All Souls Night
~Loreena McKennitt

 

Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides
Figures dance around and around
To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness
Moving to the pagan sound.

Somewhere in a hidden memory
Images float before my eyes
Of fragrant nights of straw and of bonfires
And dancing till the next sunrise.

I can see lights in the distance
Trembling in the dark cloak of night
Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing
A waltz on all souls night.

Figures of cornstalks bend in the shadows
Held up tall as the flames leap high
The green knight holds the holly bush
To mark where the old year passes by.

I can see lights in the distance
Trembling in the dark cloak of night
Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing
A waltz on all souls night.

Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides
Figures dance around and around
To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness
And moving to the pagan sound.

Standing on the bridge that crosses
The river that goes out to the sea
The wind is full of a thousand voices
They pass by the bridge and me.

I can see lights in the distance
Trembling in the dark cloak of night
Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing
A waltz on all souls night.

 

~from the CD 'The Visit'

 

 

The Ancient Druids who inhabited what we now call Great Britain, placed great importance on the passing of one season to the next, holding 'Fire Festivals' which were celebrated for three days (two days on either side of the day itself).

 

Many consider the most important of these festivals to be Samhain. (The correct pronunciation of this Holy Day depends on where you are from....as 'sow-in' (rhymes with 'cow' in) in Ireland, or 'sow-een' in Wales, or 'sav-en' in Scotland.) The name probably comes from the Irish Gaelic word "samhraidhreadh", which literally means "summer's end".  Samhain marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter for the Celts, with the day after Samhain being the official date of the Celtic New Year.  The Celts chose this point in time as their new year because at this time the sun is at its lowest point on the horizon as measured by the ancient standing stones of Britain and Ireland. Samhain occurs in the mystical 'between time' after the last day of summer and before the first day of winter - when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest, when those souls who had passed could, if they wished, return to the land of the living, when the usual laws of time and space are suspended.

 

Samhain bonfires, (called balefires in paganism), were once lit on every hilltop in Britain and Ireland as soon as the sun set on October 30.  The word "balefire" comes from the word "boon", which means "extra".  To the ancient Celts, fire was a physical symbol of holiness, divinity, truth and beauty and the Samhain fires served a number of purposes: to honor the Gods and Goddesses, to light the dark night and usher in the light of the New Year, to purify the ritual space or home, and to ward off evil. The fire was also used to guide the souls of the dead home to their kin. On this night all the hearth fires were extinguished and relit from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept buning at the center of Ireland. (The only other time it was permitted to extinguish the hearth fire was Beltane, the Sabbat marking the second half of the Celtic year. To do so otherwise was considered very bad luck). The old ashes were strewn in the gardens to bless them and insure a fruitful harvest the following year. In many parts of the British Isles balefires are still lit on Samhain to honor the old ways.

 

Samhain is the last of the three Celtic Harvest Festivals. Ripe fruits and nuts were gathered, preparing some for the feast and others to be stored for the long winter ahead.    For those who rely on farming to exist, this marks the time when the herds are thinned so there will be enough food for the livestock through the winter months. Often the ones chosen for butchering are the weakest and probably would not survive the intense cold.

 

Samhain is also, and in modern times probably most identified as, the Celtic Festival of the Dead, and though it is celebrated as such by many other cultures, most of our current traditions can be directly traced to the British Isles.

 

In Belgium an old custom was to prepare ' Cakes for the Dead ' , small white cakes or cookies. A cake was eaten for each spirit honored with the belief that the more cakes you ate, the more the dead would bless you. Elsewhere, food offerings were left on altars and doorsteps for the "wandering dead". Extra chairs were set at the table and around the hearth. Single candles were lit and left in windows to help guide the spirits of ancestors and loved ones home. Apples were buried along roadsides to feed lost spirits, or used in divination (where bobbing for apples came from). Turnips were hollowed out and carved to look like protective spirits,(Jack-o-lantern) because on this night, the mischievous “wee folk” became very active, pulling pranks on unsuspecting humans. People dressed in white (like ghosts), wore disguises, or dressed as the opposite gender, some say, in order to fool the Nature spirits. And when children took to pulling pranks, townsfolk began giving out treats to appease them-hence, came trick-or-treat.

 

In the Pagan traditions, Samhain is the night when the old God dies, and is mourned by the Crone Goddess for the next six weeks until he is reborn at Yule.  The popular image of her as the old Halloween hag menacingly stirring her cauldron comes from the Celtic belief that all dead souls return to her cauldron of  life, death, and rebirth to await reincarnation.

 

With the rise of Christianity, Samhain was changed to Hallowmas, or All Saints' Day, to commemorate the souls of the blessed dead who had been canonized that year, so the night before became popularly known as Halloween, All Hallows Eve. It was the Christian Church that was, and is, responsible for the demonizing of many of the aspects of Samhain. On the following page, "What Samhain is NOT", I will attempt to correct the misconceptions and untruths associated with this Sabbat.

 

"Where Holloween Comes From" is an overview of how we can trace current traditional Halloween activities to the ancient Celtic source.

 

And finally, a little Halloween Party to celebrate in the manner most of us have celebrated since childhood.

 

However you choose to celebrate this time, whether you celebrate it at all, may the season be filled with many blessings.

 

Merry meet, Merry part, and Merry meet again...........................

 

 

The information on this page has been obtained from many sources. Though I spent many years as a solitary Wiccan, I no longer identify myself with that label (or any other, for that matter-my beliefs basically being an amalgam of many paths I've explored and found "true" in my heart), and I am no expert on Celtic lore. There are many excellent books and websites on the subject and the information here is based on what I consider the best of those sources. I encourage you to explore further.

The following are excellent websites to begin your exploration:

www.AMystikalGrove.com
hidden_land_of_wicca.tripod.com
www.circlesanctuary.org
www.witchvox.com
www.pagansunite.com

www.religioustolerance.org