Thursday Thirteen: Samhain a/k/a/ Halloween

One of my favorite movie moments takes place in My Left Foot, after the young Christy Brown has left church with his mother, who spent valuable coins to light votive candles that the parish priest extinguishes without a second thought. It is a scene that suggests the church is far too small to house the dreams of the spirit.

When Christy and his mother leave the church, a child in a Halloween mask sticks his face in Christy's and invites him to join the Halloween revels. A bonfire blazes in all the imaginative freedom and glory that the votives lack. It is a moment that suggests the spirit will not be hemmed in; it will blaze bright.

It's a beautiful juxtaposition in this Irish movie about the triumph of the spirit over all limitations. I took a look at the Celtic history of the holiday this week, and here's what I found:

1. Though holidays commemorating the dead take some form in cultures around the world, Halloween has a Celtic lineage.

2. The ancient Celts divided their year into the light--Beltaine--and the dark--Samhain. Samhain is the source of Halloween.

3. Samhain marks the beginning of a new cycle just as the Celtic day began at night.

4. The Celts believed that in the dark--the unknown and unnameable--came new beginnings.

5. These agrarian people understood that time is cyclical. Thus this eve of a new year represents a point outside of time, when the natural order of the universe dissolves back into primordial chaos as it prepares to re-establish itself in a new order.

6. At Samhain, the gods drew near the earth, so sacrifices and gifts were offered up in gratitude for the harvest.

7. The human and spiritual worlds were said to merge at Samhain.

8. Bobbing for apples is a Halloween tradition that draws on Celtic lore. At the heart of the Celtic Otherworld grows an apple tree whose fruit has magical properties. (more)