What is Halloween ?

Halloween is a secular children's holiday that has its origins in the ancient, pre-Christian, Celtic festival of Samhain or Sambain or Saman ["summer's end" in Gaelic; Samhain or Sambain or Saman is pronounced either as "Sah-win" or "Sah-van" or ""Sow-in" (where "ow" rhymes with "cow")", depending on the interpretation] which was observed in Britain and Ireland on November 1st, at the end of the summer. November 1st was also the beginning of the Celtic New Year as well as the Anglo-Saxon New Year. According to ancient Celtic and Anglo-Saxon customs, November 1st was the day when the Celtic Lord of Death - known as Samhain* or Sambain* or Saman* - called together the souls of the wicked who had died during the past year. The prayer rites associated with the Samhain or Sambain or Saman festival were practised by the religious leaders of the Celts, an order of priests (who also served as teachers), known as "Druids", who were based in ancient Britain and Gaul. The Druids believed that on the eve of the Samhain or Sambain or Saman festival, meaning the evening of October 31st, witches (who sometimes took the shape of black cats), demons, hobgoblins, and various kinds of spirits of the dead, rose from their graves, flew around, and basically roamed the earth in search of revisiting their homes. It was also believed that in the evening on October 31st, all the witches would assemble together to worship the devil. To protect themselves, the Druids lit huge bonfires to drive these evil spirits away. Since these evil spirits were known to play evil tricks on the Celtic people, the Druids believed that to protect themselves even more from these evil tricks, the Druids would disguise themselves as evil-looking beings in order to make the evil spirits think that the disguised Druids were part of their own company. Another strategy that the Druids used to protect themselves from the evil spirits was to offer pleasant foods for them to eat. Can you see the connection between the current customs done on Halloween and the customs that were done on the eve of the Samhain or Samhain or Saman festival? Many of the themes of Halloween are based on the rites of this ancient Celtic festival. Other Halloween themes developed after the Roman Catholic Church began to observe All Hallows' Eve in the evening on the same date, October 31st, which at the same time was designated as the eve of All Saints' Day on November 1st, a day that in turn was designated by the Roman Catholic Church in the 9th century A.D. as a feast day to honor all the saints in the church - both known and unknown. All Saints' Day was originally held on May 13th, but Pope Gregory IV (ruled as pope from 827 A.D. - 844 A.D.) in the 9th century A.D. wanted it to coincide with the Samhain festival in order to make it easier for the Christian church to integrate the pagans into the church. Since the 9th century A.D., All Hallows' Eve gradually became a secular observance, with the associated ancient Celtic customs becoming secularized over time. Halloween themes that have become secularized include the return of the souls of the dead to revisit their homes, the souls of the dead being characterized by children dressing up as witches, hobgoblins, ghosts, fairies, elves, black cats, and all kinds of other demons; candle-lighting, which was based on one of the fire festivals in the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon calendar in which huge bonfires were built upon hilltops to frighten away evil spirits in the evening on October 31st, which was also the eve of the new year in the ancient Celtic and Anglo-Saxon calendar; playing games, which grew out of the ancient Celtic and Anglo-Saxon belief - practised by the Druids - that the evening of October 31st - the eve of the new year - was the time when one would receive the most favorable divinations concerning luck, marriage, health, and death. To this end, this day was the only day when the help of the devil was called upon for these purposes, and in Scotland, out of these beliefs grew the custom of young people playing games on this day to determine when each of them would get married and in which order their marriages would take place. In turn, from these games grew the custom of children playing games on Halloween. The Halloween custom of children going from house to house - usually in a costume - to demand a "trick or treat", with the "treat" - usually some kind of candy or fruit - often given by a member of the household, while the "trick" is rarely played, developed in the United States after Scottish and particularly, Irish families, brought their secular customs of Halloween to the United States. One of the Halloween customs brought by the Scottish and Irish immigrants was the jack-o'-lantern, whose name may have been derived from the name that was used for a night watchman named Jack in Scotland and Ireland who, according to their folklore (more specifically, Irish folklore), was refused entry into heaven because of his miserliness and was also refused entry into purgatory because he played tricks on the devil. So he was condemned to walk the earth with a lantern until Judgement Day, hence the name Jack-o'-Lantern. The original jack-o'-lantern, used in England, Scotland, and Ireland, was either a turnip, beet, or potato that was hollowed out, with a demonic-looking face carved out of either the turnip, beet, or potato, and a lit candle that was fixed inside of either the turnip, beet, or potato. When this Halloween custom was brought to the United States, the turnip, beet, and potato was replaced in the United States by the pumpkin, which was native to the United States. In addition, the color orange, symbolizing the color of the jack-o'-lantern, and the color black, symbolizing the color of night, death, and sleep (in this case, referring to the "sleeping" dead souls reawakening on October 31st), are the symbolic colors for Halloween.

* Samhain, Sambain, or Saman ("Samhuin" in Scotland, in Scottish Gaelic, meaning "All Hallows") as the Lord of Death is disputed by various scholars. Nearly all Conservative Christian authors say Samhain was a Celtic God of the Dead, and believe that Samhain, Sambain, or Saman represented one of the Celtic peoples' major Gods, the Lord of Death, while other scholars claim that Samhain, Sambain, or Saman simply means "summer's end", denoting a feast celebrated by the Celts that marked the end of summer and the gathering and storing of the summer harvest upon which the following day was celebrated as the Celtic New Year and as a result, also represented a transition between the summer season and the winter season, as the Celts had only two seasons, summer and winter. These scholars also state that Samhain was also a feast for the dead, which symbolically reflected the seasonal change from summer to winter, the latter which was a cold, forbidding, and dark season. Other scholars claim that Samhain, Sambain, or Saman was not a major Celtic God, but rather, either a minor Celtic God or a hero in Celtic folklore. The Scottish Gaelis Dictionary defines Samhain as: "Hallowtide. The Feast of All Soula. Sam + Fuin = end of summer"; the Irish English Dictionary, published by the Irish Texts Society, defines Samhain as follows: "Samhain, All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in Pagan and Christian times, signalizing the close of harvest and the initiation of the winter season, lasting till May, during which troops (especially the Fiann) were quartered"; finally, McBain's Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language says that "'samhuinn' (the Scots Gaelic spelling) means 'summer's end'...". The Celts observed only two seasons of the year: summer and winter. So, Samhain was celebrated at one of the transitions between these seasons. Furthermore, "Samhain" is the name of the holiday. There is no evidence of any god or demon named "Samhain", "Samain", "Sam Hane", or however you want to vary the spelling". The belief that Samhain is a Celtic God of the Dead is near universal among conservative Christian ministries, authors and web sites.