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Samhain E4: All Hallows Eve · Wild Kin: A Celtic Podcast

0:06
SPEAKER_00: Hi friend, welcome to Wild Kin.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Come sit by the fire as we reconnect to Celtic myths, one story at a time.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host Jess, and we're diving into the ancient festival of Samhain, known as Halloween.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: It's endured for thousands of years,
0:26
SPEAKER_00: and you might be surprised at how similar our holiday resembles its ancient
0:45
SPEAKER_00: She breathed in the scent of her mother's wool coat,
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SPEAKER_00: clinging to her sleeve to soften the ash and peat drifting from the bonfire before
1:23
With a full belly,
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the girl began to wander amongst them,
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glancing at young lovers wrapped up in each other,
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elders leaning forward in quiet discussion,
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and children laughing as they slipped in and out of the crowd.
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SPEAKER_00: She listened to the gossip and stories swirling around her,
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SPEAKER_00: many sharing tales of their loved ones now departed,
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SPEAKER_00: for they would soon be flitting amongst the living.
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SPEAKER_00: She hoped her father would be there too, watching them from the other side.
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Her eyes searched for him hungrily,
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stepping near the tree line as shadows stretched with the late evening sun.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: The warmth of the fire left her back as cool, crisp air brushed her face.
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SPEAKER_00: Darkness danced amongst the branches, though the light from the bonfire didn't stretch this far.
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SPEAKER_00: She could hear whispers from the trees, as if they were gossiping too.
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SPEAKER_00: She couldn't quite grasp what they were saying until she heard her name on the breeze.
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SPEAKER_00: They were calling to her.
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SPEAKER_00: Perhaps her father was there, just behind that tree.
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SPEAKER_00: She started forward,
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SPEAKER_00: the longing too great to stop her feet,
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SPEAKER_00: until she felt a hand wrap around her,
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SPEAKER_00: yanking her back.
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SPEAKER_00: It was her mother, chastising her for her foolishness,
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SPEAKER_00: for hadn't she said the spirits were out tonight,
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SPEAKER_00: that they were full of tricks?
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A horn sounded,
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the village chatter falling to silence as the elders took their place in front of
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SPEAKER_00: the sacred stones.
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SPEAKER_00: Now it was time to address them as they collectively stepped into the dark half of the year.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: The elders began,
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SPEAKER_00: speaking of the harvest,
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SPEAKER_00: of their bountiful year,
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SPEAKER_00: sown from the sweat and care of the people gathered here.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: They spoke of the health of the land,
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SPEAKER_00: the rivers flowing with sweet water into their fields,
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SPEAKER_00: their sacred springs full of life.
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SPEAKER_00: And with this sunset, the dead would now walk amongst them, their ancestors by their side,
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SPEAKER_00: as they all shared in the celebration of this village.
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SPEAKER_00: The sun cusped the hillside, colors deepening as drumming began.
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SPEAKER_00: The crowd cheered as the fiery orb disappeared and more mead was poured amongst them.
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They began to circle the bonfire in a dance,
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stepping in rhythm with chants and singing as they now circled their only source of
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SPEAKER_00: light.
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SPEAKER_00: The little girl joined too.
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Her mother held her hand,
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both laughing as they made the final turn before she picked up a torch from the
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SPEAKER_00: pile and tipped it into the flames.
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It blazed to life,
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an orange glow filling the night as they started down the dark path toward the
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SPEAKER_00: village.
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And as they neared the bottom,
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the girl turned back to see a line of lights dotting the hillside.
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SPEAKER_00: Each home would set a place at the table for their departed loved ones,
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SPEAKER_00: for now the boundary between worlds was open.
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SPEAKER_00: Their spirits were walking down the hillside too,
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SPEAKER_00: to join them for a meal on this most sacred night.
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SPEAKER_00: As the little girl placed a light near the window for her father to find them,
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SPEAKER_00: she couldn't wait to ask him if he'd been there amongst the trees,
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SPEAKER_00: whispering her name from the other side.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: There is no celebration quite like what we know as Halloween.
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Filled with spirits,
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folklore,
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and local customs,
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this day has endured as an inherently pagan festival for thousands of years.
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SPEAKER_00: And despite all odds, it refuses to be tamed.
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Built over 5,000 years ago,
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this chambered tomb is aligned with the rising sun to light its inner chamber in
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SPEAKER_00: early November and February.
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SPEAKER_00: While we'll never know what their ceremonies might have been like,
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SPEAKER_00: the alignments imply that people recognized,
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SPEAKER_00: and perhaps celebrated, the shift from the light to the season of darkness.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: These cyclical rituals likely laid the foundation for later traditions.
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SPEAKER_00: And even though there were thousands of years in between,
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SPEAKER_00: the Celts also marked this time of year as a moment of celebration.
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SPEAKER_00: dated to the 2nd century.
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SPEAKER_00: The bronze plate marks Samonios, falling at the end of October and beginning of November,
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SPEAKER_00: roughly translating to summer's end.
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SPEAKER_00: It suggests that even in the Iron Age,
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SPEAKER_00: this moment was recognized across the Celtic world as a turning of the year.
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SPEAKER_00: Centuries later in Ireland, the festival appears again, but now called Samhain.
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SPEAKER_00: The two words share the same ancient root, both meaning summer's end,
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SPEAKER_00: but Samhain carries something else.
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SPEAKER_00: In Old Irish, it can also mean assembly, or even assembly of the living and the dead.
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SPEAKER_00: It's here that the boundary between the mortal world and the other begin to connect.
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SPEAKER_00: Celtic belief didn't separate this reality from the spiritual.
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SPEAKER_00: It saw them as intertwined.
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SPEAKER_00: Hills, lakes, rivers, and mounds weren't just landmarks.
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SPEAKER_00: They were thresholds.
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SPEAKER_00: Doorways where ancestors and deities could cross over freely,
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SPEAKER_00: especially at liminal times of the year.
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SPEAKER_00: So when medieval monks began recording Celtic stories in the 10th and 11th
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SPEAKER_00: centuries,
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SPEAKER_00: lovers turned to swans upon a lake,
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SPEAKER_00: and mortals vanishing into the hills.
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SPEAKER_00: They highlight how this festival marks a point when the boundary between realms would dissolve.
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SPEAKER_00: This is especially true in Ireland, where the legends didn't just live in stories,
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SPEAKER_00: where feasting,
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SPEAKER_00: storytelling,
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SPEAKER_00: games,
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SPEAKER_00: and offerings honored both gods and ancestors.
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SPEAKER_00: And on the nearby Hill of Ward, villages would gather before a vast communal bonfire.
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Then each household would carry a torch home to rekindle their own hearth,
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a shared renewal of light for the dark season ahead.
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SPEAKER_00: Some scholars even trace the word bonfire to these very rites,
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SPEAKER_00: once called "bone fires,"
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SPEAKER_00: from the remains of animals burned in sacrifice or cleansing.
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SPEAKER_00: Which isn't just found in the written record.
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Recent excavations on the hill of Ward have uncovered layers of burnt timber,
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charcoal, and bones from many centuries of bonfires.
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SPEAKER_00: Though we can't know if these burnings were related to Samhain specifically,
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SPEAKER_00: this does imply that the people of Ireland kept lighting them,
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SPEAKER_00: using these sacred sites throughout the Middle Ages.
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SPEAKER_00: And Samhain has stood the test of time relative to other pagan holidays.
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When Christianity started to take root across Europe,
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many older festivals were quickly adapted within the church's calendar,
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SPEAKER_00: reinterpreted through saints,
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SPEAKER_00: martyrs,
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SPEAKER_00: or holy feasts.
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SPEAKER_00: But Samhain was different.
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SPEAKER_00: Its themes of death,
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SPEAKER_00: spirits,
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SPEAKER_00: and the thinning of the veil were all too overtly pagan to easily repurpose.
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SPEAKER_00: And so for centuries, the church didn't try to.
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SPEAKER_00: It wasn't until the 9th century when a pope decided to move their All Saints Day
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SPEAKER_00: from its original date in May to land on November 1st.
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SPEAKER_00: So instead of spirits walking amongst the living,
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SPEAKER_00: the day became a time to honor all the canonized and unknown saints that had made
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SPEAKER_00: it to heaven.
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SPEAKER_00: But even to Christians at the time,
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SPEAKER_00: the question remained of what happened to the souls that weren't saints,
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SPEAKER_00: but also weren't damned to hell.
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SPEAKER_00: Theologians described this liminal state as what would become known as purgatory,
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SPEAKER_00: a place where souls waited for their sins to be purified by prayer before they
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SPEAKER_00: could enter heaven.
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SPEAKER_00: In comparison to the ancient spiritual world,
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SPEAKER_00: you definitely didn't want to linger in purgatory.
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SPEAKER_00: So about a century later,
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SPEAKER_00: an abbot in France found a solution to this conundrum of wandering souls.
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SPEAKER_00: He established All Souls Day on November 2nd,
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SPEAKER_00: a day dedicated to praying for all these restless spirits lingering in purgatory
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SPEAKER_00: and offer them deliverance through prayer.
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SPEAKER_00: Monks rang bells, chanted, and held mass to ease their suffering.
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SPEAKER_00: perhaps ironically echoing the same rituals of light and remembrance that Samhain
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SPEAKER_00: had once inspired,
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SPEAKER_00: just with a twist of Christian morality.
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SPEAKER_00: As the church established these new feast days,
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SPEAKER_00: each was preceded by a vigil,
11:00
SPEAKER_00: a holy evening of preparation.
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So October 31st became All Hallows' Eve,
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which literally means the evening before All Saints' Day.
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SPEAKER_00: It was supposed to be a holy night of prayer and purification to ready one's soul
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SPEAKER_00: before the morning's solemn mass,
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SPEAKER_00: but beneath these intentions,
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SPEAKER_00: threads of the old pagan practices continued to persist.
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From the 12th through the 15th century,
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records describe bells being rung at dusk on All Hallows' Eve to drive away
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SPEAKER_00: wandering spirits.
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SPEAKER_00: People lit candles in their windows and carried them into graveyards as acts of
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SPEAKER_00: remembrance and protection.
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SPEAKER_00: Over time,
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SPEAKER_00: the church's night of vigil became inseparable from local customs,
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SPEAKER_00: a blending of faith and folklore all carried out in the name of departed spirits.
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SPEAKER_00: And as the centuries passed,
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traditions continued to change just as the name of the night evolved
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from All Hallows' Eve to simply the shorthand of Halloween.
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SPEAKER_00: For the next few hundred years,
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SPEAKER_00: people continued to carry on their own rituals,
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SPEAKER_00: but the practices seemed to take on a more lighthearted tone.
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SPEAKER_00: The "Souling" tradition of prayers for the dead was possibly a predecessor to another
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SPEAKER_00: custom of "guising" found in the 17th century.
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SPEAKER_00: This had a more mischievous air,
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SPEAKER_00: as children dressed in costumes and masks to perform songs or tricks in exchange
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SPEAKER_00: for food or coins.
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These disguises were thought to both mock and mimic wandering spirits,
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as the children could safely walk amongst them without being carried back to the
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SPEAKER_00: other world themselves.
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SPEAKER_00: Divination games were also woven into the night's magic across Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
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SPEAKER_00: Apple bobbing,
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SPEAKER_00: nut burning,
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SPEAKER_00: and mirror gazing were all tools for fortune-telling,
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SPEAKER_00: revealing hints of love,
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SPEAKER_00: luck,
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SPEAKER_00: and marriages soon to come.
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SPEAKER_00: And through all of these centuries, the bonfires never disappeared.
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SPEAKER_00: In Ireland and Scotland,
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SPEAKER_00: In parts of England,
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SPEAKER_00: these same hallow fires were said to ward off witches or wandering spirits,
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SPEAKER_00: and despite its Christian veneer,
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SPEAKER_00: it still carried the same ancient purpose of purification and protection.
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SPEAKER_00: Somehow, this balance of pagan and Christian belief has found curious ways to co-habitate,
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SPEAKER_00: which is perfectly encapsulated through a tale from the 18th century behind one of
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SPEAKER_00: Halloween's most familiar symbols.
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SPEAKER_00: Once,
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SPEAKER_00: there was a man known as Stingy Jack,
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SPEAKER_00: a trickster who convinced the devil to pay for his drink.
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SPEAKER_00: Jack wasn't exactly a saint to begin with, so when he eventually died,
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SPEAKER_00: he was denied entrance at the gates of heaven.
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SPEAKER_00: But as he deceived the devil too, he couldn't get into hell either.
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SPEAKER_00: Condemned to wander between worlds, Jack was given a single coal from hell to light his way.
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He placed it inside a hollowed-out turnip,
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carrying it through the dark as he searched for his eternal rest.
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SPEAKER_00: People came to call him Jack of the Lantern,
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SPEAKER_00: and each year they carved their own turnips or beets,
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SPEAKER_00: glowing with light to ward off his restless spirit.
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The tradition of carving these lanterns continued on and crossed the sea,
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as Irish and Scottish immigrants built their lives in the New World.
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SPEAKER_00: Turnips weren't readily available,
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SPEAKER_00: but our American jack-o'-lanterns,
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SPEAKER_00: made from pumpkins,
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SPEAKER_00: still flicker on porches every Halloween.
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SPEAKER_00: The U.S.
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SPEAKER_00: simply made them bigger.
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SPEAKER_00: In cities like New York,
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SPEAKER_00: Boston,
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SPEAKER_00: and Chicago,
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SPEAKER_00: Halloween became a big ol' party,
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SPEAKER_00: a mix of nostalgia from their homeland with a night of youthful rebellion.
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SPEAKER_00: Parties, parades, and costume balls filled the streets amidst innocent pranks and vandalism.
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To contain the chaos,
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communities began to organize their own festivities,
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transforming the season into something a bit more public and playful.
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SPEAKER_00: Newspapers as far back as the 1880s mentioned tricks or treats and maskers,
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SPEAKER_00: commercializing the night into the sugary spectacle we know today.
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SPEAKER_00: And since then, the celebration just seems to keep getting bigger.
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SPEAKER_00: According to the National Retail Federation,
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SPEAKER_00: today,
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SPEAKER_00: nearly half of Halloween shoppers begin preparing for the holiday before October
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SPEAKER_00: even starts.
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And this year,
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the U.S. is expected to spend over $13 billion on costumes, candy, and decorations.
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As the subtle Christian themes have fallen by the wayside,
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Halloween has become largely agnostic,
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SPEAKER_00: with 72% of Americans sharing in the celebrations.
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SPEAKER_00: The holiday bridges ages, beliefs, and backgrounds.
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SPEAKER_00: A night when everyone seems to just feel the excitement in the air.
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SPEAKER_00: Psychologists even suggest there's a biological pull to the season.
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SPEAKER_00: As daylight shortens and the air cools, our bodies shift into a reflective state.
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SPEAKER_00: We crave comfort, ritual, and experiences to share together.
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SPEAKER_00: Halloween, like Samhain before it, offers us that place to gather.
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SPEAKER_00: And it isn't just in the U.S.
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SPEAKER_00: Cultures all over the world mark this same turning point.
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SPEAKER_00: Mexico,
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SPEAKER_00: Poland,
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SPEAKER_00: Cambodia,
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SPEAKER_00: and Japan all have their own versions of honoring their ancestors at this time of
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SPEAKER_00: year.
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SPEAKER_00: And so this inherently pagan celebration endures as it continues to adapt to the times.
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All this to say,
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beneath the costumes and candy echoes the same ancient traditions that have carried
17:35
SPEAKER_00: on for thousands of years.
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SPEAKER_00: We gather to build bonfires and share stories.
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SPEAKER_00: We guide lost souls with the light of candles and carved pumpkins.
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SPEAKER_00: We step out into the darkness in our costumes to walk among the spirits.
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SPEAKER_00: This night gives us permission to revel in the unseen,
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SPEAKER_00: to wonder if there might be more to this life than what we can perceive.
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SPEAKER_00: And it gives us a chance to remember all those we've lost.
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SPEAKER_00: For when the veil thins, the other world is just a breath away.
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SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Wild Kin.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more Celtic-inspired stories and resources,
18:28
SPEAKER_00: subscribe to the Artio Journal on Substack.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Link is in the show notes.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining me by the fire, and we'll meet again soon.