What is the history of Halloween?

What is the true history of Halloween?

• I have heard many stories on Halloween origins, but I don't know if I believe those...they sound as made up as the holiday has become. So, what do you think the TRUE origins of ...show more

• Answer:

  http://www.wyrdwords.vispa.com/halloween/history/index.html Hallowe'en is short for All Hallows Eve which means it is the Eve of All Saints Day.The name originated in Britain, probably Scotland. All Saints Day was founded over 1000 years ago by the Catholic church as a celebration of Saints known and unknown who did not have a special day of their own. A bit later the church added All Souls on November 2 so together all those who have died are commemorated - they became known in many place as the "Days of the Dead" - but in a good way, people to be celebrated and prayed for, not feared. People developed lots of customs around the festivals. However, during the 17th century, Puritans in Britain decided that anything Catholic was wicked. They banned the church celebrations and denounced anyone who kept up their folk customs accusing them of witchcraft, devil worship or paganism. Many of the original settlers of America were Puritans so this idea became the dominant one in the USA and, although some later immigrants brought their All Saints customs along, these were also tarred with the "pagan" brush. Even today, Latin Americans who bring their Catholic "Days of the Dead" celebrations into the USA are said to be doing something pagan. These descriptions of the Catholic festival being "pagan" lead 19th and 20th century folklorists to go looking for its "pagan" past. They eventually dug up, in 11th century Irish myths, a description of a warrior feast on the "Eve of Samhain" (Samhain means November, perhaps from Summer's End). They ignored the fact that they weren't written until 400 years after Ireland became Christian, 200 years after All Saints started; that they were written by Christian monks who were familiar with All Saints as a special day; that the feast the describe is not religious at all. Instead they made up all sorts of stuff about it being a harvest festival, a celtic new year, a day of the dead. They invented stories about how the Celts used ALL the modern Hallowe'en customs. Here is a link to the actual original myth about a Samhain feast: http://www.luminarium.org/mythology/ireland/cuchulainnsick.htm Tongues anyone? 90% of the web sites which say that they describe the history of Hallowe'en are full of this alleged pagan crap. One of the few that takes a sensible view of it is this one: http://www.wyrdwords.vispa.com/halloween/history/index.html Which, interestingly, was written by a pagan. Another good source is a book by Professor Ronald Hutton called "Stations of the Sun" Edit: Mark - that stuff from the History channel is ALL 19th and 20th century invention. I have challenged them several times in e-mails about their nonsense and never received a response. Unless, of course, you can provide some original pre-Christian celtic evidence to back it up. I've posted the earliest I have been able to find, what have you got? And by the way All Souls is the day AFTER All Saints, not the Eve.