Hallowe'en
HALLOWE'EN, or ALL HALLOWS EVE, the name given to the 31st of October as the vigil of Hallowmas or All Saints' Day. Though now known as little else but the eve of the Christian festival, Hallowe'en and its formerly attendant ceremonies long antedate Christianity. The two chief characteristics of ancient Hallowe'en were the lighting of bonfires and the belief that of all nights in the year this is the one during which ghosts and witches are most likely to wander abroad. Now on or about the 1st of November the Druids held their great autumn festival and lighted fires in honour of the Sun-god in thanksgiving for the harvest. Further, it was a Druidic belief that on the eve of this festival Saman, lord of death, called together the wicked souls that within the past twelve months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals. Thus it is clear that the main celebrations of Hallowe'en were purely Druidical, and this is further proved by the fact that in parts of Ireland the 31st of October was, and even still is, known as Oidhche Shamhna, " Vigil of Saman." On the Druidic ceremonies were grafted some of the characteristics of the Roman festival in honour of Pomona held about the 1st of November, in which nuts and apples, as representing the winter store of fruits, played an important part. Thus the roasting of nuts and the sport known as " appleducking " attempting to seize with the teeth an apple floating in a tub of water, were once the universal occupation of the young folk in medieval England on the 31st of October. The custom of lighting Hallowe'en fires survived until recent years in the highlands of Scotland and Wales. In the dying embers it was usual to place as many small stones as there were persons around, and next morning a search was made. If any of the pebbles were displaced it was regarded as certain that the person represented would die within the twelve months.
For details of the Hallowe'en games and bonfires see Brand's Antiquities of Great Britain; Chambers's Book of Days; Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, ch. xx. (Elemente) and ch. xxxiv. (Aberglaube) ; and J. G. Frazer's Golden Bough, vol. iii. Compare also BELTANE and BONFIRE.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
