Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / Bittisode 001 Halloween Origins : Samhain

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Bittisode 001 Halloween Origins : Samhain · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're listening to an airwave media podcast.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Real high and welcome to hood.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: What now the Bettysode? That's right, that where we take
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: bit sized pieces of history and shove it down your throat.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I feel like I could have worded that better, but
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: it's okay with me. You're surprisingly non eloquent host, Kerrie
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Charlwood for your first fan and reader of books. So,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: seeing as we are in this spooky season, I thought
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  Speaker 1: I'd use each one of the Bettysodes to talk about Halloween,
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  Speaker 1: the history of Halloween, its origins, like where are traditions
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  Speaker 1: and customs come from? And I thought I'd start with
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  Speaker 1: the og Halloween Sewn. That's right, we're talking about everybody's
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: favorite pagans, the Celts. So basically way back when there
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  Speaker 1: were four main Celtic festivals, and Halloween dates back to
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  Speaker 1: the ancient Celtic festival of Sewn, and this is like
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  Speaker 1: we're going ancient origins here. The Celts will also find
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  Speaker 1: sometimes referred to as you know, the Gaelic people. So
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  Speaker 1: the Celts they lived in you know, Ireland, Scotland, the
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  Speaker 1: Isle of Man, northern France, probably a whales, bit of Cornwall,
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  Speaker 1: sort of all around all those fun areas.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, it was one of the four main.
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  Speaker 1: Festivals, and so you had sown Imbol, Baldna, and Lunasa.
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  Speaker 1: So sewn was this Celtic festival. As far as the
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  Speaker 1: Celts were concerned. The year was sput into the light
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  Speaker 1: half and the dark half. So it's basically the end
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  Speaker 1: of harvest season and it's the beginning of you know,
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  Speaker 1: the dark cold winter. And it's also like halfway between
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  Speaker 1: like the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It's actually
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  Speaker 1: kind of funny because Beltna and Sowin they have very
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  Speaker 1: very similar traditions and customs, rituals, like within the festivities themselves.
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  Speaker 1: It's very interesting. So yeah, not only was Soun like
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  Speaker 1: the starting point for the dark, cold, cruel part of
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  Speaker 1: the year, but it was also a time of year
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  Speaker 1: which is very much associated with human death, lots of death.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's winter, and you know they didn't exactly
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  Speaker 1: have said rating. Here's the thing. Souring is actually on
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  Speaker 1: the first of November, not a thirty first of October,
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  Speaker 1: but the festivities and the celebrations would begin the night
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  Speaker 1: before because.
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  Speaker 2: Because they saw the day differently than we do.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, because we would see the day at the day
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  Speaker 1: starting as like daybreak, when the you know, the cock
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  Speaker 1: crows out and the sun is rising. It's like that's
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  Speaker 1: the day, that's the start of the day. The Celtic day, however,
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  Speaker 1: began and ended at sunset. And so remember how I
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: said this was very much associated with human death, well
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  Speaker 1: apart from the fact that the winter will fucking kill you,
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  Speaker 1: because whether in these temperate zones does not like you
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: on that second half of the year, it really doesn't.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: It won't fucking kill you anytime from the start of November.
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  Speaker 1: But like apart from that, this is the time where
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  Speaker 1: the veil separating the world of the living and the
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  Speaker 1: world of the dead is at its thinnest. So what
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  Speaker 1: this means was the Ashi or the Fay they would
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  Speaker 1: be able to cross the threshold from their world, the
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  Speaker 1: other world, and to ours, the world of the living,
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  Speaker 1: the spirits and Fay as far as we know, because
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  Speaker 1: the Kilts didn't write anything down, so as far as
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  Speaker 1: we know, the Eschy, the spirits, the Fay, they were
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  Speaker 1: seen as like what remained of pieces of the of
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  Speaker 1: the old pagan gods as far as we know. So
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  Speaker 1: not only do you have these spirits and these ghules.
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  Speaker 1: But you also have the ghosts of your ancestors, So
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  Speaker 1: the ghosts of your ancestors would also come to visit,
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  Speaker 1: which is nice as long as you like your relatives.
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  Speaker 1: So your ancestors and your family spirits, they would be
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  Speaker 1: invited home, and you know, the other spirits, the bad ones,
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  Speaker 1: the dodgy ones, they would be warded off.
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  Speaker 2: Some people would.
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  Speaker 1: Even dress up in costumes generally made of like animal
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  Speaker 1: heads and skins. Why, we don't fucking know, Actually we
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  Speaker 1: don't know why. Perhaps it was some sort of symbolism
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  Speaker 1: of the evil spirits. Perhaps it was a way of
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  Speaker 1: disguising themselves as other spirits so they wouldn't be harmed,
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  Speaker 1: or the they would ward off the evil spirits, or
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  Speaker 1: perhaps they were even yee old worries. So all right, So,
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  Speaker 1: because these spirits are all hanging about and lurking, it
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  Speaker 1: was believed that the presence of these otherworldly spirits was
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  Speaker 1: very much good and bad because although they were like
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  Speaker 1: damaging crops, causing trouble, scaring the share out of children,
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  Speaker 1: they also made it easier for the druids to make
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  Speaker 1: predict to tell people's fortunes and make predictions about the future,
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  Speaker 1: which is handy in fucking winter. Another thing about all
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  Speaker 1: of these sort of engine festivals is a lot of
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  Speaker 1: them were feasts.
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  Speaker 2: They were great feast days.
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  Speaker 1: So what they would do is they would make an
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  Speaker 1: abundance of food with a seat left at the table
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  Speaker 1: for ancestors, so everyone would have their meal and there
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  Speaker 1: would be an extra place setting, effectively for the ghost
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  Speaker 1: of your great great granny to come in and have
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  Speaker 1: a nibble.
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  Speaker 2: But here's the thing.
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  Speaker 1: The food never actually went to waste, because, let's face it,
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  Speaker 1: the ancestors weren't exactly in a position to consume the
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  Speaker 1: earthly delights laid before them, So any leftover food that
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  Speaker 1: wasn't consumed by the spirits would then be shared amongst
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  Speaker 1: those who were not as well off. It was very
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  Speaker 1: much as share and share alike kind of scenario, a
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  Speaker 1: tradition that lives on to this day for the most part.
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  Speaker 1: Without you know, the bloodshed bonfires. The celt woul build
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  Speaker 1: these massive motherfucking bonfires, and these bonfires they would be
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  Speaker 1: in the hilltops, So in Ireland you'd probably have on
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  Speaker 1: the hill of Tlachta and Tara. You'd be up in
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  Speaker 1: the Scottish Highlands, a Lman, North Wales, I'd probably say,
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes the bonfires would have like certain woods would
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  Speaker 1: only be used because they held, you know, significance.
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  Speaker 2: In Ireland, bones.
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  Speaker 1: Of slaughtered livestock would be thrown into the fire. But
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  Speaker 1: those are the larger bonfires. But people would just have
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  Speaker 1: bonfires in each sort of I don't want to say village,
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  Speaker 1: but sort of each commune, each area. Okay, here's the thing.
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  Speaker 1: We all know animal sacrifices happened because they did. So
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  Speaker 1: what they would do in Ireland is they would throw
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  Speaker 1: the bones of their you know, sacrificed animals into the
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  Speaker 1: big communal bonfire. Because the thing about fire to the
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  Speaker 1: kilts is that it was cleansing. It was a cleansing ritual.
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  Speaker 1: So sometimes they would light a couple of bonfires and
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  Speaker 1: they would have livestock walk in between them. So cattle,
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  Speaker 1: especially because they were kind of revered, is they would
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  Speaker 1: walk between the two fires and have the smoke sort
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  Speaker 1: of bellow over them. So at some point during the night,
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  Speaker 1: everyone's little like hearth fires and household fires would.
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  Speaker 2: Be put out.
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  Speaker 1: They'll be extinguished so that later on they would all
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  Speaker 1: be reignited. Using few or flame from basically their their
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  Speaker 1: sacred bonfire and because they felt like fire had this
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  Speaker 1: cleansing power it would be to protect them during the
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  Speaker 1: coming winter.
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  Speaker 2: On the Isle of Moray.
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  Speaker 1: In Scotland, boys would go around and collect bonfire fuel,
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  Speaker 1: so like bits of wood or whatever from each house
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  Speaker 1: in the village, so that everyone contributed to the bonfire.
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  Speaker 1: And then you know, after it was all done, they
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  Speaker 1: would take the ashes and they'd all fight over who
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  Speaker 1: gets to scatter them because because that was the cool,
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  Speaker 1: hip happening thing to do way back when.
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  Speaker 2: And there you have it, the origin of Halloween.
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  Speaker 1: If you liked this bitysode talking about the history of Halloween,
• 8:43
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• 8:47
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• 8:52
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• 8:58
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• 9:01
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• 9:13
  Speaker 1: who Did What Now?
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Pd?
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Because I ran out of characters. But it's fine, it's
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: it's okay. But anyway, thank you for listening to this bisode.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: And I better not be losing my voice again. No no, no, no,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: we don't like that. But I shall bid you adieu,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and I shall wish you adios or of what of
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: wait to zen my friends, Goodbye,