Archive for October, 2004

Halloween Origins (from The History Channel)

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints’, All Saints’, and All Souls’, were called Hallowmas.

Yesterday I said I love the babies.

I do.

I love the two boys.  I do.  To me, however, there is something so special about the girls.  I’m drawn to them in a way that I’m not with the boys.

I was talking to a friend yesterday and told him this.  I told him that I see their potential.  I see the opportunities that even I, their grandmothers, and their great-grandmothers didn’t have.  I see the possibilities.

I don’t want them to have to struggle in the same ways we may have had to do.

He, in all of his wisdom and insight, said to me that he thought it was even more than that. 

I had a difficult childhood.  He said it stems from this.

He said that he thinks I see them as pure and unharmed.  He said he sees me as wanting to protect them, to allow them to grow in a world where they don’t have to go through the same things I did.  I want to see them grow up unharmed.

He’s right.  I do.

I see my 5-year-old niece who is so much like me that it’s scary, and I see in her something so powerful and amazing.  I would do anything to stop her from being harmed.  I would do anything for her to know that she’s amazing and loved and cherished.  And she does.

My new niece deserves no less.  She deserves to be cherished and loved and treated like the precious gift she is.

The girls are special to me.  Maybe I see a piece of me in them.  Maybe I see the innocence of myself that I love in them.

I want to nourish and cultivate that.  I want them to be able to live life happily and fully and without all of the baggage that I grew up with.

They deserve that.