The Darkside Parlour
The Origins of Halloween Throughout the World
Celtic: The ancient Celtic (Irish, Scottish, Welsh) festival
called Samhain is considered by many to be a predecessor of our
contemporary Halloween. Samhain was the New Year's Day of the Celts,
celebrated on 1 November. It was also a day of the dead, a time when it
was believed that the souls of those who had died during the year were
allowed access to the land of the dead. It was related to the season: by
Samhain, the crops should be harvested and animals brought in from the
distant fields.
Many traditional beliefs and customs associated with
Samhain, most
notable that night was the time of the wandering dead, the practice of
leaving offerings of food and drink to masked and costumed revelers, and
the lighting of bonfires, continued to be practiced on 31 October, known
as the Eve of All Saints, the Eve of All Hallows, or Hallow Even. It is
the glossing of the name Hallow Even that has given us the name Hallow
e'en.
The spirits of Samhain, once thought to be wild and
powerful,
were now
said to be something worse: evil. The church maintained that the gods
and goddesses and other spiritual beings of traditional religions were
diabolical deceptions, that the spiritual forces that people had
experienced were real, but they were manifestations of the Devil, the
Prince of Liars, who misled people toward the worship of false idols.
Thus, the customs associated with Halloween included representations of
ghosts and human skeletons -symbols of the dead- and of the devil and
other malevolent, evil creatures, such as witches were said to be.
England: Guy Fawkes Day, 5 November, is celebrated in ways
reminiscent of Halloween. Guy Fawkes was accused of attempting to blow
up the Houses of Parliament on that day in 1605. He was apprehended,
hung, drawn, and quartered. On 5 November 1606, the same Parliament
declared the fifth of November a day of public thanksgiving. The act of
treason was viewed as part of a 'popish' -that is, Roman Catholic- plot
against the Protestant government. Because Holloween was associated with
the Catholic church calendar, its importance diminished, but many of its
traditions shifted to the annual commemoration of the death of Guy
Fawkes.
Today, for weeks in advance of 5 November, English children
prepare
effigies of Fawkes, dummies known as Guys. They set them out on street
corners and beg passers-by for "a penny for the Guy". The eve of the
fifth is know as Mischief Night, when children are free to play pranks on
adults, just as 30 October, the night before Halloween, is know as
Mischief Night in many areas of the U.S. On the night of 5 November, the
Guys are burned in bonfires, just as the ancient Celts burned bonfires on
1 November.
Germany: Throughout the Western world, 1 May, like 1 November,
is
a
day of traditional significance. The 30th of April, the eve of May 1, is
in areas of Germany, particularly the Harz Mountains, Walpurgisnacht, or
the eve of St. Walpurgis Day. Witches are supposed to be especially
active this day, as are spirits of the dead and demon creatures from the
nether world.
China: The care of the dead through prayers and sacrifices were part of a spring festival of purification and regeneration.
Japan: Bon festival, dedicated to the spirits of ancestors, for whom special foods are prepared, occurs during the middle of the summer (one of the most important festive periods of the year). Three days in length, it is a time when everyone goes home (reminiscent of the American Thanksgiving).
The first week of November is marked in many countries,
especially
those with a strong Catholic influence, with festivals concerned with
death in a playful but serious way. In Catholic countries we often find
some cognate of Halloween associated with All Saints' or All Souls'
days.
In Mexico and other Latin American countries, the first and
second
of
November are the Days of the Dead -El Dias de los Muertos. In some
regions, the evening of 31 October is the beginning of the Day of the
Dead Children, which is followed on 1 November by the Day of the Dead
Adults. Skeleton figures-candy (sugar skulls), toys, statues and
decorations-are seen everywhere. It is a time for great festivity, with
traditional plays and food. It is a time to play with death and
decorating family graves, which is preceded by religious services and
followed by picnics. The human skeleton or skull is the primary symbol
of the day. Unlike the American Halloween, in Mexico people build home
altars, adorned with religious icons and special breads and other food
for the dead. The Day of the Dead incorporates recognition of death as a
concept with rituals that remember the deaths of individuals.
Halloween has become one of the most important and widely
celebrated
festivals on the contemporary American calendar, and it is not even
officially a holiday. No day off is given for Halloween, no federal
decree is proclaimed establishing it as a national holiday. People
simply do it.
Vampires In Literature
Byron - "The Giaour"
But first on earth as vampire sent
Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent.
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race.
Dryden
Lo, in my walks where wicked elves have been,
The learning of the parish now is seen--
From fiends and imps he sets the village free,
There haunts not any incubus but he:
The maids and women need no danger fear
To walk by night and sanctity so near.
Scott - "Rokeby"
For like the bat of Indian brakes,
Her pinions Fan the wound she makes,
And soothing thus the dreamer's pains,
She drinks the life-blood from the veins.
Vampire Facts
The belief in the vampire and ghoul was prevalent even
in
Babylon
and Assyria, where it was maintained that the dead could appear again
upon the earth and seek sustenance from the living. The belief is, in
all probability, linked up with the almost universal theory that
transfused blood is necessary for revivification. Baths of human blood
were anciently prescribed as a possible remedy for leprosy.
Greek Christianity has been credited by many as the origin of
the
vampire belief. The belief was undoubtedly developed greatly under the
influence of the Greek Church, and utilized by the Greek priests as an
additional power which they possessed over the people. It did not become
prominent in Greece until after the establishment of Christianity.
In Crete the belief in vampires (or katalkanas) and their
existence
and ill-deeds forms a general article of popular belief throughout the
island, but is particularly strong in the mountains.
Germany - Nachzehrer
In some parts of the Kaiser's dominions, food is still buried
with
the
corpse in order to assuage any pangs of hunger that may arise and even
this is not done, a few grains of corn or rice are scattered upon the
grave as a survival of the ancient custom. In Diesdorf it is believed
that if money is not placed in the mouth of a dead person at burial, or
his name not cut from his shirt, he will, in all probability, become a
Nachzehrer, and his ghost issues from the grave in the form of a pig.
Another sure preventive of such a calamity is to break the neck of a dead
body.
Russia - Vrykolaka
The Hungarians believe that those who have been passive
vampires
in
life become active vampires after death; that those whose blood has been
sucked in life by vampires become themselves vampires after death. In
many districts the belief also prevails that the only way to prevent this
calamity happening is for the threatened victim to eat some earth from
the grave of the attacking vampire, and to smear his own body with blood
from the body of that vampire.
Bulgaria
The vampire tradition in its original loathsomeness, however,
is
to be
found only in the Bulgarian provinces, whither the knowledge of the
superstition was first imported from Dalmatia and Albania. In the former
country the vampire is know by the name of wukodlak. St Clair and Brophy
state that " the vampire is no longer a dead body possessed by a demon,
but a soul in revolt against the inevitable principle of corporeal death.
He is detected by a hole in the tombstone which is placed over his grave,
in which the hole is filled up by the medicine man with dirt mixed with
poisonous herbs."
Vampirism is claimed to be hereditary as well as epidemic
and
endemic,
and vampires are also stated to be capable of exercising considerable
physical force. Stories are told of men who have had their jaws broken,
as well as their limbs, as the result of their struggles with
vampires.
When the Bulgarian vampire has finished his forty days'
apprenticeship
to the world of shadows, he rises from the tomb in bodily form, and is
able to pass himself off as a human being living in the natural
manner.
In Slavonic countries the vieszcy is said to be possessed of
only
one
nostril, but is credited with possessing a sharp point at the end of his
tongue, like the sting of a bee.
Plato and Democritus say that souls lived for a certain time close
to
their dead bodies, which they sometimes preserved from corruption, and
that they could cause the hair, beard, and nails to grow in their tombs.
The early Christians also believed that the dead could come out of their
sepulchers to make room for more exalted personages, when these were
interred close to them.
Wright, Dudley - "The Book of Vampires" Gale Research Company, Book Tower Detroit, Michigan1981
