Halls of the Dark Muse

Well it is October which is one of my favorite months for a few reasons. The first being, that it means Autumn is in full swing, which means the end of summer, and the approach of winter. (Even if it does not feel like summer has ended here, and we get lame winters) but that is another story.

The next couple of reasons tie in together. The first being my all time favorite holiday, and the fact that AMC starts Monsterfest, all horror all the time for 10 days. And it also means a new Horrorfest festival.

But the main point of this blog is Halloween. Now to most people the holiday is really nothing more then a meaningless commercial holiday, that kids enjoy because they can dress up, stay up late and get free candy, and maybe some adults can attend a wild party or two. And some theme parks do cool stuff, but nonetheless it is a holiday that generally is not given the importance and significance of some of the other major holidays.

For me though, it does have a deep spiritual meaning. Believe it or not, my liking Halloween is not linked purely to the dark nature of the day, and scary decorations.

I celebrate the festival known as Samhain which is where our Halloween traditions come from, and so this is a little about just what the day means to me, and its historical roots.

Samhain was a traditional Celtic holiday, celebrated on November 1st, and it marked the Celtic New Year.

The Celts divided the year into two important halves, the Light and the Dark. Beltane (May 1st) was the doorway of the light, and Samhain the doorway into the dark.

Today's Halloween was the Eve of Samhain and seen as being the most "magical" time of the year. It was at the time in which it was believed that the veil between the land of the living and the land of the dead was thinnest, and for this night the spirits of the dead could enter into the world of the living. Many of today's traditions revolve around this idea.

The wearing of masks first came to be for those who feared a spirit of someone whom they had wronged, or angered in life, might now come after them to have revenged so they disguised and hid themselves to prevent being recognized by hostile spirits.

But people would also leave out offerings of food for the spirits of friends and family members.

The tradition of carving Jack-o-Lanterns came from the Celtics carving turnips and other vegetables, sense the people used disguises to hide themselves from hostile spirits, the jack-o-lantern was actually used as a signal to friendly spirits so they souls of loved ones will know where to find there friends and family.

The now popular Halloween game of dunking for apples also came from Celtic tradition.

At Samhain, the apple harvest is in, and old hearthside games, such as apple-bobbing, called apple-dookin’ in Scotland, reflect the journey across water to obtain the magic apple.

The words Samhain literally means "summers ends" In Scotland and Ireland, Halloween is known as Oíche Shamhna, while in Wales it is Nos Calan Gaeaf, the eve of the winter's calend, or first. With the rise of Christianity, Samhain was changed to Hallowmas, or All Saints' Day, to commemorate the souls of the blessed dead who had been canonized that year, so the night before became popularly known as Halloween.