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14
think themselves
intelli,e,ent
began to
look into the origin of this spirit of
frivolity and undcrstand how it entcrcd
a supposedly Christian society.
How did we get Hallowecn?
Do you know that Halloween was
introduced into the professing Christian
world centuries
rlfter
the death of the
apost!es? Yet, it was celebrated by the
pagans
centrtries before
thc New Testa·
ment Church was founded
!
Here is the intriguing answer from
history: "The American celebration
rests upon Scottish and Irish folk cus·
toms which can be traced in direct line
from pre-Christian times" -
from
paganism! "Although Halloween has
become a night of rollicking fun, super–
stitious spells, and eerie games which
people take only half seriously, its
beginnings were quite otherwise. The
earliest Halloween celebrations were
held" - not by the early church, but -
"by the Druids in honor of Samhain,
Lord of the Dcad, whose festival fell
on November
l."
(frorn
HttlloU'een
Thro11gh Tll'enty Cenlltries
by Ralph
Linton, p. 4.)
Further, "l t was a Druidic belief that
on the eve of this festival, Sarnan, lord
of death, called together the wicked
souls (spirits) that within the past 12
months had been condemned to inhabit
the bodies of animals" (
Enc;clopaedia
Britannica,
11th ed.,
v.
12, pp. 857-8) .
When the Spirits Walked About
Read what th is November celebrat ion
was like! It was a pagan belief that on
one night of the year the souls of the
dead returned to thei r original homes,
there to be entertained with food.
If
food and shelter were not provided,
these spirits, it was believed, would cast
spells and cause havoc toward those
failing to ful fill their requests. It was
spiriwal
trick or treat. And the "trick"
was not especially cute.
"It
was the n ight for the uni versal
walkiog about of all sorts of spirits,
fairies, and ghosts, all of whom had lib–
erty on that night" (
Highland
St~par
stitions,
Alexander Macgregor, p. 44).
Literal sacrifices were offcred on this
night to the spirits of thc dead, when,
T he
PLAIN TRUTH
so the belief went, they visited their
earthly haunts and their friends.
There was a reason why November
was choscn for that particular event.
Thc Cclts and other northern pcople
considcred the beginning of Novcmber
as
their ew Year. This was thc time
when thc !caves wcrc falling and a gen–
erál seasonal dccay was taking place
everywhere. Thus it was a fitting
time,
so
they rcasoned, for the com–
memoration of the dead.
Since the northern nations at that
time bcgan thcir day in the even ing, the
eve leading up to November
1
was the
beginning of the festival. According to
the Roman calendar, in which days
began at midnight, it was the evening
of October
31 -
hence, Hallowecn, or
AJI So11IJ' Eve,
was kept throughout the
ancient pagan world. The observance
was widespread.
"Thcre was a prevailing belicf
among
tt/1
nalions
that at death the souls of
good meo werc takcn possession of by
good spirits and carried to paradise, but
the souls of wicked men were left to
wander in the space between the earth
and moon, or consigned to the unseen
world. These wandering spirits wcre in
the habit
of
ha1111ting tha living .
..
8111
there U'ere means by 11'hich these ghosts
might be exorcised" (Folklore.
James
Napier,
p.
11).
Exorcising Ghosts
To exorcise these ghosts, that is, to
free yourself from their supposed evil
sway, you would have to set out food
- give the demons a trcat - and pro–
vide shelter for them during the night.
If
they were satisfied with your offer–
ings, it was believed they would leave
you in peace.
If
not, they would "trick"
you by casting an evi l spell on you.
"In Wales it was firmly believed that
on Al! Hallows' Eve the spirit of a
departed person was to be seen at mid–
night on every crossroad and every
stile"
(Folklo1·e and Folk-Storias of
IP
aies,
Marie Trevelyan, p.
254).
This sort of Hallowecn festival was
strenuously obscrved throughout the
ancient world. Pagans would pray to
their false gods to prevent
"demons"
and "witches" from molcsting them.
October-No,·ember 1970
In Cambodia people used to chant:
"O all you our ancestors, who are
departcd, deign to come and eat what
we have prepared for you, and to bless
your posterity and to make
it
happy"
(No/ice Jttr le Cambodge,
París 1875,
E.
Aymonier, p.
59).
In the New World, too, thc custom
is found, "Thc Miztecs of Mexico
believcd that the souls of the dead carne
back in the twe lfth month of the year,
u·hich con·espondad to
011r
Novembe1•.
On this day of
All
Souls the houses
were decked out to welcome the spirits.
Jars of food and drink were set on a
tabJe in the principal room, and the
family went out with the torches to
meet the ghosts and invite them to
enter. Then, returning to the house they
knelt around the table, and with their
cyes bent on the gcound, prayed the
souls to accept the offerings"
(Adonis,
Frazer,
p.
244).
The German lnfluence
This, then, is the way the heathen
world cclebrated their Halloween, their
All Sortls' Day.
Although some aspects
of the Halloween festival varied with
each country, the overall pattcrn and
purpose remained the same.
When the German Frankish kiog
Charlemagne invaded and conquered
parts of Eastern Germany, he compelled
the conquercd German Saxon king,
Wittekind, to be baptized and to accept
Christianity.
Wittekind's Germans, now profes–
sing Christians, and other conquered
peoples, had a profound influence on
the ecclesiastical affairs of the church in
the early SOO's A.D. These uncultured
people bcought with them many out–
righ t pagan practices and celebrations,
Halloween merely being one of them.
They were fervent in clinging to their
past ceremonics and observed them
openly - yet supposedly converted to
Christianity.
What was the church to do? Ex–
communicate thcm and thus reduce her
membcrship? This she would not do.
Was she to force them into discarding
their hcathen practices and adopt Italian
(Conthmed on page 46)