Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Hallow E'en observed a long, long time ago.


Many experts believe the druids were the first to observe Halloween. Dating back to 700 B.C., they celebrated the festival of Samhain, (the end of the harvest and a time to honor the dead) on November 1st. In the ensuing years, the night before became known as the Eve of all Hallows, a.k.a. Hallow Even, a.k.a.Hallowe'en. ^_^
Samhain image found on the web at http://www.susunweed.com/.

4 comments:

The Artful Gypsy aka Wendy the Very Good Witch said...

Yep...and the then the Church marched in and took over. They changed all the names and some of the activities, so that they could make their new religion palatable to the Pagans they were trying to conquer and convert. So many of our modern day religious holidays had Celtic/Pagan origins.

Broom Hilda said...

Yuppers. The church. Always stepping in for some reason or another. ^_^

J~W said...

I love the picture with this! So cute! According to ancient Celtic legend, Samhain could control the spirits of the dead. He could allow them to rest peacefully or spur them into wild and frenzied activity! The Celts also believed that on Oct 31 Samhain assembled the souls of all those who had died during the previous year... This was the Vigil of Samhain. To pay for their sins, these souls were put into the bodies of animals.
I am off to check out the link you posted! (I hope I didn't repeat anything thats there! lol!)

Broom Hilda said...

Hey J~W!
Nice to see you here!

^_^