Conference tallis::celt

Article 3471 of soc.culture.celtic:
From: [email protected] (Michael S Newton)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic
Subject: Samhain (Halloween, etc)

Although I did make a brief mention of it yesterday, I take Sorcha's
comment to heart: there should be something mentioned, and hopefully
discussed, about Samhain (Q-Celtic term, pronounced roughly "sow-win"),
which is the Celtic New Year.

The Celts had deeply engrained in their belief system the concept of
the duality of nature, and this is well illustrated by their notions
of time and space.

The Celts basically saw time as having two halves, a dark and a light
half (the dark coming first).  The new day starts at sundown, and, likewise,
the new year starts in the winter (the dark half of the year).

Likewise, besides this world, the Celts believed in the Otherworld, a place
of magic and mystic power, where the "sidhe" lived.  The veil between the
worlds was not very solid, but fairly thin: gods or goddesses might enter
this world, perhaps changing into animal form, or luring men or women into
the Otherworld.

The opposing feasts of Samhain and Beltaine (May 1st) were the divisions
between times of the year, and this division was reflected in the opening
of space between the worlds as well: the doors to the Otherworld were
opened, and mischievous spirits would come through into this world to
wreak havoc, or just have a little fun.

Today Halloween is the folk-remembrance of this celebration.  Our dressing
up (at least in America) as ghosts and ghouls reflects the haunting of
spirits in this world.

The jack o'lantern is a faint echo of the Celtic cult of the severed
head, and apple-bobbing is an old Celtic divination rite (apples were
strongly associated with the Otherworld: Welsh for "apple" is "aval",
producing the name for "Avalon").

For more info, refer to my Celtic HyperCard presentation!!

    
    Custom has changed alot down the years, especially the way Samhain is
    celebrated.	I remember when I was much younger some of the tricks that
    the local young boys used to get up to.... some I will not mention.
    
    
    On the Samhain night the boys used to gather together and terrorise the
    neighbours in some of the following fashion.
    
    	Get a large bucket of water and place it at an angle against some
    ones front door. Now knock loudly and run off.....not a very nice one I
    know but it sure got the neighbours upset. Another was tying a piece of
    very fine thread to the door knocker and then giving it a quick tug or
    two while hiding behind a tree. Imagine the surprise on someones face
    when this happens a few times and there is nobody there, it must be the
    Faries calling again. One prank that was not popular with the victim 
    was hurling either a large turnip or head of cabbage against a front
    door and then scampering before you were caught.
    
    For the younger generation there was and still is the party. This
    usually involved playing Dallog ( not sure if I have spelt it properly,
    but to some it is called Blind-Mans-Chase ), Dunking for fruit and
    listening to tall stories. One thing we were all warned against was
    never eat the sloes after Samhain because the local Bean_she will have
    peed on them all.
    
    regards
    
    	Brendan 

    I live with 2 elderly parents in a recently built up area,Our house
    stood on its own for 20 years before the rest were built.
    Naturally they got used to a certain level of peace and quiet before
    this.
    Now every hollowe'en they are very upset by the mischief that the kids
    get up to in the neighbourhood.
    I'm afraid for the kids if they get caught as my parents take this sort
    of thing very seriously indeed.
    I don't see the humour of it when kids disturb the peace that old
    people are entitled to.
    

    
    
    Hi Everybody,
    
    I've got a question.  My recently-made Australian friends tell me that
    Halloween isn't celebrated in their country.  I find this kind of odd
    since rumor has it that a lot of Irish folks emigrated to Oz (by choice
    and otherwise :^)
    
    So, what's the deal?  Why wouldn't the tradition of Samhain been
    brought along with them???
    
    /Jen 

    Halloween is celebrated here in Australia only it's pretty low-key.
    Some kids dressed up and came around on the night but not too many.
    There are probably a few reasons why it isn't.
    
    1. A lot of the people here are [decended from] English/British
    migrants. The Brits don't really celebrate Halloween, they prefer to
    wait until Guy Fawkes night (nov. 5th).
    
    2. There are a lot of Aisan peoples here who wouldn't have a clue what
    it was all about.
    
    3. We're on daylight saving time, it doesn't get dark until 9pm so
    there's not much point in the kids dressing up as witches to go out
    frightening people in broad daylight.
    
    4. It's 31�C and it just doesn't 'feel' like halloween.
    
    
    Tony.

    It would have to be celebrated on the 30th of April to have the right
    seasonal connotations.
    Looking at my map I see only Tasmania and New Zealand would be South
    enough to be dark early enough to make it authentic...........