The name
Halloween, or All Hallows' Eve, which itself comes from the Old English halga
or "holy". Until late Medieval times “hallow" referred to a holy person
and so Halloween was the night before All Saint’s Day. But Samhain on which
Halloween is based is a much older festival, actually believed to be a
combination of two festivals: the Celtic festival of Samhain (meaning "summer's
end") and Pomona, in honour of the Roman fruit (harvest) goddess Pomona.
Samhain is sometimes called the Feast of the Dead and refers to our belief that
at this time of the year the distance between our world and some other world
where our ancestors roam is at its thinnest, so the dead and the living could
meet. Interestingly Samhain is a time for firelight. It was said all the houses
in the village would extinguish their fires, and everyone would gather around a
single fire all night to help ward off the spirits. More recently candles and
lanterns have been used to do the same job, a naked flame is a healing process.
Sadly in the
last 20 years the gawd awful Trick or Treat Halloween has arrived here from the
States. That is a freak-show circus of the celebration, and not a celebration
of life and death. In my youth we’d carve what we called turnips in the North
East (actually swede) and walk around the village with these lanterns. We
didn’t bother anyone, or knock on doors to frighten old people, we just quietly
enjoyed being out in the darkness as children on this one night, when normally
we’d be told to stay indoors. Last night I sat quietly with my candle, lantern
and for those of you on Facebook, Brian the snail. For Brian’s fans,
there was going to be a video, but I ran out of time. Maybe for Bonfire Night?
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