed in an afterlife which the located in the underworld. Christianity and Islam with the assentation of Jesus, Mary and the prophet Muhammad locate their afterlife region to the heavens. To the ancient Irish, the afterlife was sometimes located underground but it could also exist side by side with the living world. The home of the fairies are found in caves, stones, rocks, woods, bridges ancient earthworks, hills or mountains, underground, under lakes and rivers. It is this proximity to the living world which gives us many of the customs associated with Halloween. However, unlike all other traditions and unique to Irish culture, the Otherworld was not the exclusive preserve of the dead as the living could visit it and return to the land of the living at any time. There was only one problem, time moved at a different rate in the Otherworld. Oisín, son of the leader of the legendary Fianna, Fionn MacCumall fell in love with Niamh from Tír na nÓg, the land of the forever young. A land located over the western sea which was also part of the otherworld. After a year there, Oisín wanted to visit his father and relatives back home but when he got home he found that 300 years had passed.
As millions of children and adults prepare to participate in the fun of Halloween on the night of October 31st, few will be aware of its ancient Celtic roots in the Samain or in modern Irish Samhain (p. Sow-in) festival. In Celtic Ireland about 2,000 years ago, Samhain marked the point in the year dividing it between the lighter half (summer) and the darker half (winter). At Samhain, it was believed that the division between this world and the otherworld was at its thinnest, allowing spirits to pass through. The ancient Irish day began at nightfall so that when the day ends at sundown on the 31st of October, November 1st starts. The month of November in the Irish language is still known as Samhain, its first day was celebrated with one of the great fire festivals, which also marked the start of the Irish and Celtic New Year.
On the eve of Samhain families invited the spirits of their ancestors to their home and honoured them, whilst at the same time harmful spirits were warded off. It was believed that evil spirits would search the world of the living looking for souls to carry back with them to the otherworld. So to defend against the evil spirits people took to pretending to be one. As the evil spits were not looking for other evil spirits they would pass one by and continue searching for a victim (i.e. someone not in costume! You have been warned). Jack-o'-lanterns served a similar purpose and so began the modern Halloween tradition of Jack-o-lanterns and dressing up in scary costumes. It is a tradition dating back millennia and brought by Irish emigrants firstly to Scotland and later to North America and now the four corners of the Earth.
Bonfires and food played a large part in the festivities. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into a communal fire, household fires were extinguished and started again from the bonfire. (This is where the term "Bone fire" originates) The ritual symbolises the death of the old year and the birth of the new.
Food was prepared for the living and the dead. As the dead were in no position it eat it, it was ritually shared with the less well off.
Christianity incorporated the honouring of the dead into the Christian calendar with All Saints (All Hallows) on November 1st, followed by All Souls on November 2nd. The wearing of costumes and masks to ward off harmful spirits survived as Halloween customs. The Irish emigrated to America in great numbers during the 19th century especially around the time of famine during the 1840's. The Irish carried their Halloween traditions to America, where today it is one of the major holidays of the year.
Through time other traditions have blended into Halloween, for example the American harvest time tradition of carving pumpkins has travelled back across the Atlantic. Originally the Irish made Jack-o'-lanterns out of turnips or beet but nowadays pumpkins are much easier to carve.
Two hills in the Boyne Valley were associated with Samhain in Celtic Ireland, Tlachtga and Tara. Tlachtga was the location of the Great Fire Festival which begun on the eve of Samhain (Halloween). Tara was also associated with Samhain, however it was secondary to Tlachtga in this respect.
We call it a Celtic festival because Samhain is a Celtic word but the celebration of Samhain is pre-Celtic. The entrance passage to the Mound of the Hostages on the Hill of Tara is aligned with the rising sun around Samhain. The Mound is 4,500 to 5,000 years old, suggesting that Samhain was celebrated long before Celtic culture arrived in Ireland about 2,500 years ago.
Image: pumpkin Jack-o'-lanterns. Inset 1: a traditional Irish turnip Jack-o'-lantern dating from the early 20th century is on display in the Museum of Country Life, in Castlebar, Co. Mayo. Inset 2: The Mound of the Hostages on the Hill of Tara.
Approximate pronunciation guide.
Fionn MacCumall – fi-un mock cool – often Finn Mac Cool
Niamh – Nee-ve
Tír na nÓg – tear nah n-ogue
Tlachtga - tl-ach-ta
