Many people celebrate events, such as Halloween, without thinking about their origins or true meaning.




Several hundred years before Christ, the Celts inhabited what is now France, Germany, England, Scotland and Ireland. Celtic priests were called Druids. These people were eventually conquered by the Romans. Information about the Celts and Druids came from Caesar and the Roman historians, Greek writings from about 200 B.C., and very early records found in Ireland which detail the Druids' use of magic to raise storms, lay curses on places, kill by the use of spells, create magical obstacles, and some even were said to perform human sacrifices.
Today a growing group of people are becoming fascinated with Celtic lore even to the extent of practicing their religion.

On a personal note, Stonehenge was once owned by my family according to our documented history.
This structure might have been used by the Druids in England.
I wonder if my family were once Druids?


Very little archaeological evidence of the Druids has been found, but there is agreement between Roman and Irish documents. Both clearly state that the knowledge of the Druids was never committed to writing but passed from generation to generation by oral teaching. This was to protect their secrets. The same is true today. Nothing is put into writing and the Druids continue on secretly with many of the same traditions.


Druid in ceremonial robes.




There were four "high days" celebrated by the Druids throughout the Celtic territories:
Samhain, Oimelc, Beltane & Lughnasadh.
These four major "holy days" are traditionally referred to as "fire festivals" because to the ancient Celts, as with all the European pagans, fire was a physical symbol of "divinity, holiness, truth, and beauty".
Sacred to them, fires were kindled on every important religious occasion and were also associated with the pagan holidays to symbolize and worship the power of the sun. To this very day, among Eastern and Western pagan based religions, you can't have a satisfying pagan ritual without a bonfire or a few candles being lit.





Samhain or "Samhuinn" pronounced "sow-en" (The word sow pronounced like cow) to the pagans was and is the most important of the fire festivals, because it marks the Celtic New Year. Samhain was the original festival that became "All Saint's Day" after Rome conquered these pagan lands and renamed many of their festivals giving them "Christian" names. Since the Celts, like many cultures, started every day at sunset of the night before, this became the evening of "All Hallows" or "hallowed" which was eventually contracted into "Hallow-e'en" or the modern "Halloween."


Pagans believed the dead walked the Earth during Samhain.




Among other things, Samhain was considered among pagans a very magical time, when the spirits of the dead walk among the living and the veils between past, present and future were lifted. They believed this time had to do with a temporary victory of the forces of darkness over those of light, signaling the beginning of the cold and dark half of the year. They believed these spirits of the dead were "trick-bent" or harmful and were believed to assume grotesque appearances. Traditions then developed that if one could costume himself to look like a spirit, the spirits would not be able to plague him. Some traditions said the spirits could be warded off by carving a grotesque face into a gourd or root vegetable such as a turnip or large potato and setting a lit candle inside. Pumpkins, an American native, were not used as "jack-o-lanterns" until the late 1800's when Halloween was brought to America by Irish and English immigrants.



Samhain, from October 31st to November 2nd was a time of chaos. Celtic society, like all early societies, was highly structured and organized and everyone knew their place. But to allow that order to continue, the Celts felt that there had to be a time when order and structure were abolished, when chaos could reign. Samhain, was such a time. During this festival people did crazy things. Men and women dressed in costume, farmer's gates were unhinged and left in ditches and their crops would be damaged, and people's horses and livestock were moved to different fields. Children would knock on their neighbor's doors for food and treats to appease the "spirits" much like the way we still find today, in the modern custom of trick-or-treating on Halloween night.
Well... We know the history of Halloween. What now?