Happy Samhain, Hallowe’en, Trick or Treat…

Have a blessed Samhain… Samhain (pronounced Sah-win) is an ancient Celtic and pagan festival that predates Christianity by thousands of years. It was a feast to celebrate the harvest’s end and usher in the “darker half” of the year, running from 31st October to 1st November. It was also a special ceremony to remember and celebrate deceased loved ones, but not to mourn them (scholars speculate that the macabre traditions surrounding modern Hallowe’en might stem from this aspect). The festival was later ruthlessly and systematically quashed and usurped (as ever) by the fevered zeal and fanaticism of missionaries preaching and enforcing a new middle eastern cult called “Christianity”, which conveniently placed its “All Saints Day” or “All Hallows Day” on 1st November, thus rendering the preceding day – 31st October – as “All Hallows Eve” or “Hallowed Evening” or “Hallow-e’nin” in old English, later of course simply “Hallowe’en”.

But it is still Sah-win to pagans and Celts the world over.

Now that the cultural & religious history is dealt with… Back in Yorkshire when I was but a nipper, there was no such thing as pumpkins to hollow out on Hallowe’en – not in Yorkshire high street green grocers anyway; so we carved out large turnips (aka neep, aka swede), which was a very lengthy, very painful (and often very bloody) process. We then poked holes in them, attached a string handle to the top, put a stump of a stick candle inside (there were no tea lights back then either) and then mooched excitedly round the neighbourhood in the coal smoke tinged dark and drizzle, knocking on doors asking folks for “a penny for the lantern”. Some were good humoured and kind enough to put a few pence in your outstretched hand. Many just grumpily barked “bugger off!” and slammed the door in your face – often people you knew! I remember the awful sickly reek emanating from the lantern, as the candle scorched and blackened the underside of the turnip lid.

Nowadays, as usual, thanks to the modern god that is capitalism; what was an ancient British tradition going back centuries (and before that, right back to the aforementioned Celtic traditions of Samhain) has been ruined and diluted, by the greed, shallowness & commercialism of American imported “Trick Or Treat” (where the emphasis is now clearly on the threat of “Treat” – or else).

However you celebrate it (or not)… Happy Hallowe’en.