[HPforGrownups] Re: Happy Halloween everyone/mildly OT

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 5029

Denise Rogers wrote:

> Rita might want help me with this (she seems to have sooo much more
> knowledge than I, but that's ok! :)) but I am almost certain of what I say.
> I think that Halloween/All Saint's Day was originally the pagan holiday of
> Samhain first,

Generally, yes. Most cultures had some sort of "death of the year" or some such
about that time. Not everyone called it Samhain, but that's the general term
used now for the neo-Celtic types. But don't forget--it wasn't just Celtic
tribes that the missionaries and/or Romans encountered--there were Germanic and
Slavic tribes in Europe, too. I believe it's pretty much accepted that the
Church decided to honor its dead around this time to correspond with existing
folk practices. Just remember, such folk practices were not the organized thing
they tend to be today, and could vary widely by locale.

> then the "church" of the time changed their holidays to match
> the holidays of the pagans, so that they could be encouraged to join the new
> religion.

And terribly effective it was. I've read stuff postulating that some of the
early saints are reformatted local divinities, too. And loads of older holy
places were holy way before Christianity got there. Actually, the Church has
been moving its holy days around for a while--in the early days of Christianity,
when they were still hiding, they tended to match up with popular holidays to be
less noticed, as well. It's just that most cultures have a rebirth celebration
sometime in the spring, and a death-related one sometime in the fall, etc., so
there wasn't really too much shifting around needed.

>  Hence the reason we wiccans celebrate Samhain (or the Wiccan New
> Year) on October 31st.

In essence, yup.

--Amanda