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It's Not Evil, Just Misunderstood...
--Author Unknown
Around the first of October it begins: stories fly about the evil of
Halloween, the devil's minions and their human sacrifices, the bloodthirsty
God Sam Hain and his call to evil. It makes a great tale... but it's not the
truth. The myths and legends surrounding the secular holiday of Halloween
range from the fantastic to the malicious. Some are based loosely on fact,
but most dangle from poor research, romantic texts, and a hunger for the one
universal human fallacy: good, juicy gossip.
To set the record straight about my favorite holiday, I've researched some of
the most common claims to hopefully find the truth.
1.)Halloween is based on a Druid celebration of Evil and human sacrifice.
Actually, Halloween is the remnants of an ancient Celtic festival known as
Samhain. The holiday marked the Celtic New Year, and included celebrations
of the harvest, feasting, and general merry-making. It was also believed to
be a time when the veil between the physical world and the spirit world was
at it's thinnest. In this sense Samhain was a celebration of the spirits of
departed ancestors and the faerie.
No archaeological or written evidence exists to mark any celebration of evil.
The gods of the Celts were celebrated during Samhain. These gods were,
after the conversion to Christianity, equated with the Devil and evil
spirits. It is logical to assume that this conversion led to the evil
undertones of the Pagan holiday.
Archaeologists and historians are sharply divided over whether or not Celts
or their Druid priests practiced human sacrifice. The only written account
of such sacrifices derives from Julius Caesar. His writings on the subject
have been looked at skeptically for some time by scholars, however, as he was
attempting to conquer the Celts at the time. Certainly animals were
sacrificed to the gods during Samhain, but evidence that humans were
sacrificed is practically nonexistent.
2.)Neopagan and Occult groups practice bizarre and illegal rituals on
Halloween, including human sacrifice, torture, and pacts with Satan.
Pagans and Neopagans, including Witches, do not believe in Satan. They do
not worship him, or even accept that such a being exists. Traditional
Satanists, who do accept that Satan exists, do not celebrate Halloween as a
holy day.
Most Pagans do perform rituals on Oct. 31st in celebration of the pagan
holiday of Samhain. These rituals are closely tied to the Celtic traditions,
and include feasts, calls to the gods and goddesses, and often divination of
the new year. Many pagans also perform ceremonies to honor departed loved
ones on Samhain. In this sense it is sometimes called the Pagan Memorial
Day. None of these celebrations include any type of living sacrifice or
pacts with anyone.
3.)Halloween is the night of the Celtic god Sam Hain, the evil Lord of the Dead.
Samhain is a celtic word meaning "hallows eve" or "summers end". It is not
the name of a god. No gods named Samhain exist in any writing or
archaeological evidence about the ancient Celts. Although some Celtic
pantheons did include a lord of the spirit world, none of these deities are
portrayed as evil. The concept of the spirit world in most Celtic cultures
was a place much like the world of humans: it was not inherently good or evil.
4.)It is impossible to separate Halloween from its Pagan origins.
Not true. Holidays such as Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving all have
practices that originated in the Pagan religions of Europe. These holidays
are not looked on as evil, yet their customs are just as blatantly Pagan as
the customs tied to Halloween
.
5.)Occult killings happen every year in the US during Halloween.
This myth is tied closely to the legends of Satanic Ritual Abuse in the US.
No proof of any widespread occult murders have ever been found, and no
evidence exists that any ritual or Satanic murders have been committed on
Halloween. The related stories of Satan's minions putting razor blades in
apples and drugs in candy are equally unsubstantiated Urban Legends
.
6.)Occult forces use Halloween to recruit new followers to their religion.
Pagan and Neopagan traditions are not evangelical faiths: they do not
recruit new members, period. The other faiths/groups lumped under the
general heading of 'the occult' place little significance on the holiday of
Samhain. They do not spend any extraordinary amount of time attempting to
recruit new members at this time of year.
7.)Witches spend Halloween night casting spell and hexes on people and
worshipping Satan.
The myth of the Witch and the truth about witchcraft are very different
things. The myth was created during the Middle Ages, at a time when
Witchcraft was looked on as a heresy and an executable offense. The
propaganda spread by Christians of the time was designed to purge the
remnants of the pre Christian religions from the populace of Europe.
Modern witches do not worship Satan. They don't even believe in Satan.
Although some witches do cast spells, Wiccans (sometimes known as Witches)
are specifically prohibited from harming anyone. The Wiccan Rede, divinely
inspired and akin to the Golden Rule, reads "An it harm none, do what you will."
The Halloween Myths
For the Fall of the year is more than three months bounded by an equinox and a solstice. It is a summing up without the finality of year's end. -- Hal Borland
Make a pumpkin cake from the stoneware fluted pan. Make a box cake mix in the pan, remove and make another one. Put the two together and you'll have a wonderful pumpkin!
