Originally a Pagan Solar Festival celebrating the third and final harvest, a fun day for children and adults, is the second most decorated holiday after Christmas.
This holiday is also called Samhain, Feast of the Dead, Feast of Apples, November Eve, All Hallows Eve, La Samon and Hallows. It was a day to give thanks for bountiful harvest and to honor the dead.
Animals of Hallowe’en
- Cats, especially black ones, were believed to have special powers, including the ability to sense good and evil spirits. In Medieval times, people were becoming disillusioned with the Church and its domination over their lives. The religious establishment needed a scapegoat to blame for the unrest, so it targeted women who belonged to the Cult of Diana. She and other Goddesses, including Freya, Bastet and Artemis, were associated with the Underworld and death, therefore, with witchcraft and evil. They were symbolized by cats, so the animals were considered demonic. Both witches and the devil could turn into a cat. Felines could shapeshift into witches. Owning a cat was sufficient evidence that a person was a witch. As witches were being persecuted, so were their cats. Pope Gregory IX decreed cats and the devil were linked. Pope Innocent VIII enacted a law declaring all cats in Christendom be killed. French King Louis XIII revoked the law.
- Bats are associated with Hallowe’en because the Sabbat’s bonfires attracted hordes of mosquitoes. Bats would flit about, hunting their prey. Because they’re nocturnal and live in caves, tombs and church steeples, non-Pagans believed they were omens of evil and associated them with witches. The Scots believed that, when a flying bat swooped, it was done by a witch’s house. Early Christians believed that the devil turned into a bat to torment people and witches and ghosts could shape-shift into them. A bat flying near people was a sign someone was trying to bewitch them.
- Owls, associated with the Underworld, were also attracted to bonfires because of the mosquitoes. Superstition was that these nocturnal raptors consumed souls of the dying when they winged down to earth.
- While Pagans believed the spider and her web represented the weaving of life, to non-Pagans, they represented dark, fearful places and haunted structures.
Hallowe'en Miscellany
- The original Jack-o-Lanterns were mangel-wurzels, large yellowish beets. According to legend, Jack was a mean spirited Irishman who outsmarted the devil. When Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his wicked ways. He went to the portals of hell. The devil denied him entry because he promised never to bother Jack again. He threw him a lump of coal to guide Jack on his eternal earthly journey and he put it in a mangel-wurzel. When the Irish immigrated to America, they found pumpkins were easier to carve.
- In Welsh tradition, spirits of the dead appeared on every crossroad on Hallowe’en. In other Western European lore, the dead walked in groups to visit homes of their living relatives. They could be seen by standing at a crossroad with one’s chin propped on a forked stick.
- Ghosts are the spirits of the departed. Skeletons and bones are symbolic of death and the shortness of life. Samhain is the Festival of the Dead.
- Druids wore masks on Samhain to protect themselves from goblins, ghosts and evil spirits because it was believed the dead walked the earth.
- Hallowe’en’s colors are black and orange. To Pagans, orange represents strength, valor and energy. Black absorbed and banished evil. Non-Pagans viewed orange as the color of autumn and harvest; black as signs of death and malevolence.
Related articles:
Halloween Customs: American Style
Sources:
The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, (Facts on File, 1992)
The Encyclopedia of Witches & Witchcraft, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, (Facts on File, Inc., 1999)
Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, ScottCunningham, (Llewellyn Publications, 1992)
The copyright of the article Hallowe'en FAQs - Traditions in Paganism/Wicca is owned by Jill Stefko . Permission to republish Hallowe'en FAQs - Traditions in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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