Subj : Origins of Halloween 2/5 To : All From : Rachel L. Akers Date : Thu Oct 19 2000 10:10 pm (continued) The Real Origins of Halloween Version 3.5.4, copyright © 1997, 1999 c.e. by Isaac Bonewits Evil Ancient Druids and old Sam Hain | You will often read in the Cartoon frame claiming "If | hate literature published the treat pleased the | by Satanic Panic-ers (such as druids ... they would | the infamous tracts and comic leave a Jack O'lantern | books from multimillionaire with a lighted candle made | publisher Jack Chick) that, of human fat to protect | "Samhain was the Celtic God those inside from being | of the Dead, worshipped by killed by Demons that | the Druids with dreadful night. | bloody sacrifices at | Halloween." Chick embroiders Caption: Imaginary "druids" | this error in a tract drag a virgin princess | called "The Trick" and a away from her castle to be | fullsized comic book sacrificed on Halloween | called, "Spellbound?" (a night to the dreaded Sam | panel of which is shown Hain. | here.) Chick describes Ancient Evil Druids going from castle-door-to-door seeking virgin princesses to rape and sacrifice. These comic book villians would leave carved pumpkins with candles ("made from human fat!") in them for those who cooperated, and arrange demonic assassinations for those who refused to give them what they wanted.This, according to Mr. Chick, is supposed to be the "true" origin of trick or treating -- of course he also publishes tracts insisting that Catholics aren't Christians, that all non-Christians are Devil-worshippers, and that the entire rock-and-roll record industry is run by Satanists who cast a curse on every record before it's released! (Can you imagine the logistics nightmare of trying to get a group together to curse even one new album in a hundred, out of the thousands released every year, let alone all of them?) Let's look at a few historical facts: * Paleopagan Druidism in Ireland and the British Isles was wiped out by Christianity long before anyone was building medieval castles with "princesses" in them. * Virginity simply wasn't as important to European Paleopagans as some would assume -- except for occasional political purposes -- and was certainly a condition that lusty Celtic women had little problem removing in pre-Christian days. * Since half of the Paleopagan Druid caste were women, it's highly unlikely that these historically strong and assertive Celtic women would have allowed their husbands, fathers and sons to get away with raping and murdering women of any caste on a regular basis -- whether virgins or not! * There's a distinct lack of historical or archeological evidence that the ancient Druids ever sacrificed anyone other than criminals, prisoners-of-war, or volunteers -- if them. The human sacrifices called "missions," "inquisitions," "crusades," and "pograms," however, have killed innocent men, women and children by the millions -- and this is very well proven by mainstream historians. * The pumpkin is a New World plant that never grew in Europe until modern times, so it couldn't have been | Image of pumpkin used to make jack-o-lanterns by the Druids. | Human fat (so I'm told by a biologist) would make a lousy candle fuel even if anyone were psychotic enough to try. Apparently turnips were used to make lanterns in Ireland, and I said in earlier versions of this essay that one would need some darned big turnips to make jack-o-lanterns, but I've been informed by several former or current Irish residents that Ireland does, indeed, grow some mighty big turnips! They tell me they were used for lanterns in previous generations, and that they are much harder to carve than pumpkins, which is probably why Irish immigrants to North America switched to using the lattrer. I'm unaware of any historical references to the turnips being used as jack-o-lanterns in Ireland until modern times, or of the turnips being used in any of the many other Celtic territories where the Druids once worshipped. Stay tuned for further developments. * There's zero evidence that the ancient Druids or their congregants ever dressed in costume or engaged in ritualized begging at harvest time. It's possible, but by no means certain, that this was a Paleopagan custom. (see later in this essay for medieval and modern customs of this). As for the dark medieval monks' robes depicted by Chick in his comics, since the ancient Druids considered white their caste color and brown or black the color associated with the servant caste, they probably wouldn't have been caught, you should pardon the expression, "dead" in them! * There is no historical or archeological evidence of any Celtic deity, of the dead or any other topic, named "Samhain." We know the names of some 350 Celtic deities from all over Europe and the Celtic Isles, and "Old Sam Hain" ain't one of 'em. * Major dictionaries of Celtic Languages don't mention any "Samhain" deity either: McBain's Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language says that "samhuinn" (the Scots Gaelic spelling) means "Hallow-tide" (the holiday), probably from roots meaning "summer's end;" with a possible derivation from the annual assembly at Tara every November 1st. MacFarlane's School Gaelic Dictionary defines it simply as "Hallowtide." I have several Irish/English dictionaries in my home, and they all say that "samhain" or "La Samhna" (to use the Irish spellings) is the first of November, or the month of November, or "Hallowtide/Halloween." So where do Satanic Panic-ers get their weird beliefs about Halloween? One correspondant asked me, "How can these things never happen if so many people preach that it does? ... Where would Christians get these ideas if they weren't fact?" The short answer, of course, is that preachers are people and (1) all people make mistakes, (2) some people are ignorant, and (3) others just tell lies. After all, lots of people used to believe that the Earth was flat and that the sun moved around the Earth,. The Church quoted scriptures to "prove" these beliefs and burned early scientists at the stake for disagreeing. Yet merely saying, "They're lying to you," though true, can easily be thrown back into our own faces, if it's only a matter of one group's word against another (assuming neither group can get away with silencing the other). A more useful answer, one with the weight of solid academic research behind it, will take us a bit more time. The sources of information that Satanic Panic-ers use are few: (1) books written over a century ago, especially Two Babylons or the Papal Worship, a work of anti-Catholic propaganda written in 1873 by Alexander Hislop, and a book by a man named Godfrey Higgins, The Celtic Druids, published in 1827; (2) decades-old editions of encyclopedias which simply quote Hislop or Higgins; (3) sermons, books and broadcasts by so-called "Ex-Grand-High-Druid-Witch experts" on the occult -- all of whom turn out to be phonies and often criminals as well; and (4) decades of sermons by pastors repeating unquestioningly the statements made by other pastors before them. An essay called Halloween: Myths, Monsters & Devils, by W.J. Bethancourt III, contains a superb and detailed analysis of Satanic Panic-ers' literature on the topic (his Bibliography page should not be skipped either). His essay says, among many other interesting things: As for "Samhain" or "Saman" being the 'lord of the dead,' this is a gross fallacy that seems to have been perpetuated in the late 18th and 19th centuries CE. I have found it in Higgins (first published in 1827, and trying to prove the Druids emigrated to Ireland from India!) where he quotes a Col. Charles Vallency (later a General, who was trying to prove that the Irish were decended from the inhabitants of Armenia!!!) Higgins also refers to an author named "Pictet," who gives this name as that of a god, associating the word with "sabhan," (which word I cannot find in any Gaelic dictionary at mydisposal) and trying for a connection with "Bal-sab," to prove a Sun god and Biblical association. The full title of Higgins' book (leaving out the solid capital letters) is: The Celtic Druids; or, An Attempt to shew, that the Druids were the priests of oriental colonies who emigrated from India, and were the introducers of the first or Cadmean system of letters, and the builders of Stonehenge, of Carnac, and of other cyclopean works, in Asia and Europe. Browsing through the facsimile 1829 edition of Higgins' book (published by Kessinger Publishing, LLC, Kila MT), it quickly becomes clear that the Honorable Godfrey Higgins, Esq. while astute enough to notice the similarities between the Sanscrit, Latin and Irish languages, was working without the tools or knowledge of those disciplines which were to become known as linguistics, anthropology, archeology, or indeed any modern social or physical science. He made up for his ignorance with an obsession to reconcile what he knew of Celtic languages, cultures and history with Semetic languages, cultures and (the Christian Bible's version of) history. The results, despite his prescient guesses about what would someday be known as the Indo-European languages and the common Indo-European clergy caste, are so far off the mark about almost every subject he touched upon, as to appear pathetic to even the most charitible modern scholar. Pardon me if the following seems a long digression, but the influence of this author's book has been so long lasting and so pernicious to the reputations of the ancient Druids, and of Halloween, that it's reasonable to quote several key paragraphs. Here, set in light brown type to distinguish it from real scholarship, or my own opinions, is what Higgins has to say about "Samhan or Bal-Sab" in Chapter V, Section XVII: The God Samhan is placed by M. Pictet ["of Geneva, a learned friend of the author's"] at the head of his double series, withthe following explanation: Samhan eadhon Ceisil, eadhon Giolla; Samhan, that is to say the evil spirit, (Satan,) that is to say, the Serviteur. Samhan appears to have been one of the Gods, the most revered, in Ireland. An annual solemnity was instituted to his honour, which is yet celebrated on the evening of the first day of November; which yet at this day is called the Oidhche Samhna, or the night of Samhan. This solemnity was consecrated by the Druids, to the intercession of the living for the souls of those who had died the year preceding, or in the current year. For, according to their doctrine, Samhan called before him these souls, and passed them to the mansions of the blessed, or returned them to a re-existence here, as a punishment for their crimes. He was also called Bal-Sab or Lord of Death. It was probably this epithet which induced the commentator to call Samhan by the name of Ceisil, which, in modern Irish, means devil. Samhan was also the Sun, or rather the image of the sun. This word is found in many Semitic languages: in Arabic, Schams, the sun; Hebrew, sms; Chaldean, smsa; Syrian, Schemscho; in Pehlvi, Schemsia; in Sanscrit, Hamsa, the sun. The Sun was the first object of worship of all the Heathens, either as Creator, or as an emblem or Shekinah of the Divinity. The attributes of Samhan seem at first contradictory, but they are not unusual amongst the Heathen Gods. With the Greeks, Dionysos, the good Demiurge, is identified with Hades. In Egypt, Osiris was the Lord of death; with the Scandinavians, Odin, the God beneficent, was, at the same time, king of the infernal regions. This deity was above all others whom we have named [in the preceding sections], but he was below the supreme being Baal. If Samhan were the Sun, as we see he was, he answers to Mithra of the Persians, who was the middle link between Oromasdes and Arimanius -- between the Creator and the Destroyer, and was called the preserver. Schelling says, the Irish doctrine was, that souls did not descend to the severe Zeus, (Pluto, the Jupiter of the Styx,) but that they ascended to the merciful Osiris. Such is the meaning of the Irish Samhan, who is a merciful judge, not deciding by his caprice, but holding his power from the God Supreme, of whom he is the image. In all this is a curious mixture of physical and moral doctrines. I will leave as an exercise for the reader to count all the outright mistakes and obvious lapses in logic. That some Fundamentalist Christians should, to this very day, use such an abyssmal example of obsolete scholarship -- he thought Irish was a dialect of Hebrew, and the Celts descendents of Moses for crying out loud! -- as a primary source for their anti-Halloween propaganda, shows just how desperate they are. For the real origins of Halloween customs and the identity of "Samhain," we have to look a great deal deeper than Christian comic books, 19th century fantasies/speculations, or Sunday morning sermons to investigate the Paleopagan and Neopagan Celtic and Germanic calendars. --- Msged/2 4.00 * Origin: Elfwhere - The POINTy eared POINT (3:640/531.2379) .