by MarVeena Meek
(c) Oct 2012
………………………………………………………..
Fun Customs for Oct!
Halloween Customs | Psychic Medium | MarVeena Meek | All Hallows Eve |
Today I am going to talk about how Halloween originated.
A long time ago this holiday was the Celtic New Year.
The New Year was on November 1st.
They were a very superstitious people.
At this time they had just finished the harvest so there was a lot of worry and fear about being able to get through the winter.
At that time they couldn't go through the grocery store and if you didn't have enough crops to get you through the winter then you were going to be really hungry by the time the spring came along so they had a lot of fear about getting through the winter.
Being very superstitious but also very close to the earth and being in touch with the tides, the moons, and everything in the natural world, they knew that at this time of year there is a natural crack between the worlds that allowed them to see impressions of their ancestors that had died.
They didn't really like that.
They had a lot of fear about that. They were worried that they might come and get them. It wasn't a healthy fear. One of the things that they would do in order to keep the spirits away was to light big bonfires. They would also bake special treats and put them out by the door.
Sometimes they would light fires away from their houses.
This was their way to encourage their ancestors to go back to their natural resting place and away from them. And at the same time they would dress themselves up like goblins, ghosts and witches and this was their way of trying to trick the spirits from the other world into thinking that they are just another ghost thinking they are not going to gobble them up if they look like a goblin too.
So this was just a way of fooling the spirit world into thinking they are one of them.
So, like I said, they were working with what they had and they were really superstitious.
They did a lot of divination at this time of year.
The Druids were the priests that were their holy leaders and teachers and they would perform divination and would even have the wise women that were around and different tarot readers doing divination.
Mainly what they were interested in was if they were going to survive the winter. It was also really popular to know who you were going to marry. So, a lot of our customs for this time of year come from those divinations to see how everyone would prosper, if they would make it through the new year, if they were going to get married, how many kids they were going to have, and all these sorts of things.
This is one reason why reading cards, séances, mediumship circles, and that sort of thing is very popular this time of year. It's a very ancient custom. One of the customs that they had is to peel an apple all in one peel then throw it over their shoulder and the peel was said to fall on the floor in the shape of a letter, and that letter was said to be the first letter of the name of the person they were going to marry.
The Romans also brought it customs having to do with the apple too because they celebrated the harvest by worshipping the Goddess Pomona and apples were sacred to her. They would do a lot of things with apples like putting them over their fireplaces/hearths and serving dishes with apple pies and apple cobblers.
They brought the custom of bobbing for apples, too.
A lot of the traditions would eventually overlap, so as Christianity became more popular they would try to overlay the Christian customs over the Celtic pagan customs.
One of the Christian customs was All Saints Day so this is now on November 1st. It was called All Hallows Day then and since October 31st was the night before it became known as All Hallows Eve.
This holiday is now widely celebrated all over the world, not just here in the USA. In Mexico they have a lot of different customs as well this time of year. One of them is to go and visit the cemetery and to decorate the graves with beautiful lights and flowers, especially marigolds are very popular.
If one of their loved ones really liked an apple pie then they would bake that and bring that to the cemetery and sometimes have a pick-nick at the graveside. They would wear colorful costumes and have music and fiestas.
The Dia de Muerta is what they call it. I actually have a skull back here on my altar and this is another custom – the Altar of the Dead. This is a topic for another video but the Altar of the Dead is a way to bring in different photographs that you have of family and even pets that have crossed over. I put those there and I have some tea candles and I decorate it and place some fall flowers there.
It's just way, every time you go by there, to remember your grandparents, special loved ones, and honoring their memory.
I think is wonderful that we still celebrate these customs that go back through space and time.
Please share your Halloween traditions in the comments below. It is a lot of fun to hear how others do Halloween!
Bright Blessings,
MarVeena
Share with your friends too!