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Celtic Samhain or Catholick Helloween?

27/10/2019

1 Comment

 
Two very different events for two very different traditions.

Celtic Samhain


Celtic Samhain simply means the ‘end of summer for the Celts in Ireland’. It was not and could not be celebrated on a catholick calendar because Samhain existed thousands of years before the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great created the catholick (universal) church to instill spiritual fear into his subjects in 325ad.

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Samhain is the third of three cattle harvest festivals when breeding stock were selected for next the year and gifts of prime quality bulls were given to kings from their sub-kings and the final slaughter of cattle happened. Everyone was involved because everyone had input into ‘growing the herd’ and so they were all entitled to a share of the harvest too. Hides were harvested for tanning into leather, horns and hooves were separated for glue, meat was selected for smoking, salting and for feasting and specialty meats such as hearts, livers and kidneys were were most likely given to the free hospitals for the old and sick.

What was left over during the processing of this harvest, i.e. that which had no use, was burned. This is where the term BONE FIRE comes from. This fire of bones may have been called “Tine Cnámh” in Celtic Ireland. Ashes from these bone fires were put back on the land to guarantee the fruitfulness of the land. Think it through - open air slaughter of 1000’s of beasts, huge gatherings of people involved in many aspects of processing the bounty of the land, billions of flies, thousands of crows, vultures, eagles, wolves etc etc - of course they had big bone fires! They would have been foolish not to have multiple fires for waste control... These bone fires would probably have been ritually started and supervised by the Druí and tended by their daltaí (students) but everyone would find safety from the flies etc simply by being near these fires. It is my guess that the first fire for the third harvest at Samhain was the most symbolic or ritualistic and may have even been made with wood specially brought from each area that was to supply beasts for slaughter. Bear in mind that cows were used to pull carts back in the day and they could not arrive empty because they expected to go home full...

The timing for this first of the Samhain fires was on the Dark Moon of Samhain. This happens during an alignment of the Earth, the Moon and the Sun with the star Antares. Antares is one of the four royal stars in the zodiac and we call this star Tlachtga after the Earth Goddess in Meath whose sacred temple is on the Hill of Ward near Athboy. This temple was desecrated by the ‘wiccan burning cult’ on catholick helloween 2018. (see https://www.celticdruidtemple.com/ home page for details). When the Earth, Dark Moon, Sun and Star alignment happens it is on the south western horizon and the star appears as a bright light for only a few seconds after the Sun and Moon have set together. You check this out on the website Stellarium or keep watching until we get a year without clouds on the horizon... https://stellarium-web.org/

The week long bone fires had strong odor and were kept going day and night to reduce waste and defend the clans from flies etc, different and separate fires were made for cooking, there were beacon fires too because the cattle herders would not be allowed to arrive all at once. A lot of fires with different purposes all of which were probably lit from the first fire and tended or overseen by the Druí and their attendants. So we know what the sacred fires of Samhain were and are about, we know they were celebrated regionally and we know the exact timing for these ceremonial fire is too. The Celtic New Year is honoured at dusk on the Dark Moon of Samhain.

Catholick Helloween

Catholick Helloween has a confused dating history from various Popes, Abbots, Martin Luther (Reformation Day) and commercialization in America! The date for celebrating catholick helloween was originally set when Pope Boniface IV reconsecrated the Pantheon in Rome on May 13th, 609ad, renaming it the “Church of St. Mary and the Martyrs,”. Pope Boniface IV established May 13th as a day of remembrance for all the Church’s martyrs. Pope Gregory III (died 28th November 741) later changed the date of remembrance to November 1 when he dedicated a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica to “all saints.” This became All Saints Day, also called ‘All Hallow’s Day’. The night before became All Hallow’s Eve or Halloween. While Halloween began as a localized celebration, Pope Gregory IV extended its observance to all of Christendom in the 9th Century AD. In Ireland, All Saints Day in 998ad was set as Nov 1 by the Abbot ‘Odilo of Cluny’. By the 13th century, even though the Celtic Samhain rituals persisted because of the 3rd harvest tradition, November 1st had also become an established catholick festival.

In 1517ad on October 31 we get ‘Reformation Day’ because Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the Catholic church in Wittenberg, Germany. This started the Protestant Reformation. Bear in mind that calendar they all used was chaotic and was only secured as the current (fake time) version long after all the dating events given above. Pope Gregory XIII introduced the prevailing current commercial calendar in October 1582. This is the ‘calendar’ that has one extra day every four years... Gregory XIII’s biggest mistake was that he did not start his calendar with year zero as that concept did not exist - he started it at year 1 so every one using the current commercial calendar (fake time) is off by one year... plus one day every four years... plus no one can prove exactly when Jesus was born... lol.

On catholick helloween in American every year people spend billions of dollars on costumes, decorations, sweets, and other items. For example - in 2017, Halloween spending reached $9.1 billion compared to the $8.4 billion spent in 2016. This makes it second when compared to xmas revenue... It emerged as a tradition in America following mass emigration of Irish people in response to An Gorta Mor (the great hunger) of the 1850’s in Ireland but it has these days lost all connection to the pope’s efforts to displace Samhain as the current celebrations are ‘trick or treat’ witches, pumpkins and skeletons...

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Chaos is celebrated at helloween in Ireland these days because tyres are burned, fireworks are used as attack weapons and in many places in the cities it is unsafe to wander... The ‘wiccan burning cult’ attacked and displaced the 17 year tradition of a native pilgrimage on helloween last year in 2018, most of the wiccans wore masks - “fools dressed as she-devils and he-devils” to quote one observer. They also burned a 14 foot high Eight Spoke Sun Wheel on the ground inside a national monument using paraffin – see pic above.

So we know what the fires of helloween were and are about, we know too that they were always celebrated by the catholick church and we know what the exact timing for their ceremonial fires are. We also know that the ability of the church to regulate their event has long gone into chaos. We know that the ‘wiccan burning cult’ seeks to stand in where the priests of the church used to be.
A choice

The Celtic New Year is honoured at dusk on the Dark Moon of Samhain while Helloween is a profitable event on the commercial calendar shrouded in fear disconnected from the ways of our ancestors. Which do you honour?




1 Comment
Akron Hook Up link
10/5/2024 10:45:13 pm

Thanks forr this blog post

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    Authors

    Niamh and Con are founding members of Celtic Druid Temple and walk the path of Celtic Druids in Roscommon, Eire.

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