Halloween – what’s
it all about then? The origins of Halloween date
back 2,000 years to when the Celts lived in the
area of the world that is now Ireland, the UK
and northern France. The Celts celebrated their
New Year on the 1st November. This day marked
the end of summer and the harvest as well as
the beginning of winter. Celts believed that
the on the evening before new year the worlds
of the living and the dead became blurred. Because
of this on the 31st October they celebrated a
festival known as Samhain (pronounced sow-en)
when they believed ghosts of the dead returned
to earth as they could not travel to their final
resting place until they were prepared with wealth,
gifts, food and drink for themselves or to pay
the God that ruled the next world.
A common tradition amongst the Celts to help
the spirits move on to the next world involved
them
spending the day preparing food to “treat” the
ghosts well so that it would not “trick” (or
haunt) those who had neglected to prepare any gifts
for their onward journey. Another of their customs
was to wear ghostly disguises. As the Celts thought
that ghosts walked and mixed with the living on
this day, by dressing as a ghost they hoped that
the spirits would not plague them.
By the end of the 10th century, the influence
of Christianity had spread across the Celtic
lands.
In the 7th century the reigning pope had designated
the 1st November as All Saints Day – a time
to honour saints and martyrs. This day was then
known as All Hallows (hallow meaning to be or make
sacred). It is widely thought now that the Pope
was trying to replace the Celtic Festival with
a church sanctioned festival however the festival
of Samhain continued to be celebrated and eventually
the day before All Saints Day then became known
as All Hallows Eve and eventually Halloween.
Other traditions which are still continued
include the pumpkin lanterns with cut out faces
known as
a “Jack-o-Lantern”. Originally thought
to be from Irish folklore, the story tells of a
man called Jack who was infamous as a trickster
and drunk. He tricked the Devil into climbing a
tree and carved an image of the cross on the trunk
trapping the devil in the tree. Jack then made
a deal with the devil that if he did not tempt
him again then he would promise to help him down
from the tree. According to the tale, when Jack
died he was denied entrance to heaven because of
his evil ways, but because he had tricked the devil
was not admitted to hell either! As his punishment,
the devil gave him a single candle to light his
way through the eternal darkness. The candle was
placed in a hollowed out turnip to keep it glowing
longer. In the 1840’s when many immigrants
from Ireland fleeing the potato famine arrived
in the America they kept up this tradition but
finding pumpkins more plentiful and cheaper than
turnips, used them instead for their “Jack-o-lanterns”.
Well enough about all the traditions and customs
of Halloween! How about trying some of our spooky
cocktail recipes to brighten up your Halloween
party – never mind the pumpkin lanterns and
scary stories, use some of our cocktail “tricks” to “treat” yourself!!
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Black
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