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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Orgins of Halloween

Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, [it is] more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain or Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)".[4] The name is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end".[4] A similar festival was held by the ancient Britons and is known as Calan Gaeaf (pronounced kalan-geyf).


The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes[] regarded as the "Celtic New Year"

source Wikipedia
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3 comments:

  1. Jan ÖNovember 1, 2009 at 1:08 AM

    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 otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

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  2. Jan ÖNovember 1, 2009 at 1:15 AM

    well it was mostly to celebrate the Dead , A Druid Festival ( Pagans )
    as well as end of Light time of year , Here in Scoland we are Celts
    Festival of Darkness

    To commemorate the event, Druid priests built huge sacred bonfires,
    where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the
    Celtic deities.

    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

    http://www.articlesbase.com/holidays-articles/the-origin-of-halloween-samhain-the-celtic-festival-of-darkness-and-mystical-light-623244.html

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  3. canice mNovember 5, 2009 at 5:09 PM

    very interesting..Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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