Halloween : An Irish History Adapted from https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/
Far from the child-friendly event it has become, Halloween can trace its origins to a ritual marked in Rathcroghan, a former Celtic centre buried beneath the farmland of Ireland’s County Roscommon. Considered by the ancient Celts to be a passage between Ireland and its devil-infested “otherworld,” Oweynagat (pronounced “Oen-na-gat” and meaning “cave of the cats”) was the birthplace of the Samhain festival, the ancient roots of Halloween, according to Irish archaeologist Daniel Curley. More than 2,000 years ago, when paganism was the dominant practise among Ireland’s majority Celtic people, it was here in Rathcroghan that the Celtic New Year festival of Samhain (“Sow-in”) was born, Curley says. In the 1800s, the Samhain tradition was brought by Irish immigrants to the United States, where it morphed into the sugar overload that is the American Halloween. Pagan Celts divided each year into summer and winter. Within that framework were four festivities. Imbolc , on February 1, was a spring festival that coincided with lambing season. Bealtaine , on May 1, marked the end of winter and involved customs like washing one’s face in dew, plucking the first blooming flowers, and dancing around a decorated tree. August 1 heralded Lughnasadh, a harvest festival dedicated to the god Lugh and presided over by Celtic kings. Then on October 31 came Samhain, when one pastoral year ended and another began. Festivalgoers made ritual offerings. Those gifts were directed to the spirits of Ireland’s underworld, says Mike McCarthy, a Rathcroghan tour guide and researcher. That murky, subterranean dimension, also known as Tír na nÓg (“Teer-na-nohg”), was inhabited by Celtic devils, fairies, and leprechauns. During Samhain, some of these demons escaped via Oweynagat cave. “Samhain was when the invisible wall between the living world and the otherworld disappeared,” McCarthy says. “A whole host of fearsome otherworldly beasts emerged to ravage the surrounding landscape and make it ready for winter.” Thankful for the agricultural efforts of these spirits, but wary of falling victim to their fury, the Celts protected themselves from physical harm by lighting ritual bonfires on hilltops and in fields. To avoid being dragged deep into Tír na nÓg by the devils, they disguised themselves as fellow ghouls. Two millennia later, young children the world over follow this tradition on Halloween. In an early form of trick-or-treating, Celts costumed as spirits are believed to have gone from house to house engaging in silly acts in exchange for food and drink—a practice inspired perhaps by an earlier custom of leaving food and drink outdoors as offerings to supernatural beings. Samhain was later transformed as Christian leaders co-opted pagan holidays. In the seventh century Pope Boniface IV decreed November 1 All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows’ Day.The night before Samhain continued to be observed with bonfires, costumes, and parades, though under a new name: All Hallows’ Eve— later ‘Halloween’.
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