Samhain

"The Christian connection to Halloween has been largely forgotten in popular culture, partly as a result of the de-popularization of the liturgical season once known as The Triduum of Death.

The orginal form of the Celtic celebration of Samhain, pronounced Sow-in and held Oct. 31, predates The Triduum of Death. The ancient Celts celebrated Samhain roughly 2,000 years ago in the areas now known as the U.K., Ireland, and parts of France. Practitioners of the festival celebrated the end of the harvest and the coming of winter, viewed as a spiritual “in-between time” of life and death, during which the Celts believed that the veil separating the seen world and the spiritual world was thinnest, according to History.

Ancient Celtic religion held that the spirits of the dead would return to haunt the physical world and damage crops and cause other misfortunes on the night of Samhain. The return of these spirits held a positive possibility for Celts as well, since the Celtic priests known as Druids maintained that the spirits’ presence made it easier for them to see into the future on behalf of others. The ancient Celts built sacred bonfires on which they would sacrifice animals and crop offerings to appease the spirits and deities. People sought their fortunes from Druids, and wore costumes made from the skins of animals, hoping to confuse spirits and protect themselves from supernatural harm.

The Celtic tradition of Samhain fused with two Roman celebrations by 43 A.D. – Ferralia, which marked the passing of the dead into the afterlife, and the festival honoring Pomona, the goddess of trees and fruits. The apple was Pomona’s symbol and she was celebrated with apple bobbing.

Wiccans now carry on the celebration of Samhain, some of whom call it The Witch’s New Year. The spiritual significance of Samhain remains largely the same for modern Wiccans as it was for ancient Pagans, though with less of an emphasis on the protection of food stores to survive the winter. Current accepted rituals also look slightly different than the ancient observations as they most often do not include animal sacrifice.

Modern Wiccans still hold bonfires, practice divination or fortune telling via communion with undead spirits and deities, give offerings of bread and fruit to spirits, and make an altar to their ancestors during Samhain. Some Wiccans also perform a ritual on Samhain to help the spirits of the dead pass on from the Earth into the afterlife. In the ceremony, they open a westward facing window in their home and place a lit candle beside it.

The particulars of Wiccan celebrations of Samhain, beyond the basics of bonfires and the concept of sacrifices, are highly variable. Modern Wiccans leave certain details of rituals, such as the content of sacrifices and their meaning, up to personal interpretation. Modern Wicca also borrows some practices from other animistic religions associated with Native Americans, such as “smudging” or burning sage to cleanse one’s self and one’s home from evil spirits and negative influences. Is also contains New Age spirituality practices like the use of crystals as agents of spiritual focus, according to a Samhain ritual from the spiritualist site Forever Conscious.

Regardless of the particulars of the rituals of Samhain, all Wiccans use them as a contemplation of what they believe to be the continual cycle of birth and rebirth, the passing of the dead into the afterlife, the thinning of the veil between spirit and physical, and the letting go of both people and things lost to them over the past year."

- 'Joshua'