Halloween - When Is It Really?

[MrRING]

Does anybody really know when Halloween (or the festival/religious observance that srted it) would have been held in ancient pagan europe? It seems like it could be a set day, with October 31- November 2 being the likely candidate, but it seems more likely that it was based in a season rather than a linear date.

Also, in the book Santa Clause: Last of the Wildmen, the case is made (convincingly so) that all the best parts of Halloween and Christmas and New Years were all part of the same holiday and that they were split up over the years at the whim of the Chruch who tried to diminish the old belief's hold over the people. So would Halloween have actually been during the Yule season?

 

[Anonymous]

What we today call Halloween is the old Celtic New Year festival of Samhain. The celts began their day at sunset (rather than middle of night as we do) so in the modern calendar the Celtic New Year begins at sunset on 31st October. This was one of two nights in the year (the other being Beltane, May Day) when the spirit world was supposed to be able to cross over to the real world. As a consequence fires were lit, effigies burnt and rituals performed to protect the 'living' from the 'dead'. Many of these traditions continued in England and, after the 'Gunpowder Plot' were incorportaed into what we now know as Bonfire or Guy Fawkes night (Nov 5th).

I've always wondered why Samhain was held when it was, although it makes sense (from the celtic perspective) to start the new year at the beginning of winter. The date may originally have been fixed astronomically (don't think they had calendars in those days!). Almost certainly it wasn't exactly the same day as we celebrate Halloween on today because when the chrisitian calendar changed from Julian to Gregorian the dates all changed by (I think) 11 days. So by our modern calendar samhain should have been 10th November.

 

[Anonymous]

It's generally accepted that Samhain and Beltane started out as agricultural festivals. April/May was when the flocks were taken out to their upland pastures for the summer (and the menfolk taking them there, who would be away from the villages all that time, would get in their last bit of nookie); October/November was when the flocks were taken back to their winter shelter and the animals not needed for breeding/milking were slaughtered for winter food (hence the association with death, probably). The dates would almost certainly be set by the Moon, so would differ from year to year.