Everything You Need To Know About Halloween’s Chilling Irish History

by Oct 29, 2021Dublin, Europe, Ireland

Everything You Need To Know About Halloween’s Chilling Irish History

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Travel Awaits |  Oct. 29, 2021

https://www.travelawaits.com/2706075/everything-you-need-to-know-halloweens-chilling-history/
Old Celtic gravesite with unmarked gravestones from the 1600's in the middle of a meadow in rural Scotland.
RONALD SUMNERS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Did you know that Halloween originated in ancient Ireland? Halloween, an amalgamation of both pagan and Catholic traditions of connecting with the dead, is celebrated each year on October 31. I’ve learned more about the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in) and how it’s led to the costumes, symbols, traditions, and superstitions of modern-day Halloween.

Celtic Cross at Glasnevin Cemetery.
GAIL CLIFFORD

Halloween’s Origins

The Celts lived 2,000 years ago, primarily in the area that is now Ireland, the UK, and parts of France. They celebrated their New Year on November 1. This marked the end of the harvest, the end of summer, and the beginning of the dark, cold winter that many associated with death.

The Celtic festival of Samhain allowed for a great celebration with the hard harvest work completed. Druid priests sacrificed animals and crops in giant bonfires and encouraged the wearing of costumes, often animal heads and skins, to ward off ghosts, including the spirits of their ancestors they feared would carry them off. These bonfires attracted bugs which, in turn, attracted bats. This led to the association of bats with harbingers of death. The superstitious believed that this day allowed for a dropping of the boundary between the living and dead; that the worlds could blur.

When the Roman Empire conquered the Celtic lands in the modern-day regions of the UK and France, Ireland was not affected. But the Roman influence added another dimension to Samhain: Feralia, a day when Romans commemorated the passing of the dead, and Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees, whose predominant symbol is an apple. These two supported the commemoration of the dead and the association with bobbing for apples.

READ MORE

0 Comments

Share via
Facebook
X (Twitter)
LinkedIn
Mix
Email
Print
Copy Link
Powered by Social Snap
Copy link
CopyCopied
Powered by Social Snap