The ghosts of the dead return
With it being this time of the year, I did a little bit of research to find out what this Halloween lark is all about. What I found out would make you wonder about the kind of people our ancestors were and the type of imaginations they had. They must have been a little demented when you look at some of the festivals and rituals that they came up with.
It seems that Halloween dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, marked the end of summer and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, as a time of year that was often associated with death. They believed that was the time when the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred so on the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when they believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. Why they wanted to come back is unclear to me but presumably it had something to do with having a laugh at our expense.
The Irish are to blame
The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low so there was always a fear of going hungry. Many people were also afraid of the dark so the short days of winter were full of stress. Halloween was when people thought that they would meet ghosts if they left their homes after dark so that added another worry. To avoid being recognized by the ghosts, people would wear masks when they went out so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. People placed bowls of food outside their homes to keep ghosts away from their houses.
When America was flooded with millions of Irish who were trying to escape from the potato famine, the tradition of Halloween took hold. Americans began to dress up in costumes and would go from house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became what we know today as the “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they would see the name or the face of their future husband by doing tricks with wool, apple skins or mirrors.
How to pick a partner
All Souls’ Day is on 2nd November, and this is an opportunity for Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholic churches to remember the faithful departed and they get a chance to say a few prayers for the souls of the people who are in Purgatory. This is the place in which those who have died have to make amends for their minor sins before they get to go into Heaven. It’s a little bit like a waiting room if you like and the idea is that when a soul leaves the body, it is not fully free from sin so you have to wait for a bit in Purgatory before you get to meet God.
There was also a belief that during Halloween, if a young woman ate a sugary substance made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before she went to bed that night she would dream about her future husband. Young girls tried different ways of trying to identify their future husband and one of those involved throwing apple-peels over their shoulders. It was said that when the peels would fall on the floor, they would form the shape of their future husbands’ initials. They also tried to learn about their future partners by standing in front of mirrors in dark rooms while holding candles and looking over their shoulders to see if they could find their future husbands’ faces.
I suspect that a few of these practices might still be in use today because some of the pairings I have encountered over the years could only be explained by the use of strange substances, dark rooms and a bit of witchcraft.