Home <====> Episode 5: The Samhain Show
Episode 5: The Samhain Show
/
RSS Feed
- History
- High Mortality, Short Life-Spans
- Seasonal Cycles of Abundance and Lack, Annual Culling of Herds in Preparation for Winter Months
- All Cultures Prepared the Dead, Left Offerings, etc.
- Beliefs in the Afterlife
- Enter Christianity
- Tendency to absorb pre-existing festivals and traditions
- All Saints’ moved from early summer
- All Souls’ added to honour the “average Joes”
- Martin Luther and the Protestant Revolution
- Puritans disconnect from all things Catholic
- 19th Century
- Irish immigrants bring traditions to America, following the “potato famine”
- Revival of Catholic holidays and customs, desire to reclaim a sense of “home”
- Turnips replaced by pumpkins
- Young women played divination games
- Civil War causes Halloween to fade for a time, because death too common, too real
- 20th Century
- Pre-WWI, pranks and light-hearted fun, but as pranks got more destructive and violent,
- Pre-WWII, civil parades and public activities began, in order to tame the youth
- WWII breaks-out, and Halloween fades again
- After the war, prosperity, need for sense of fun again
- Stores market costumes and candies for Halloween
- By the 1970s, Hollywood films try to play up Halloween for adults
- In the 80s and 90s, more events are geared toward adults
- Modern Celebrations
- Added to the Wheel of the Year in the 1950s
- Various Traditions: Paganism, Dumb Supper, Vodou, Liberal Christian, etc.
- Some scholars suggest it was the Celtic New Year, though not all agree
- Time for divination
- Anti-Halloween Movement
- Fundamentalism and Biblical Literalism
- Scriptural rules against witchcraft and mediums, and so on
- “Hell Houses”
- Jesusween
- Pathworking
Resources:
“The Real Origins of Halloween” by Isaac Bonewits
“Halloween Errors and Lies” by Isaac Bonewits
Halloween by Silver Raven Wolf
