LA NOCHE DE SAMHAIN

Reedición Octubre-2012

Los antiguos pueblos celtas, llegado el final de

Octubre, solían celebrar una gran fiesta para

conmemorar ”el final de la cosecha”, bautizada con la

palabra gaélica de Samhain. Significa,

etimológicamente, ‘el final del verano’.

Esta fiesta representaba el momento del año en

el que los antiguos celtas almacenaban provisiones

para el invierno y sacrificaban animales.

Se acababa el tiempo de las cosechas, y a partir

de entonces, los días iban a ser más cortos y las

noches más largas. Los celtas creían que en esta

noche de Samhain (hoy noche de Halloween),

los espíritus de los muertos volvían a visitar el

mundo de los mortales. Encendían grandes hogueras

para ahuyentar a los malos espíritus.

Era la fiesta nocturna de bienvenida al Año

Nuevo.

La costumbre era dejar comida y dulces fuera de

sus casas y encender velas para ayudar a las almas

de los muertos a encontrar el camino hacia la luz y el

descanso junto al dios Sol, en las Tierras del Verano.

La noche de Samhain en la actualidad se ha

convertido en la noche de Halloween.

Ejemplo de ello es la vieja tradición de dejar

comida para los muertos, hoy representada en los

niños que, disfrazados, van de casa en casa, pidiendo

dulces, con la frase ‘trick or treat’ (trato o truco).

Al parecer, los celtas iban recogiendo alimentos

por las casas para las ofrendas a sus dioses. Rituales

que, supuestamente, incluían algún que otro sacrificio

humano y para los que preparaban un gran nabo

hueco con carbones encendidos dentro, representando

al espíritu que creían que les otorgaba poder.

En esa mágica noche de rituales, la noche de

Samhain, se abría la puerta al más alla y los vivos y

los muertos tenían la oportunidad de poder

comunicarse.

Tras la romanización de los pueblos celtas – con

alguna excepción como es el caso de Irlanda- y, a

pesar de que la religión de los druidas llegó a

desaparecer; el primitivo ‘Samhain’ logreó sobrevivir

conservando gran parte de su espíritu y algunos de

sus ritos.

Así pues, la tradición será recogida y se

extenderá por los pueblos de la Europa medieval, en

especial los de origen céltico, quienes tradicionalmente

ahuecaban nabos y en su interior ponían carbón

ardiente para iluminar el camino de regreso al mundo

de los vivos a sus familiares difuntos más queridos

dándoles así la bienvenida, a la vez que se protegían

de los malos espíritus.

Con el auge de la nueva religión-el cristianismo-

la fiesta pagana se cristianizó después como el dia ‘de

Todos los Santos’ (la traducción en inglés es, “All

Hallow´s Eve”, de ahí la expresión actual de

‘Hallowe’en’).

A pesar de ello, los irlandeses , entre otros

pueblos de origen celta, siguieron celebrando la

tradición festiva de la noche de Samhaim, el 31 de

Octubre, desde el año 100 d.C.

LA NOCHE DE SAMHAIN SE CONVIERTE EN

NOCHE DE HALLOWEEN

A mediados del siglo XVIII, los emigrantes

irlandeses empiezan a llegar a Norteamérica. Con

ellos llegan, su cultura, su folclore, sus tradiciones, y

también su noche de Samhain. Eso sí con algunos

cambios, estos europeos comenzaron a utilizar

calabazas-mucho más grandes y fáciles de ahuecar-

en lugar de los nabos.

En un primer momento, la fiesta sufre una fuerte

represión por parte de las autoridades de Nueva

Inglaterra, de arraigada tradición luterana.

Pero a finales del siglo XIX, los Estados Unidos

reciben una nueva oleada de inmigrantes de origen

céltico.

La fiesta irlandesa entonces, se mezcla con otras

creencias indias y en la secuela colonial, el Halloween

incluye entre sus tradiciones la conocida leyenda de

Jack-o-lantern, como se conoce actualmente, “Jack

O’Lantern”.

Esta leyenda tiene su origen en un irlandés

taciturno y pendenciero llamado Jack, quien una

noche, de 31 de Octubre, cuenta la tradición, que se

tropezó con el mísmisimo diablo.

Desde entonces comenzó a extenderse la

leyenda negra de Jack-o-lantern; el tenebroso candil

de Jack.

Además de esta leyenda en la noche de

Hallowen es tradición el contar historias de fantasmas

y la realización de travesuras, bromas o bailes

tradicionales. La gente comienza a confeccionar

disfraces o trajes para Halloween.

Conclusión

Podemos concluir esta historia apuntando que

Halloween, se desvela como una noche bañada por

una áura mágica, misteriosa y aterradora. Personajes

terroríficos y hechizados-brujas, fantasmas, duendes,

espíritus-, salen de sus cuentos de leyenda para

mezclarse entre los mortales que se preparan con

disfraces, bromas, pelucas, pinturas, y películas de

terror para recibirlos, aunque, sin perder el ambiente

de fiesta y el buen humor.

La fiesta de halloween carece ya de sentido

religioso, y como tantas otras, forma parte de nuestra

sociedad y cultura consumista.

Una fiesta ancestral reconvertida para la

sociedad actual del ocio. Nada tiene que ver ya con los

rituales de los druidas ni con los pueblos celtas que

dominaron la mayor parte del oeste y centro de Europa

durante el primer milenio a.C.

Precisamente, es por ello, que no debemos

olvidar su verdadero origen.

Para los que piensan es una moda importada de

los estadounidenses aclarar que que se equivocan, ya

que precisamente son ellos los que han mantenido

viva esta vieja tradición europea que, todavía en

paises como Irlanda, se sigue celebrando cada año

como la noche de Samhain y que poco a poco vuelve

a sus orígenes con más fuerza.

Ejemplo de ello es la vieja tradición de dejar

comida para los muertos, hoy representada en los

niños que, disfrazados, van de casa en casa, pidiendo

dulces, con la frase ‘trick or treat’ (trato o truco).

Como ya hemos explicado los druidas celtas

recogían alimentos por las casas para realizar

ofrendas a la divinidad (se habla también de posibles

sacrificios humanos) y llevaban consigo un gran nabo

hueco con carbones encendidos dentro, representando

al espíritu que les daba poder.

Hoy Halloween es una fiesta internacional de la

que no debemos ignorar su origen. Todavía, durante la

noche irlandesa de Samhain, se prenden grandes

hogueras en las que el vecindario arroja los trastos

viejos acumulados en sus casas para recibir el año

nuevo celta.

Halloween

The myth of Samhain: "Celtic god of the dead"

Overview:

Identifying Samhain as a Celtic Death God is one

of the most tenacious errors associated with

Halloween.

Almost all stories about the origin of Halloween

correctly state that Halloween had its origins among

the ancient Celts and is based on their "Feast of

Samhain." However, a writer in the 18th century

incorrectly stated that Samhain was named after the

famous Celtic "God of the Dead." Many religious

conservatives who are opposed to Halloween,

Druidism, and/or Wicca picked up this belief without

checking its accuracy, and accepted it as valid.

No such God ever existed. By the late 1990's

many secular sources such as newspapers and

television programs had picked up the error and

propagated it widely. It is now a nearly universal belief,

particularly among conservative Protestants.

Modern-day Samhain is the day when many

Wiccans believe that their God dies, later to be reborn.

[Wicca is a Neo-pagan, Earth-centered religion.] Thus,

Samhain is not a God of death; it is actually began as a

yearly observance of the death of a God.

Was/is Samhain a Celtic God?

The answer is a definite yes and no:

YES. He did exist. Many Neopagan and

secular sources are probably wrong. As As Isaac

Bonewits writes: "Major dictionaries of Celtic

Languages don't mention any 'Samhain' deity..." 8

However, there is some evidence that there really was

an obscure, little known character named Samain or

Sawan who played the role of a very minor hero in

Celtic mythology. His main claim to fame was that

Balor of the Evil Eye stole his magical cow. His

existence is little known, even among Celtic historians.

He was a hero, not a god. It is likely that he was named

after the end of summer celebration rather than vice-

versa.

NO. Many conservative Christian and secular

sources are definitely wrong; there is/was no Celtic

God of the Dead. The Great God Samhain appears to

have been invented in the 18th century, as a God of

the Dead before the ancient Celtic people and their

religion were studied by historians and archaeologists.

McBain's Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic

Language says that 'samhuinn' (the Scots Gaelic

spelling) means 'summer's end'..." The Celts observed

only two seasons of the year: summer and winter. So,

Samhain was celebrated at one of the transitions

between these seasons.

Samhain is pronounced "sah-van" or "sow-in"

(where "ow" rhymes with "cow"). Samhain is Irish

Gaelic for the month of November. Samhuin is Scottish

Gaelic for All Hallows, NOV-1.

A language expert has commented that the "mh"

in Samhain and Samhuin "would originally have been

pronounced like an "m" made without quite closing

your mouth." At the present time, the original

pronunciation is still heard. Some tighten it to a "v"

sound (typical in the south) or loosen it to a "w" sound

(typical in the west and, especially, the north). In

"Samhain" the "w" pronunciation would be most

common." 20

Sponsored link.

There are many sources supporting the

conclusion that Samhain refers to the festival, not a

God of the Dead. They come from Celtic, Druidic, Irish,

and Wiccan individuals and groups:

Wiccan web site "Brightest Blessings"

mentions:

"Samhain (October 31), most often recognized as

our New Year, is also called Ancestor Night. It

represented the final harvest, when the crops were

safely stored for the coming Winter. As the veil

between the worlds of life and death is thin on this

night, we take this time to remember our beloved

dead."

W.J, Bethancourt III has an online essay

which traces the God Samhain myth back to the year

1770 when Col. Charles Vallency wrote a 6 volume set

of books which attempted to prove that the Irish people

once came from Armenia. Samhain as a god was later

picked up in a 1827 book by Godfrey Higgins. 9 That

book attempted to prove that the Druids originally came

from India. The error might have originated in

confusion over the name of Samana, an ancient

Vedic/Hindu deity. Bethancourt comments:

"With modern research, archaeology and the

study of the Indo-European migrations, these

conclusions can be seen as the complete errors they

were..."

Later, he writes: " 'Samhain' is the name of the

holiday. There is no evidence of any god or demon

named 'Samhain,' 'Samain,' 'Sam Hane,' or however

you want to vary the spelling."

Rowan Moonstone, a Wiccan, comments:

"I've spent several years trying to trace the "Great

God Samhain" and I have YET to find seminal sources

for the same. The first reference seems to be from Col.

Vallency in the 1700s and then Lady Wilde in her book

'Mystic Charms and Superstitions' advances the

'Samhain, lord of the dead' theory. Vallency, of course

was before the work done on Celtic religion in either

literature or archaeology." 12

The Irish English Dictionary, published by the

Irish Texts Society, defines Samhain as follows:

"Samhain, All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in

Pagan and Christian times, signalizing the close of

harvest and the initiation of the winter season, lasting

till May, during which troops (esp. the Fiann) were

quartered." 13

The Scottish Gaelis Dictionary similarly

defines Samhain as:

"Hallowtide. The Feast of All Soula. Sam + Fuin =

end of summer." 14

J.C. Cooper, author of The Dictionary of

Festivals identifies Samhain as:

"Samhain or Samhuinn: (Celtic). 31 October, Eve

of 1 November, was the beginning of the Celtic year,

the beginning of the season of cold, dearth and

darkness." 19

Wiccans have attempted to reconstruct the

ancient Celtic religion. They include this festival as one

of their 8 Sabbats (seasonal days of celebration). They

do not acknowledge the existence of a God of the

Dead named Samhain or a similar deity by any other

name. Modern-day Druids and other Neopagans also

celebrate Samhain as a special day.

Meaning of Samhain according to most

conservative Christians:

The belief that Samhain is a Celtic God of the

Dead is near universal among conservative Christian

ministries, authors and web sites. They rarely cite

references. This is unfortunate, because it would

greatly simplify the job of tracing the myth of Samhain

as a God back to its origin:

In 1989, Johanna Michaelsen wrote a book

opposing the New Age, Humanism and Wicca. It is

titled "Your Child and the Occult" 4 She writes:

"The Feast of Samhain was a fearsome night, a

dreaded night, a night in which great bonfires were lit to

Samana the Lord of Death, the dark Aryan god who

was known as the Grim Reaper, the leader of the

ancestral Ghosts."

The Watchman Fellowship Inc is a

conservative Christian counter-cult group which

attempts to raise public concern over religious groups

whose theological teachings deviate from orthodox

Christianity. Lately, they have also been expressing

concern about the dangers of inter-religious dialog.

They seem to imply that belief in Baal, a Middle

Eastern deity, made it all the way into Celtic lands.

They assert:

"It [Halloween] was at this time of the year that

Baal, the Celtic god of Spring and Summer, ended his

reign. It was also when the Lord of the Dead, Samhain,

began his reign."

David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam serial killer,

converted to conservative Christianity after his trial and

incarceration. He has claimed that he was simply a

lookout for an evil Satanic cult who actually performed

the murders. He further states that "Sam" in "Son of

Sam" comes from the name of the Celtic God of the

Dead, Samhain, which he pronounced "Sam-hane."

His story is suspect because:

He mispronounced Samhain.

Samhain is not a Celtic God.

Samhain is not a Satanic deity either.

The police investigators are convinced that he

was a lone killer, not a member of a group.

David Porter, author of "Hallowe'en: Treat or

Trick?," comments:

"The Celtic New Year festival was known as the

celebration of Samhain, the Lord of the Dead."

The "Exposing Satanism" website states:

"Halloween, All saints day, All hallows eve or All

souls day is [sic] a festival. It was held to honor the

Samhain the so called "lord of death". It was a

Druidical belief that on the eve of this festival Samhain,

lord of death, called together the wicked spirits that

within the past 12 months had been condemned to

inhabit the bodies of animals." 21

John Ankerbert & John Weldon have written a

series of pamphlets that are among the best works by

conservative Christian authors for the general public.

They make extensive use of footnotes and exhibit

careful research of their topic. 17 Apparently they were

faced with a conflict with respect to Samhain - whether:

to follow the findings of historians and

archaeologists, and admit that Samhain is simply the

name of the festival, or

to support previous Christian authors and

refer to Samhain as the Druidic God of the Dead even

though there is no archaeological evidence to support

that conclusion.

They compromised by stating:

"...400 names of Celtic gods are

known...'Samhain' as the specific name of the Lord of

Death is uncertain, but it is possible that the Lord of

Death was the chief druidic deity. We'll follow the lead

of several other authors and call him Samhain."

This is a strange comment, because they must

have been aware that there is no mention in the

historical record of a major Celtic God called Samhain.

Thus is it most improbable that Samhain would be the

chief Druidic deity, and have gone so long undetected.

On the other hand there are conservative

Christians who follow the lead of archaeological and

religious research. Richard Bucher from a

Massachusetts congregation of the Lutheran church -

Missouri Synod writes: 16

"Nothing in the extant literature or in the

archaeological finds supports the notion that there ever

existed a god of the dead known as Samam

(sometimes spelled, 'Samhain,' pronounced 'sow -en'),

though hundreds of gods' names are known. Rather,

Saman or Samhain is the name of the festival itself. It

means "summer's end" and merely referred to the end

of one year and the beginning of the new.

This misinformation is caused by numerous

conservative Protestant writers copying material from

other conservative Protestant writers, without first

checking its validity.

Sponsored link:

Meaning of Samhain according to secular

sources:

Most newspapers and other secular sources

appear to be following conservative Christian thought,

rather than academic research. Two examples are:

Lee Carr wrote the text for a web site

"Halloweenies...For kids not meanies." 5 She writes:

"Druids would feast and build huge bonfires to

celebrate the Sun God, and thank him for the food that

the land produced. The next day, November 1st, was

the Celtic New Year, and it was believed that on this

day the souls of all dead people would gather together.

Therefore, on Halloween, the Celts would also honor

the God of the Dead, Samhain."

Scottish Radiance writes about Samhain: 7

"The Celtics believed, that during the winter, the

sun god was taken prisoner by Samhain, the Lord of

the Dead and Prince of Darkness...On the eve before

their new year (October 31), it was believed that

Samhain called together all the dead people."

Gods named Sam...:

There appear to be many, mostly male, deities

which had names starting with "Sam." None were

Celtic. However, the similarity in their names to

Samhain might have contributed to the confusion:

Samael was a name in Hebrew for an accuser

and a member of God's inner council in charge of dirty

deeds

Samana, "the leveler" is the name of an Aryan

God of Death (a.k.a. Yama, Sradhadeva, Antaka, or

Kritanta) according to the ancient Veda scriptures of

Hinduism.

Samas was the Sun God of the northern

Semites

Sams was the Sun Goddess of southern

Semites

Shamash was the Sun God and God of

righteousness, law and divination of the Assyrians and

Babylonians

Another Celtic "God": Muck Olla

"Muck Olla" surfaces in some conservative

Christian sources as an alleged "early Druid deity." 10

Another web site refers to Muck Olla as a Celtic sun

god. 15 Muck (if we can be so familiar as to refer to a

God by his first name) is in reality a type of mythical

boogie-man from Yorkshire in England. His name is

grounded in old folk stories; he never existed as a

Druidic God.

References:

The following information sources were used to

prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks

are not necessarily still active today.

Broceliande, "Wheel of the Year," at:

http://www.triplemoon.com/

"Brightest Blessings," at: http://www.no-exit-

studios.demon.co.uk/

http://nashville.citysearch.com/E/F/NASTN/

0000/16/11/

Johanna Michaelsen, "Your Child and the Occult:

Like Lambs to the Slaughter," Harvest House, Eugene

OR, (1989), Page 185.

Lee Carr, "Halloweenies...For kids not meanies,"

at: http://nashville.citysearch.com/

J. & S. Farrar, "Eight Sabbats for Witches,"

Phoenix Publishing, Custer, WA (1981), Page 121

Scottish Radiance, "The Story of Halloween," at:

http://www.scottishradiance.com/

Isaac Bonowits, "The Real Origins of Halloween

3.9.7" at: http://www.neopagan.net/

W.J. Bethancourt III, "Halloween, Myths,

Monsters and Devils," at: http://www.illusions.com/ A

superb site.

Mrs. Gloria Phillips, "Halloween: What It Is From

A Christian Perspective," at:

http://www.webzonecom.com/

The Watchman Fellowship at:

http://www.watchman.org/

Rowan Moonstone, "The Origins of Halloween"

at: http://www.geocities.com/

Patrick Dineen, "An Irish English Dictionary"

(Dublin, 1927), Page 937 Quoted in 12

Malcolm MacLennan, "A Pronouncing and

Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language"

(Aberdeen, 1979), Page 279. Quoted in 12

David L. Brown, "The Dark Side of Halloween",

LOGOS Communication Consortium, at:

http://www.execpc.com/

Richard Bucher, "Can Christians Celebrate

Halloween" at: http://www.ultranet.com/

J. Ankerberg & J. Weldon, "The Facts on

Halloween: What Christians Need to Know," Harvest

House, Eugene OR (1996), Page 6.

David Porter, "Hallowe'en: Treat or Trick?,"

Monarch, Tunbridge Wells, UK (1993), Page 24.