By guest blogger, Allyson Taylor

I am Scottish, I have been for the last 33 years, and although I live in England now my accent will always give away my Scottish heritage. I have enjoyed the traditions of Halloween over the years and have never questioned who, what or why they are the way they are. I can hear you all now thinking, ‘why would you not wonder where the traditions came from?’ I guess I never saw them as sinister or unacceptable, just good harmless fun, so never really questioned it. But then I started to look up what it meant to write this article and was surprised that I had never been taught this before, especially as it was my Celtic ancestors that introduced these traditions to the UK.

The saints and sinners amongst you will know that Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve as it used to be known, is the night before All Saints’ Day. It stems from the ancient celebrations of the Celtic New Year and marks the beginning of winter. In Gaelic this was known as Samhain (pronounced ‘sow’inn). For the Pagans amongst you this, we are lead to believe, marks the start (or turn) of the year. 31 October being the last day of summer. After Harvest is taken in the fires are extinguished and re-lit. Well, here’s the thing. For decades I have never heard about the ancient beginnings of this time of year. Sure, the obligatory ghouls and ghosts were drawn at school, and scary stories told to each other in the playground, but it was never really clear where these traditions came from. The trick-or-treaters or ‘guisers’ as they were known in my part of the country arrived at the door dressed as fairies, spirits and in latter years Harry Potter! They told hideously bad jokes and sang out of tune and offered their flashing goodie baskets for me to fill with sweet treats. But I doubt they know that they are indulging in Pagan rituals, and I wonder if the parents actually know any of this too? Thinking back; nor was there any mention that the first bonfire nights were to celebrate Samhain. And that it had been the druids that had built huge bonfires that had a sacred significance to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic Gods. Obviously as time marched on the sacred bonfires were replaced with uses that were more sinister – poor Guy Fawkes!

So there it is. A potted history of the festival of Samhain, Or should I say Halloween. Happy guising!

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.