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Mini: Traditions of Samhain · Why We Do What We Do

0:03
Speaker 1: You're listening to Why We Do What We Do. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to Why We Do What We Do Mini. I'm your host, Abraham.
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Speaker 2: And I'm your host, Shane.
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Speaker 1: Maybe I should have said mini in Bela Lugosi form
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Speaker 1: because this is October month. Which means we do spooky topics.
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Speaker 1: Even in our minis, there's spooky topics. Because why not?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not getting away.
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Speaker 1: That's right. There's no escape. It must be spooky all
0:41
Speaker 1: the way through. A whole month of Halloween is the
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Speaker 1: way we'd like it to be the case. Uh-huh. And
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Speaker 1: speaking of which, we did an episode on the history
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Speaker 1: of Halloween in 2021. It's five years ago. And in it,
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Speaker 1: we mentioned this topic that we're talking about today of Samhain.
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Speaker 1: And of course we would, because that is the foundation
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Speaker 1: upon which Halloween was developed. But we didn't spend as
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Speaker 1: much time on some of the specific Samhain traditions and
1:06
Speaker 1: kind of wanted to take a mini to dig into
1:09
Speaker 1: those a little bit further. But If you're joining us
1:12
Speaker 1: for the first time, welcome. A mini is a short
1:14
Speaker 1: episode that we do where we release them on Mondays.
1:16
Speaker 1: They're 15 minutes or less. At least that's our goal.
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Speaker 1: And yeah, so hopefully you enjoy what you hear in
1:21
Speaker 1: this discussion. If you're a returning person, then welcome back.
1:24
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Speaker 1: us on Patreon. I'll talk more about those things at
1:34
Speaker 1: the end of this discussion. But this is a mini,
1:37
Speaker 1: which means we need to go quick. Get in there,
1:39
Speaker 1: get out of there, let you go about your spooky
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Speaker 1: filled month or day, week, hour, whatever it is you're doing.
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Speaker 1: So we're talking about the traditions of Samhain, spelled S-A-M-H-A-I-N.
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Speaker 1: Gaelic sort of word. Yeah. That's how that pronunciation works.
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Speaker 1: But Samhain is what we're talking about. Yeah.
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Speaker 2: So we're going to talk about the traditions, ideas, and myths.
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Speaker 2: Kind of like a mini nostalgia, but with more detail
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Speaker 2: than the original. So an addendum. It's one of those
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Speaker 2: things where it's like, this episode could serve many functions.
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Speaker 1: Can.
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Speaker 2: But all you need to know is that we are
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Speaker 2: going to talk about Samhain.
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Speaker 1: Also, what you'll need to know is that there is
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Speaker 1: a lot more to talk about in this than maybe
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Speaker 1: warranted a mini. So we're going to... It's possible we'll
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Speaker 1: run a little bit longer. We'll have to leave some
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Speaker 1: things out to get to this discussion. So in service
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Speaker 1: of being as expeditious as we can, let's jump in.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Early history of Samhain here. All right. So to set
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Speaker 1: the context, in human history, one of, if not the
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Speaker 1: most important things in like all of human history is food.
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Speaker 1: It has been... so important. And until we had too
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Speaker 1: much of it, but even still, like, I think it
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Speaker 1: is still very, very important today, even with the abundance,
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Speaker 1: the embarrassment of riches that we find ourselves in with
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Speaker 1: respect to food, we can now feed every person on
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Speaker 1: earth if we wanted to, which apparently we don't. But
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Speaker 1: food has been a critically important thing that has driven
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Speaker 1: much of human behavior, innovation, development, economy, all of those things.
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Speaker 1: Wars were fought over food. Food, food, food, food, food.
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Speaker 1: And the overwhelming majority of calories for ancient peoples came
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Speaker 1: from food that was either grown or foraged. We like
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Speaker 1: to believe we hunted all of our food. The world
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Speaker 1: would not have sustained that. And it is very difficult
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Speaker 1: to do. Most of our calories, most of them, and
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Speaker 1: by the most, I mean almost all, came from food
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Speaker 1: that was grown or was foraged. So many traditions and holidays...
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Speaker 1: that developed in cultures around the world revolved around food.
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Speaker 1: And particularly once agricultural practices were established, that these meant
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Speaker 1: that there were windfalls of specific foods at specific times
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Speaker 1: of year. And so during these, like as foods became
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Speaker 1: available because they were seasonal, that would then, there would
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Speaker 1: be holidays specifically around those types of foods.
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Speaker 2: Right, so this was the precedent upon which Samhain was
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Speaker 2: established in ancient Celtic traditions. There were two major seasonal
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Speaker 2: celebrations for the Celtic people. Beltane, I think that's how
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Speaker 2: it's pronounced, right?
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Speaker 1: I think it's maybe Beltane, because I think A-I always
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Speaker 1: says I. Also, it's Celtic, because all the C's are
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Speaker 1: hard and Gaelic.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, which is so frustrating, because the Boston
4:33
Speaker 2: Celtics are a basketball team, but apparently it's the Boston Celtics. So, okay,
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Speaker 2: so the Celtic people. One of the holidays or the
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Speaker 2: celebrations is Beltane on May 1st and Samhain October 31st
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Speaker 2: through November 1st, which marked the end of harvest season
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Speaker 2: and the halfway point between the autumn equinox and the
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Speaker 2: winter solstice and the beginning of the dark half of
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Speaker 2: the year.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. And to be fair, I think people are going
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Speaker 1: to hear this and say, no, Celtic is correct. And
5:02
Speaker 1: you're right. There are different ways to pronounce this in
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Speaker 1: different parts of the world, but in traditional Gaelic, C
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Speaker 1: is always hard, so Celtic. Yeah.
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Speaker 2: All right.
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Speaker 1: All right. And we're talking about ancient peoples here. So
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Speaker 1: we're just going to stick with the best pronunciations as
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Speaker 1: close as we can. So we're talking about this transition period.
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Speaker 1: It's the end of the autumn harvest. This is where
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Speaker 1: they're doing sort of the big harvest for all the foods.
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Speaker 1: And so there's often a big feast. Obviously, a lot
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Speaker 1: of food is stored as much as possible, which means salted, smoked, cured,
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Speaker 1: other ways of storing food, pickled in parts of the world,
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Speaker 1: depending on where you're at. Anyway, there's this big harvest
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Speaker 1: and therefore a big feast. But during this transition period,
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Speaker 1: it was believed that the veil between the living and
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Speaker 1: the dead was at its thinnest. Whatever separates the living
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Speaker 1: from the dead, that gossamer fabric becomes so thin it
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Speaker 1: basically can be passed through and ghosts and monsters will
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Speaker 1: walk among us during this transition period. I read about
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Speaker 1: some other Celtic traditions that reviewed a lot of things
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Speaker 1: as transitions. So like between land and water was an
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Speaker 1: important transition space that also had some important significance. And
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Speaker 1: that they had times of year were obviously similar. In
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Speaker 1: some tellings of the tradition, there was also a belief
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Speaker 1: that on Samhain, at this transition period, time itself becomes
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Speaker 1: less linear and more of a nebulous concept, maybe a
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Speaker 1: flat circle, if you will, which did allow for a
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Speaker 1: more easy ability to view into the future, particularly those
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Speaker 1: people who were born with the gift of being able
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Speaker 1: to do so. We'll talk a little bit more about
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Speaker 1: that later, though.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of those times where there's a lot
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Speaker 2: of mysticism and a lot of spirituality and a lot
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Speaker 2: of tradition that happens. Kind of like whenever we hit
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Speaker 2: the six to seven minute mark in a mini, we
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Speaker 2: usually put an ad. That's our transition time for this episode.
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Speaker 1: So we allowed the ghosts and more importantly, the monsters
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Speaker 1: into this podcast during the transition, which is in the
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Speaker 1: form of ad, which is a monster. Mm-hmm. Okay, so yeah,
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Speaker 1: we were just describing before the break, though, that Samhain
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Speaker 1: represented the transition from essentially autumn to winter, and that
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Speaker 1: this is sort of the last harvest period, and there's
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Speaker 1: a big feast, and the demarcation between living and dead
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Speaker 1: was at its most gossamer and thin. Yes.
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Speaker 2: So, during the harvest, hearth fires burned in the home,
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Speaker 2: and other small fires such as candles and coals and
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Speaker 2: hollowed-out turnips were placed around near their doors and on
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Speaker 2: their little areas.
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Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
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Speaker 2: Druid priests created a communal fire by turning a wheel
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Speaker 2: that created flames through friction. The wheel itself represented the
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Speaker 2: sun and the cyclical nature of seasons in the year.
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Speaker 1: So, Druid priests, part of the religion of this, would
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Speaker 1: actually help perform these sort of ritualistic pagan ceremonial things.
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Speaker 1: There are a couple other things that were important in
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Speaker 1: these traditions, and a lot of them were around food,
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Speaker 1: particularly food that they're harvesting at this time of year.
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Speaker 1: And there was apples, pumpkins, and hazelnuts were big. There
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Speaker 1: were others as well, but those are some big ones
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Speaker 1: that you'll see. Apples in particular were very important during Samhain.
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Speaker 1: People would peel apples. So maidens would peel apples and
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Speaker 1: they would then throw the peel over their shoulder. And
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Speaker 1: it was then believed to fall into the shape of
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Speaker 1: the first initial of the name of the person that
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Speaker 1: maiden would then later potentially marry or fall in love with.
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Speaker 1: So that was if you wanted to predict your future spouse,
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Speaker 1: your husband, then maidens would throw the apple peel over
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Speaker 1: their shoulder and it would land probably in an S.
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Speaker 1: For Seamus.
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Speaker 2: Or Sean or Shane. There's lots of Seans.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and Shane.
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Speaker 2: Seans and Seans. Lots of Seans and Seans.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's what the apple peel would do.
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Speaker 2: That's so funny, too, to think about, because an apple
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Speaker 2: peel would naturally make that shape, because it's... Yeah, I'd.
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Speaker 1: Be interested if it formed an X explicitly, and you're like, X? Xavier!
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and apples, yeah, right? Apples were also thrown into
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Speaker 2: a barrel of water and people would dunk their head
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Speaker 2: and attempt to retrieve the apples with their teeth, bringing
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Speaker 2: good fortune for the next year.
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Speaker 1: You maybe have heard of this bobbing for apples tradition.
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Speaker 1: It has survived all of this time.
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Speaker 2: Uh-huh.
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Speaker 1: Now, early on, and we mentioned this in our history
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Speaker 1: of Halloween episode, early on, they would hollow out large
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Speaker 1: turnips and they would then put candles inside of them.
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Speaker 1: And these were called jack-o'-lanterns. So this is a tradition.
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Speaker 1: They would hollow out these turnips. They would put the
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Speaker 1: candles inside. And this also did mean that like when
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Speaker 1: the candle burned out, it wouldn't also burn down whatever
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Speaker 1: structure it was in. So I think there was a
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Speaker 1: practical matter of the turnip serving as like a plate
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Speaker 1: to put a candle on where it was also wet
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Speaker 1: inside and the candle could not also burn your house down.
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Speaker 1: They also, as part of these traditions, then started carving
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Speaker 1: these turnips into the shape of skulls or other potential
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Speaker 1: sort of macabre-like things. And then these were, of course,
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Speaker 1: later replaced with pumpkins that they would hollow out and
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Speaker 1: put cannabinoids. inside and then carve their faces into these
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Speaker 1: things and continue to call them jack-o-lanterns.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so fun. Now, hazel trees and hawthorn trees
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Speaker 2: were also very important in Celtic cultures. Hazelnuts were placed
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Speaker 2: into a fire with initials of town bachelors on some
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Speaker 2: and available maidens on others. And then as they opened
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Speaker 2: in the flames, it indicated who might marry whom. Or
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Speaker 2: two hazelnuts representing two people were placed in the fire.
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Speaker 2: And if they stayed together, it foretold a successful marriage.
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Speaker 2: If they jumped away from the heat, it represented a
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Speaker 2: doomed relationship.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, they sometimes called them sweetheart hazels.
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Speaker 2: Okay.
10:35
Speaker 1: As these predictors of a future relationship. But yeah, hazelnuts...
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Speaker 1: were used as part of the foretelling of things. So yeah,
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Speaker 1: those are the apples, pumpkins, and hazelnuts. Hazelnut trees were
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Speaker 1: very important, or hazel trees were very important. Hawthorne trees
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Speaker 1: were represented portals to the other world sometimes and would
10:54
Speaker 1: be often planted in strategic locations meant to be like,
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Speaker 1: this is where we are expecting sort of the dead
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Speaker 1: to congregate.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about, speaking of the dead, let's
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Speaker 1: talk about the dead and of some monsters. Ooh. Yes.
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Speaker 1: So because that the separation between worlds was so thin
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Speaker 1: between the living and the dead, the veil, if you will,
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Speaker 1: it was believed that ghostly revenants could walk amongst the
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Speaker 1: living during this time. But it was in this case,
11:22
Speaker 1: ghosts were essentially physical entities. And so they did not
11:25
Speaker 1: have the power to move through objects. And they also
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Speaker 1: appreciated food because that's what all of things were about
11:32
Speaker 1: at all times in human history. So saints, also called
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Speaker 1: the hallowed ones, were to be honored during this time.
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Speaker 1: They called it the eve of the hallowed ones or
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Speaker 1: actually all hallows eve or actually halloween. Mm-hmm. which was
11:48
Speaker 1: the words for it. So that's where we get the
11:50
Speaker 1: word Halloween. The ghosts of the dead, ancient dead, as
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Speaker 1: well as recently departed loved ones would potentially be available
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Speaker 1: to us, our hallowed ones, our saints, and we would
12:01
Speaker 1: honor them during this time.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, many people would also seek out the services
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Speaker 2: of the Tiveshore, which is spelled T-A-I-B-H-S-E-A-R, which like, okay,
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Speaker 2: so the last part of that, S-E-A-R, which is shore, right?
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Speaker 2: That's how you say shore in Celtic. Makes sense, because
12:20
Speaker 2: if you've ever seen, if you've ever met anybody named
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Speaker 2: Sean and it's spelled S-E-A-N, that's kind of like the
12:26
Speaker 2: same thing. That's very like traditional Gaelic.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: So they would seek out the tithe shore who would
12:31
Speaker 2: perform ceremonies to read the future of the supplicant who
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Speaker 2: paid to have their future read.
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Speaker 1: They might do this by cracking open an egg and
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Speaker 1: letting some of the egg white go into a cup
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Speaker 1: of a glass of water, a cup of water, and
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Speaker 1: then they would read the shapes it would make. But yes,
12:46
Speaker 1: the Tive sure were the people who had the gift
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Speaker 1: of seeing into the future. And it was particularly easy
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Speaker 1: for them to do this when time became nebulous. Right.
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Speaker 1: And so they could predict the future a little bit.
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Speaker 1: And that was something that people would pay for. And
13:00
Speaker 1: they would even do these sometimes in like big group performances.
13:04
Speaker 1: So it's basically a bunch of magic tricks. Yeah. They
13:06
Speaker 1: also use sleight of hand and stuff like that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
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Speaker 1: Because the dead were among us at this time and
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Speaker 1: they were often our loved ones, it was common to
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Speaker 1: leave doors open so that the dead may enter the
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Speaker 1: homes and join in the feast. And to that point,
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Speaker 1: people would even set place settings with food on them
13:21
Speaker 1: at the table so that the dead who wished to
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Speaker 1: may come sit down and eat with the living. But
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Speaker 1: an important part of this is that the dead cannot speak.
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Speaker 1: So they called these dumb suppers, which meant silent suppers,
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Speaker 1: because that's what that meant at the time for them.
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Speaker 1: And during these, everyone ate in silence. And they would
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Speaker 1: generally avoid looking at the places where they might be
13:45
Speaker 1: dead persons sitting there eating their dinner because they didn't
13:48
Speaker 1: want to behold the ghosts of the dead. Maybe it
13:50
Speaker 1: was considered also irreverence to do this. So they would
13:54
Speaker 1: put out these plates. They would not say anything. They
13:56
Speaker 1: would eat in silence and let the ghosts eat in
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Speaker 1: silence alongside them. And their ancestors and their saints would
14:02
Speaker 1: eat with them, but they would leave their doors open
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Speaker 1: so that the dead could join because the dead cannot
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Speaker 1: walk through doors.
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Speaker 2: Yep, that's true. Now, after dinner, the uneaten plates were
14:10
Speaker 2: taken outside and left in the forest for the Pookas. Pookas? Pookas. Pookas. Pookas.
14:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, like puka shells.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, a shape-shifting monster. There was also the headless Lady
14:20
Speaker 2: Gwyn and her pet black pig, both of whom might
14:23
Speaker 2: chase away night wanderers. The Dullahan, a death omen, which
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Speaker 2: was a headless rider carrying their own head while mounted
14:30
Speaker 2: on a horse with flames coming out of his eyes.
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Speaker 2: So the dual hand would ride through the towns maybe
14:35
Speaker 2: or would be about. But that was also another thing
14:39
Speaker 2: that we would see around this time.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, monsters of the forest that, and then sort of
14:43
Speaker 1: out in the fields, if you saw them, it was about,
14:46
Speaker 1: you wanted to avoid the headless woman with her pig,
14:48
Speaker 1: or the headless, lots of headless things going on here. Yeah.
14:53
Speaker 1: There was also a fairy host called the Slow, spelled S-L-A-U-G-H.
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Speaker 1: This is a group of monsters said to kidnap people
15:01
Speaker 1: and steal their souls. There was also a group called
15:04
Speaker 1: the She, spelled S-I-D-H, sometimes referred to as, also maybe
15:09
Speaker 1: called Banshees. and other traditions of this. But these were
15:13
Speaker 1: like sort of a fairy-like thing that would also try
15:16
Speaker 1: to kidnap people. And because these monsters were out and about,
15:20
Speaker 1: the children would dress as ghosts and monsters. They might
15:23
Speaker 1: wear masks. And this way, they would trick these monsters into,
15:28
Speaker 1: in particular, the she, into thinking that they were just
15:31
Speaker 1: monsters among the monsters, and they would then avoid being kidnapped.
15:35
Speaker 1: So to prevent the monsters from doing their havoc, you
15:38
Speaker 1: dressed as the monsters and the monsters would think that
15:40
Speaker 1: you were just part of their, their horde. And so
15:43
Speaker 1: that's where some of the traditions of costumes come from.
15:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, in Samhain mythology, a fire-breathing underworld
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Speaker 2: monster known as Ailin, spelled A-I-L-L-E-N, would emerge during Samhain
15:55
Speaker 2: and burn down the Hall of Terra. But the ancient
15:58
Speaker 2: hero Fionn Mach Cuvill, Cuvill spelled C-U-M-H-A-I-L-L, stays awake and
16:06
Speaker 2: defeats Ailin with a magical spear.
16:09
Speaker 1: Yes. All right. We've gone so long for a mini,
16:11
Speaker 1: but those are some traditions of Samhain. We missed several
16:14
Speaker 1: that are out there, but those are some of the
16:17
Speaker 1: big ones that I wanted to get to that I
16:18
Speaker 1: thought were a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed the
16:21
Speaker 1: silent dinners that people would do, as well as some
16:24
Speaker 1: of the stuff with apples. And I thought it was
16:28
Speaker 1: very cute with the hazelnuts that they would put in fires.
16:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, sweetheart.
16:31
Speaker 1: So, yes, the sweetheart hazelnuts. So we're going to go
16:34
Speaker 1: ahead and wrap this up here because we're trying to
16:36
Speaker 1: get this mini out the door for you and call
16:38
Speaker 1: this one good. If you would like to tell us
16:40
Speaker 1: your thoughts... or anything that we missed that we could
16:42
Speaker 1: also read as part of a listener mail on a
16:44
Speaker 1: future episode about traditions of Samhain, please feel free to
16:47
Speaker 1: reach out to us. You can email us directly info
16:49
Speaker 1: at WWD, WWD podcast.com or on the social media platforms.
16:54
Speaker 1: If you're joining us for the first time, thank you
16:55
Speaker 1: for listening. We're glad that you were here. Uh, if
16:57
Speaker 1: you're a returning person, then thank you for joining us again.
17:00
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17:01
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17:13
Speaker 1: you taking the time to listen to us today. I
17:15
Speaker 1: feel like I'm missing something. Oh, thank you to my
17:16
Speaker 1: team of people for helping me do this thing. Shane,
17:19
Speaker 1: what am I missing? What do I need to add here?
17:21
Speaker 2: I think that covers it. Happy Halloween, folks.
17:24
Speaker 1: Happy Halloween. Is there anything you'd like to add?
17:25
Speaker 2: No, not today.
17:26
Speaker 1: All right, thanks. This is Abraham.
17:28
Speaker 2: This is Shane.
17:29
Speaker 1: Why We Do What We Do Mini is out.
17:31
Speaker 2: Bye.
17:32
Speaker 1: You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
17:35
Speaker 2: You can learn more about this and other episodes by
17:38
Speaker 2: going to www.wwdpodcast.com. Thanks for listening, and we hope you
17:43
Speaker 2: have an awesome day.