(no subject)

[moonwise]

Following Taransay's lead... :)

Happy Halloween to everyone

and

Happy New Year to all you other witchy types out there.

Beannacht na Fheile Samhain libh!

Comments

[hidetomatsumoto.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize Halloween was considered New Year's Eve for witches. Doink! I should have known that, huh?

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Well - not quite. :)

It IS the new year in the tradition of the Druids. Samhain (pron. Sowwen, roughly) is one of the turning points in the year. As you probably know, Halloween is an ancient holiday that was somewhat Christianized; that's why "All Souls Day" follows it - the Christian holiday was installed to counter the pagan holiday.

On Samhain the dead were supposed to be able to walk between worlds, along with evil spirits. So, people would dress up scary to attract the evil spirits and march out of town, led by a priest who would carry a coal in a carved turnip or parsnip (forget which.) Sound familiar? :)

[hidetomatsumoto.livejournal.com]

Oh, I definitely know about "All Saints Day," I just didn't know that much about the pagan end of it. Sounds a lot like what happened with Christmas then (a counter to pagan rituals).

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Exactly! :) Christmas used to be a pagan holiday called "Saturnalia" until Constantine came along. The early Church was smart enough to realize that if you took the pagans' feasts and revels away from them, they wouldn't want to convert. So, the holidays were adapted. :)