Historic Samhain customs[edit] Samhain was one of the four main festivals of the Gaelic calendar, marking the last harvest and beginning of winter.[17] Traditionally, Samhain was a time to take stock of the herds and food supplies. Cattle were brought down to the winter pastures after six months in the higher summer pastures.[17] It was also the time to choose which animals would need to be slaughtered for the people to survive the winter. This custom is still observed by many who farm and raise livestock[2][27] because it is when meat will keep since the freeze has come and also since summer grass is gone and free foraging is no longer possible. It is thought that some of the rituals associated with the slaughter have been transferred to other holidays. On St. Martins Day (11 November) in Ireland, one of the animals was offered to Saint Martin, who may have taken the place of a god.[28] At New Year in the Hebrides, people would circle their district sunwise dressed in a cowhide. A bit of the hide would be burnt and the smoke inhaled by each person.[28] These customs were meant to keep away bad luck, and similar customs were found in other Celtic regions.[28] The slaughter would be followed by feasting. Bonfires were a big part of the festival in many areas (pictured is a Beltane bonfire in Scotland) As at Beltane, bonfires were lit on hilltops at Samhain and there were rituals involving them.[17] However, by the modern era, they only seem to have been common along Scotlands Highland Line, on the Isle of Man, in north and mid Wales, and in parts of Ulster heavily settled by Scots.[29] F. Marian McNeill says that a force-fire (or need-fire) was once the usual way of lighting them, but notes that this gradually fell out of use.[27] Likewise, only certain kinds of wood may once have been used, but later records show that many kinds of flammable material were burnt.[30] It is suggested that the fires were a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic – they mimicked the Sun, helping the powers of growth and holding back the decay and darkness of winter.[31][27][28] They may also have served to symbolically burn up and destroy all harmful influences.[31] Accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries suggest that the fires (as well as their smoke and ashes) were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers.[32] In Moray, boys asked for bonfire fuel from each house in the village. When the fire was lit, one after another of the youths laid himself down on the ground as near to the fire as possible so as not to be burned, and in such a position as to let the smoke roll over him. The others ran through the smoke and jumped over him. When the bonfire burnt down, they scattered the ashes, vying with each other who should scatter them most.[32] Sometimes, two bonfires would be built side by side, and the people – sometimes with their livestock – would walk between them as a cleansing ritual. The bones of slaughtered cattle were said to have been cast upon bonfires. In the pre-Christian Gaelic world, cattle were the main form of wealth and were the center of agricultural and pastoral life. People also took flames from the bonfire back to their homes. In northeastern Scotland, they carried burning fir around their fields to protect them, and on South Uist they did likewise with burning turf.[29] In some places, people doused their hearth fires on Samhain night. Each family then solemnly re-lit its hearth from the communal bonfire, thus bonding the families of the village together.[2][27] In the 17th century, Geoffrey Keating wrote that the druids of ancient Ireland would gather on Tlachta on Samhain night to kindle a sacred fire. From this, every bonfire in the land was lit, and from thence every home in the land relit their hearth, which had been doused that night. However, his source is unknown, and Ronald Hutton supposes that Keating had mistaken a Beltane custom for a Samhain one.[13] Dousing the old fire and bringing in the new may have been a way of banishing evil, which was done at New Year festivals in many countries.[28] Snap-Apple Night (1833), painted by Daniel Maclise, shows people playing divination games on 31 October in Ireland The bonfires were also used in divination rituals. In the late 18th century, in Ochtertyre, a ring of stones was laid round the fire to represent each person. Everyone then ran round it with a torch, exulting. In the morning, the stones were examined and if any was mislaid it was said that the person for whom it was set would not live out the year. A similar custom was observed in north Wales[32] and in Brittany.[33] James Frazer says that this may come from an older custom of actually burning them (i.e. human sacrifice) or may have always been symbolic.[34] Divination has likely been a part of the festival since ancient times,[17] and it has survived in some rural areas.[35] At household festivities throughout the Gaelic world, there were many rituals intended to divine the future of those gathered, especially with regard to death and marriage.[17][36] Seasonal foods such as apples and nuts were often eaten in these rituals. Apples were peeled, the peel tossed over the shoulder, and its shape examined to see if it formed the first letter of the future spouses name.[37] Nuts were roasted on the hearth and their behavior interpreted – if the nuts stayed together, so would the couple. Egg whites were dropped in water, and the shapes foretold the number of future children. Children would also chase crows and divine some of these things from the number of birds or the direction they flew.[2][27][30] As noted earlier, Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when spirits or fairies (the aos sí) could more easily come into our world. Many scholars see the aos sí as remnants of the pagan gods and nature spirits.[38][39] At Samhain, it was believed that the aos sí needed to be propitiated to ensure that the people and their livestock survived the harsh winter. As such, offerings of food and drink were left for the aos sí.[40][41] One custom—described a blatant example of a pagan rite surviving into the Christian epoch—was observed in the Outer Hebrides until the early 19th century. On 31 October, the locals would go down to the shore. One man would wade into the water up to his waist, where he would pour out a cup of ale and ask Seonaidh (Shoney), whom he called god of the sea, to bestow blessings on them.[29] People also took special care not to offend the aos sí and sought to ward-off any who were out to cause mischief. They stayed near to home or, if forced to walk in the darkness, turned their clothing inside-out or carried iron or salt to keep them at bay.[17] The souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes. People would set a place at the Samhain feast for the souls of dead kinfolk and tell tales of ones forebears.[2][27] However, the souls of thankful kin could return to bestow blessings just as easily as that of a murdered person could return to wreak revenge.[42] A Mari Lwyd, the Welsh equivalent of the Láir Bhán Mumming and guising was a part of Samhain from at least the 16th century and was recorded in parts of Ireland, Scotland, Mann and Wales.[43] It involved people going from house to house in costume (or in disguise), often reciting songs in exchange for food.[43] The costumes may have been a way of imitating, or disguising oneself from, the aos sí.[43] McNeill writes that they may have originated in a folk-memory of the actual initiators at the Druidic feast, who, as masked men, represented spirits.[44] In Ireland, costumes were sometimes worn by those who went about before nightfall collecting for a Samhain feast.[43] In parts of southern Ireland during the 19th century, the guisers included a hobby horse known as the Láir Bhán (white mare). Someone covered in a white sheet and carrying a decorated horse skull (representing the Láir Bhán) would lead a group of youths, blowing on cow horns, from house to house. At each they recited verses, some of which savoured strongly of paganism, and those inside were expected to donate food and other gifts. The greater the donation, the greater the blessings that would be bestowed on them by the Muck Olla. This is akin to the Mari Lwyd (grey mare) procession in Wales. Some have linked this custom with pagan goddesses of sovereignty, who were often associated with white horses.[45] In some places, young people dressed as the opposite gender.[43] In Scotland, young men would dress in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces.[30][46] This was common in the 16th century in the Scottish countryside and persisted into the 20th.[47] Its suggested that the blackened faces comes from using the bonfires ashes for protection.[44] Elsewhere in Europe, costumes and mumming were part of other festivals, but may have been particularly appropriate to a night upon which supernatural beings were said to be abroad.[43] An Irish turnip lantern from the early 20th century at the Museum of Country Life Hutton writes: When imitating malignant spirits it was a very short step from guising to playing pranks. Playing pranks at Samhain is recorded in the Scottish Highlands as far back as 1736 and was also common in Ireland, which led to Samhain being nicknamed Mischief Night in some parts.[43] Guising and pranks at Halloween spread to England in the 20th century, though there had been mumming at other festivals.[43] At the time of mass transatlantic Irish and Scottish immigration, which popularized Halloween in North America, Halloween in Ireland and Scotland had a strong tradition of guising and pranks.[48] Trick-or-treating may have come from the custom of going door-to-door collecting food for Samhain feasts, fuel for Samhain bonfires and/or offerings for the aos sí. Alternatively, it may have come from the English All Saints/All Souls custom of collecting soul cakes. The traditional illumination for guisers or pranksters abroad on the night in some places was provided by turnips or mangel wurzels, hollowed out to act as lanterns and often carved with grotesque faces to represent spirits or goblins.[43] They may have also been used to protect oneself from harmful spirits.[46] These were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in 19th century.[43] They were also found in Somerset (see Punkie Night). In the 20th century they spread to other parts of England and became generally known as jack-o-lanterns.[43]
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 22:07:53 +0000
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