Think I made a mistake on my featured image? Think again. Halloween is the only real Irish holiday (St. Patrick wasn’t Irish. It was English and Christian propaganda that gave my people a reason to drink more than normal, specifically in America where puritan values reign supreme)
Before Halloween was “All souls day”, it was a pagan Celtic festival called Samhain marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the “darker half” of the year. Samhain isn’t alone of course, holidays such as Christmas and Easter both have pagan origins. While I wish I could blame the Christians, the practice of taking a harvest day (usually marked by different phases in the sun and moon cycles) and relabeling it to fit the invading force was a political move used by the greeks and romans as well. ANYWAY
I am not saying all pagan holidays were gnarley as fuck, but the druids were a bit hardcore. Celtic Druidism involved some priests that were honored and who made the rules for the rest of the town. Not all druidic religions were into sacrafice either, probably, but we don’t really know what went on because all we have to work with are some scribbles, some bias writings from invading forces, and creepy stones that still work as a sun calendar today.
We aren’t the smartest, the most innovative, developed writing way too late, and have lost every war we have ever fought but we have always known how to party
Sorry got off topic again. Samhain
Samhain (like Beltane) was a time when the ‘doorways’ to the Otherworld opened, allowing supernatural beings and the souls of the dead to come into our world; but while Beltane was a summer festival for the living, Samhain “was essentially a festival for the dead”
Click the wiki page for more details but human sacrafice in many lovely forms was usually involved, otherwise evil demons would take down the village. In some special versions, smearing blood on your face would hide you from the zombies, devils, ghosts, and faeries that would be up and walking around on this special evening in the Gailic Calendar. If it makes you feel better, there would be a huge feast post blood party.
Today, human sacrafice has become candy and bloody faces has become masks. See? Things could always be worse!
Supernatural, a cheesy horrible show that I respect because it knows what it is did their take on a tribute to this old school halloween in season 4 episode 7 “it’s the great pumpkin sam winchester”
I bet you want more don’t you.
No need to beg, here is a fun history channel video on the history of witches: History of Witches
Enjoy your candy and be happy you didn’t have to give your first born up every year to be stabbed a bunch.
Painfully Average 