Origin of Halloween (Part 4)

So, this is my fourth addition to a seven part origin series on Halloween. We've gone over Halloween's most ancient direct ancestor (Samhein), how it became popular in Roman culture, how it affected Christianity, and how it blended with the festivals of Lemuria and Pomona to create 'All Saint's Day'. Well... let's continue!

In the 10th Century C.E, the Catholic Church went even further into allowing pagan traditions to permeate through the seams of Christianity, and created 'All Souls' Day' on November 2. The idea behind it was that All Souls' Day would be a day to remember everyone who had died within the past year, good OR bad, Saint or not. If you remember from Part I, this is a direct appropriation of Samhain tradition. The Celtics were also venerating the dead who had died within the past year.

Overall, the Church was very accepting of most of these pagan traditions by the 10th century. This is, except for one aspect of the Halloween tradition. Witches (from the Old English word 'WICCA' meaning "wise one" and were usually women). Witches and their practices during or around the Halloween time scared the Catholic church the most. They were a symbol of the very worst type of pagan worship (especially during Samhain): direct devil worship. Witches were seen as unruly women who threatened the male/female hierarchy, often known for tapping into the darkest aspects of Halloween.

By the 15th century C.E., Church zealots hunted down many witches and punishments were cruel. But it wasn't until the year 1486 that they were officially outlawed. The Pope at the time, Innocent VIII published a book that produced evidence of the direct link between witchcraft and the devil. He also outlawed all forms of Celtic worship and other Pagans altogether, because of their links to Witchcraft. Witches became hunted all over Europe and if they were found guilty they were hanged or burned at the stake. In fact in 1431, even Joan of Ark was burned at stake.

Witches were portrayed as violent old hags, bent on evil thoughts. Witches were such a symbol of an embodiment of evil, that even some animals became associated with demonic reputations. The black cat, for example, which is highly decorated during Halloween time, came from the belief that the cat was actually the witch's spirit in animal form. If you remember, as was tradition during Samhain, they created bonfires and those bonfires drew mosquitoes. Well, mosquitoes draw bats, and bats draw owls. Thus the bats and owls also became associated with witchcraft and Halloween.

Every culture that celebrates Halloween ends up stamping it's own culture on top of it. A great example of this is is Mexico's Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Unlike the European churches, Mexico's churches encourage the celebration of the dead. Popular customs during the Day of the Dead are the dressing of skeleton dolls and telling ghost stories and picnicking at grave sights. The reason this tradition took off so well was because of pre-existing native-American traditions or ancestor veneration (surprisingly) around the same date as Samhain.

Back to Europe, as the "Holy" Revolution to conquer paganism reached it's peek, the Catholic church would be soon torn from within. On October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther posted his famous thesis attacking church doctrines, which launched the Protestant Reformation. This changed the face of Christianity and Halloween forever, rejecting all those symbols that were "against worship of God" including Popes, priests and Saints. Suddenly Halloween, All Hallow's Eve and All Souls' Day became increasingly unpopular.

In November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes (I LOVE THAT NAME) who was a Catholic militant was arrested for attempting to blow up a Protestant dominated House of Lords in the famous Gunpowder Plot. This day, November 5th, is now called Guy Fawkes day and is popularly celebrated as an English holiday. Since it is so close to Halloween, many today celebrate the two together. Some popular traditions during this festival are to burn his effigy (a sculpture or model of the person), and shoot up fireworks.

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Next stop, America.

Origin of Halloween (Part 3)

Jesus Christ is suggested to have been born sometime in the middle of the year, during or around the year 5-6 B.C.E., but it wasn't till about 30-33 C.E. that he is suggested to have died. His teachings lived on and became increasingly popular. With his teachings, however, the church came to the realization that these gods of nature and earth and the spirits on Samhain and Lemuria that they were worshipping (much like the Egyptian gods I posted about three days ago), were actually demons and false gods.

It became a moral issue between understanding the "true religion" and sticking to their pagan origins and traditions. Many were even persecuted and hunted down by Catholic militants. (Note, that this and other forms of "Christian" behavior is not Biblically backed, as the Catholic church was heavily influenced by Pagan cultures around this time). The problem was that much and most of the world at that time was involved in pagan worship (also polytheism, which is the worship of many gods), and many didn't want to convert into Christianity if they had to give up their traditions. Likewise, just as many Christian militants attacked Pagans, Pagans attacked many Christians.

During his reign from 284-305 C.E., Roman emperor Diocletian, persecuted many Christians for their faith. In 299, Diocletian and Galerius (another emperor), performed in a ceremony (not unlike the ancient Druids during Samhain) where they tried reading the burnt entrails of the sacrificed animals to predict the future. He could not read them, and he blamed the Christians for this error. This began his campaign against the Christians.

After Diocletian's reign, there came the emperor Constantine in the 4th century, who was another pagan Roman emperor. However, it is said that he had a vision on the battlefield of Christ, with the symbol of a "X" and a "P" in the background, and this is the earliest known usage of a cross in Christianity (it goes much farther back into pagan roots and symbols, but thats another day and another story). His mother was a Christian, and after seeing this vision while at war, he converted himself to Christianity. This paved the way for many pagans alike to transition into a Christian lifestyle, but no, it didn't happen overnight. In 325 C.E., emperor Constantine summoned the Council of Nicaea, and they made plans to send missionaries all over, saving them (into Christianity), and baptizing them. They soon realized that steering the public away from paganism would not be easy. Many still dressed up in animal skins, painted faces and worshiped their old gods.

In fact, it was so hard that almost 300 years later in the 7th century, Pope Gregory I allowed for an even simpler transition. The pagan worshippers would be allowed to worship just as they had been doing, but only if they were worshipping under the name of the Christ. As I mentioned yesterday, about the celebration of Lemuria which was held on May 13, it became Christianized into All Saints Day. It wasn't until the 8th century that Pope Gregory III decided to move the original dates of the celebrations of Lemuria up to the time of the Samhain festival.

Thus, November 1st became claimed "All Saints Day", to honor those Christians who didn't already have a Saint's day of their own. This day was also called "All Hallow's Day" (as Hallow is an equivalent word to a Saint). The traditions of Samhain continued to be practiced on October 31st, and many called it "All Hallow's Eve", because it was the evening before All Hallow's Day. All Hallow's Eve is only a short variation off from being eventually called Hallowe'en.

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They say the Roman Empire never fell. It simply became the Roman Catholic Church.