THE SPIRIT OF HALLOWEEN

Kathleen Dupree

The air is crisp again. Green has turned to red and gold as the hand of autumn begins to make itself seen upon the mountains. Pumpkins are wearing faces. Black cats, scarecrows, ghosts and cornstalks stand watch in front yards. Halloween is here.

Halloween has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced: sow-in). As the festival of Beltaine celebrates the return of lush vegetation to the earth, the birth of animals and the fullness of life, Samhain celebrates the end of these things. Samhain was and is the recognition of the other half of the eternal cycle of life. After the last harvest had been gathered in and before the onset of the harsh cold of winter the people of the Celtic lands marked this time with observations that have been carried forward into our own time and across the sea into the mountains of Appalachia.

It was at Samhain when livestock were slaughtered and the meat was preserved for winter use. In the old days there was a limited supply of grain. Farm animals were killed, with only breeding stock being spared, not only for food but to preserve what little grain was available for human rather than animal consumption. Even today, on family farms in America it is the first of November that marks the time after which hogs are slaughtered. It also marks the beginning of hunting season.

For many centuries throughout Celtic Europe it was believed that the souls of the dead returned at Samhain to visit their old homes and families. It was customary to welcome them in, to once again warm themselves by the hearth fire and share in the family meal. The family would prepare a meal consisting of traditional foods that were always eaten at Samhain for good luck. In Ireland this would have consisted of colcannon which is a mixture of potatoes and cabbage or kale, brown bread and porridge made from the grain harvest. A place was set at the table for each family member and visitor present as usual. But, at Samhain one more place was always laid. This was for the visiting spirits. The extra plate was filled with food just as those of the living participants in the feast. The meal shared with the spirits was known as the "dumb supper" and is still a part of both the European Celtic and Appalachian celebration of Halloween in many families.

The jack-o-lantern in the form of a carved pumpkin and trick-or-treat have somewhat mixed origins. In the Celtic regions of northern Europe adults, originally, and later children would go out after dark on the eve of Samhain traveling from house to house and asking for handouts of food or money. They dressed in costume both to represent the returning spirits and so that those spirits would not recognize them should there be any reason for the spirit to bestow ill fate upon them. With them the traveling masked ones carried lanterns which were made out of hollowed out vegetables, usually turnips, yet another connection to the harvest. The turnips were carefully carved out so that the walls were very thin. Into the thinned shell was carved the image of a face. A wire was attached across the top for a handle and a small candle was inserted inside so that the entire thin-shelled object glowed in the dark with the facial features shining especially bright when the candle was lit. The finished lantern was carried on a stick. When the Celts came to America there were a number of vegetables that could be used for this purpose that had not been available in Europe, most specifically, pumpkins and other members of the gourd family. Gradually, the pumpkin became the vegetable of favor to be carved out as a lantern in America but into the 1920s there could still be found greeting cards and children's Halloween toys in the image of turnips and other vegetables.

Because the masked revelers represented the spirit world, the offers to them of food and money by the households that they visited were a way of seeking the blessing and protection of the departed spirits in return for a share of the household's bounty. It was also a way of affirming the connection between the living and the dead. The departed souls lived on in memory always and at Samhain were interacted with again in a pretend physical form.

The word "jack-o-lantern" has a very interesting meaning in southern Appalachia. It was the word used in our grandparents day to describe a ball of light, often seen around old graveyards and lonely places that had a reputation for being haunted. The "jack-o-lantern" was supposed to have the ability to terrify horses and chase human beings who ventured too near to places they had no business being in. The name "jack-o-lantern" was a thus a natural word to describe the eerily glowing pumpkin face shining in the darkness at Halloween.

Samhain was a natural time for the living to ask advice of the spirit world since the spirits were traveling about the earth at this time. Many customs and games came about as a result of attempts to divine the future with the help of the departed spirits. One old custom is to place two nuts in the embers of a fire, naming one after yourself and one after your sweetheart. If one of the nuts pops and jumps from the fire the match is ill fated. If both of the nuts stay near each other in the fire and burn to ashes, the match is true love. A custom that is still very common in Ireland today is to serve a special fruit cake called a barmbrack. Inside the cake there are charms such as a button for bachelorhood, a thimble for spinsterhood, a coin for wealth and a small horseshoe for good luck. Whoever gets one of the charms is destined for the next year to be blessed by whatever the charm signifies. Since Samhain is the beginning of the dark season of winter, the twilight time of the year, and the Celtic way of reckoning time begins with the onset of darkness, Samhain was considered in many regions of the Celtic world to be the true beginning of the year. Thus, whatever could be divined on this night was fated to be until Samhain came round again. The consuming of special foods for luck during the coming year was an important part of Samhain and later on was transferred to our modern custom of eating special foods on New Year's Day.

In many communities today, especially in America, Halloween has come to mean wickedness and destruction because there are those in our society who use this time of year as an excuse to wreak havoc on the rest of us. There are some people who believe that Halloween is a purely evil concept based on the worship of Satan and demons. This is simply not true. Halloween is the carryover of a very ancient human need common not only in the Celtic world but in the rest of the world as well, of a cultural coming to terms with ones own mortality. The true meaning of Samhain never has been based on Satan, evil spirits or wickedness in any form. In the modern western world, where infant mortality is low and death is confined largely to the sterile environment of hospitals, we have little exposure to the end of life. This was not so in the world of our remote ancestors nor even in the world of our grandparents. Humans have always had difficulty facing death and the Samhain traditions that have been passed down through the centuries were how the Celts did so. It is an affirmation that life and death walk hand in hand.

As the old year wanes and the dying light of the shorter days is brightened by the warm glowing fire in the hearth, let us remember the true spirit of Halloween. Let us remember and cherish those that have walked this earth before us.