por Els Pannecoucque
Celebrating
Halloween is a recent phenomenon in Spain and in the rest of Europe.
Until a couple of years ago, one could easily walk down the streets at
the end of October without finding carved pumpkins or plastic spiders on
his way. Many people may think that Halloween is just another
commercial event swept over from the United States, but that’s not
entirely true. In fact, it is the other way round: Halloween is a
European “export product”, firmly rooted into our most ancient
traditions. The customs were modified to American taste, and Halloween
recently crossed the ocean again towards us in its actual commercial
format. But Halloween is as old and dark…as hell. Let’s unveil its
secrets.
The
word “Halloween” is derived from “All Hallow’s Eve”, which means “the
eve(ning) before All Saint’s (Hallow) Day”. You may think by the name
that Halloween is a less important event, since it has no name in
itself, being “the evening before” All Saint’s Day. But then we have to
consider that this name was given only from the 9th century
on, to replace an older name that has its origins way before our
christian times. “All Hallow’s Eve” is the name given by christians to
the most important feast on the celtic calendar: Samhain.
The word “Samhain” means “November” in Scottish-Gaelic.[1] In fact, Samhain was to the Celts what New Year’s Eve is to us. October 31st
was the last day of the old celtic year. Unlike we do, the Celts
started counting days and years out of the darkness. On the calendar a
day started with sunset and the new year started with the dark winter.
It was the moment when the last harvest was done, and cattle either put
inside for the winter or slaughtered.[2]
The moment where nature took a rest and the dark cold winter nights
entered. Samhain night was the dark, mysterious transition from old to
new. People believed that in this particular night the boundaries
between the material and the spiritual world could be crossed, that it
was possible to enter the world of the spirits and that spirits could
also enter the material world. Spirits were believed to wander outside
in the dark night, over the fields and into the villages. So bonfires
wer set on top of the hills both to scare off the evil spirits and to
show their own ancestors’ spirits the way to their family’s homes for
the winter. Druids were asked to predict what the new year would
bring.
But
then the christianization of Europe started with the conversion of the
Frankish king Clovis to christianity around 500 A.D. Soon a whole
structure of bishops and missionaries was set up. Monasteries were
founded. The mission was always the same: the total conversion of
Europe, the creation of an ecclesiastical power that cooperated narrowly
with the kings and emperors of regions that are the origin of Europe’s
biggest nations. A new world order where there was no place anymore for
ancient celtic and germanic beliefs, cults or superstitions.
Or at least that was the plan. But traditions are tough.
Samhain
remained an important feast because people commemorated and celebrated
the spirits of their lost ancestors. This notion is very close to our
custom of remembering our deceased family members on All Saint’s Day.
So you can say that both in celtic and christian beliefs, there was a
moment where people thought about the dead. But of both celebrations,
Samhain is the oldest. All Saint’s Day was created as a christian feast
around the time of Clovis’ conversion. But in its origin All Saint’s
Day was not on November 1st. It was on May 13nd.
The christian All Saint’s Day was created in the eastern liturgy around the 5th
century A.D. to commemorate all the martyrs at one and the same day.
Before that time, every martyr was commemorated at his own day of death,
but over the years there were so many martyrs that it became impossible
to celebrate them all separately. That’s why it became a custom to
celebrate martyrs at the same day. May 13nd was often chosen after a
famous homily about “all saints” held by Johannes Chrysostomos in
Constantinopel on a May 13nd somewhere at the end of the 4th
century A.D. It is only in the year 732 that All Saint’s Day is
instaured by pope Gregory III as an official christian feast, not only
for the martyrs but also for the saints and for the dead.
But still, as you see, no link on the calendar between Samhain (October 31st) and All Saint’s Day (May 13nd). This will change a hundred years later, in the year 834.
The
conversion of Europe towards christianity wasn’t easy. Local
superstitions and beliefs remained very strong. Even today, our
European languages are full of references to a pagant past. Many
elements of the old cults were incorporated by the catholic church and
are still part of our cultural heritage. Wherever you live, just think
about five odd habits or words and search for the meaning behind them.
Once you scratch the surface, you will find amazing stories.
So,
even in 834 and after centuries of missonary work, a lot of old rituals
remained. In the regions north of the Alps, local christian
communities had adopted the habit of celebrating All Saint’s Day not on
May 13nd, but on November 1st, in order to replace the old
important Samhain by its christian answer. In 834 the French king
Louis Le Pieux asked pope Gregory IV to shift All Saint’s Day on the
christian calendar towards November 1st, to make sure that
the battle with Samhain was won everywhere. The pope agreed, and from
then on the celtic feast lost its meaning, because the next day all
saints, all martyrs and all the dead were celebrated anyway. The
rituals that remained became part of folklore, the name of Samhain
disappeared and if something was celebrated, it was called “All Hallow’s
Eve”. No references to a celtic past anymore.
The
custom remained to light a candle on All Hallow’s Eve. The bonfires
were replaced by candle lights, and the wandering of spirits by people
walking from door to door with the light. To protect the flame, the
candle was often placed in a carved beetroot. Around 1840, many Scots
and Irish emigrated to the United States to escape famine after the
potatoe disease. They shipped the custom with them, but since beetroots
were hard to find at the other side of the ocean, pumpkins were used to
hold the candles. The scary faces that are carved refer of course to
the world of ghosts. It is in the United States that the name “All
Hallow’s Eve” changed into “Halloween”. And it’s this Halloween that
returned to us, as a commercial event.
But
not only the lights and pumpkins have a profound celtic origin.
Witches (from the old English “wicce”) are also part of the commercial
Halloween, and they clearly refer to cults and religions before
christianity, where women played a far more powerful role as symbols of
fertility. According to several legends, the mother godess Cailleach
returned in Samhain (Halloween) night as the Queen of Winter.[3]
All of those godesses were degradated into witches, women to be afraid
of, evil women, under the influence of christianity that gave a
prominent role only to male priests. So it is no wonder that witches
were associated with the pagant, evil and dark side of the other world,
and that they appear as a Halloween attribute.
Spiders and cobwebs[4]
are also joining in into our Halloween party. They are usually part of
the attribute of witches, along with black cats, all symbols of fear
and bad luck in our culture. So the commercial format presents us a
melting-pot of elements that are narrowly associated with Samhain and in
a wider point of view associated with fear or bad luck. Skeletons may
refer to the dead, but they are most likely a commercial addition.
“Traditions
are often revered most by those furthest from the source”, the author
Clint Twist once stated. This is oh so true for the Halloween revival.
We find Belgian chocolate in pumpkin shapes. Interior stores provide
us with loads of cheap decoration to turn our living rooms into an
orange-black nightmare. Women magazines dedicate the culinary section
to “scary dishes for the kids”. From New York to Tokyo, children are
dressed up like whizzards and witches. Facebook games integrate the
Halloween moment. The word “Halloween” itself has over 300 million hits
on Google. Tourist offices organize special “Halloween walks”… the
list is endless. For sure, Halloween is more alive than ever, but
certainly not in the way our celtic ancestors would have hoped.
Los huesos de santo
An interesting Spanish tradition going back to the 17th
century is the preparation of “Los huesos de santo”, a typical dessert
made of marzepan, egg yolk and almonds. It is served around All Saint’s
Day. Its shape refers to a human bone, to reliquies, and freshly
harvested almonds were used to prepare it.
[1]
On a Gaelic calendar dating probably from the first century A.D. and
found in Coligny (a small village in France), the feast is called
“Samainos”.
[2]
An old Dutch name for November is “Slaughter Month” (slachtmaand).
Cattle was slaughtered, and meat was either smoked or pickled. Smoked
ham is an invention of the Celts, a famous culinary legacy to the world!
[3] some hills in Scotland and Ireland still bear her name.
[4]
spiders make either a spider’s web or a cobweb. “Cobweb” is referring
to an old English word for spider, “cob”, which has disappeared in
standard English. However, “cob” or “kobbe” is still the name for a
spider in the Flemish dialects that are close to the North Sea.
