Witch: Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Witch of York St. visiting the church this morning, being invited here by the Haunting House Halloween events you are having, events that are in keeping with the meaning of the holiday.

It has come to my attention that many people are ignorant of the meaning of this holiday. They miss the point of the holiday - which is that on October 31 every year we become part of the ancient world. We join the ancient world in keeping some of the customs of Halloween--the masks we wear, the jack-o'-lanterns we carve, even the apples we bob for - all come from deepest antiquity.

Perhaps you can help me spread the word about this holiday, help dispel the ignorance and fear that is out there. Would you like to do that?

Well, one place to begin is to tell people about the origins of the day. Right away we need to say what Halloween is not. It is not rooted in satanic practices. Satan had nothing to do with the origins of Halloween. His history comes much later.

Did you know that Halloween predates Christianity by at least 500 years? That it is probably more venerable than that, surviving virtually intact from the earliest days of European history? That it is arguably the oldest continually observed holiday in the Western Hemisphere?

Some of you are saying, wait - what about the festivals that predate Christmas, Easter, and New Year's Eve? Yes, these too are ancient, but unlike Halloween, they have undergone dramatic changes. New Year's Eve, once celebrated throughout the ancient world in March, at the time of the vernal equinox, is now observed in midwinter. Christmas and Easter, once pagan celestial festivals, have been transformed into Christian feasts. Only Halloween has remained resolutely pagan in character and content. Not even the date of its celebration has changed.

During the observance of Halloween we partake in some aspects of the lives of our ancestors. For they, too, entered into the spirit of this night; they, too, told ghost stories, dressed in costumes, cracked nuts and drank sweet cider by roaring bonfires, read fortunes, feared magic, and saluted the dead. In discovering something about them we discover something about ourselves.

To discover something about them, let us imagine this room suddenly transformed into a mythic pumpkin patch where the spirits of our ancestors roam. These ancestors are particularly knowledgeable about this holiday and are eager to inform us. Hello! Who goes there? Come forward, so we can better see and hear you. Tell us who you are.

Celt: It is I, a Celt. I am a descendant of those ancient and mysterious peoples, the Celts, who created a vibrant culture from the Alps to the British Isles between 1000 and 100 BC. It was we who first practiced what became known much later as Halloween. Back then, it was called Samhain (pronounced "Saween"). It was our great Celtic New Year festival. Yes, for us, the new year began at this time of year. It began at the setting of the sun on October 31st and continued through the night until the first pale dawn of November.

Witch: Since the holiday began at sunset, the night must have been very special to you people.

Celt: Oh, yes. You modern folks have no idea how important nighttime was for us. It was so important, we measured time not in days but in nights. That meant that Celtic days began at sundown, not midnight, and lasted until the next dusk. The interval of time from sundown to dawn, the "dark" half of the day, held great magic. According to Celtic belief, people born after sundown had the gift of "second sight," the ability to see and converse with fairy folk and the dead, as well as the gifts of prophecy and healing.

Witch: No wonder women such as myself were night people.

Celt: We Celts were infatuated with the night and darkness. We even divided the year into two halves, one "dark," beginning October 31, on Samhain ("Saween") which means "summer's end"), and ending on Beltane, (pronounced "beltain") which is the First of May. Beltane is named after the sun god, Baal.

Witch: So then, the summer days when the cattle roamed freely and the planting was done belonged to Baal?

Celt: Yes, he ruled until October 31st, when the chill winds of autumn marked the end not only of his ascendancy but of the year itself. Then the power of the universe shifted, and the world fell into the grip of the great and terrible god after whom both the time of year and the festival that marked it were named: Samhain ("Saween"), the Lord of the Dead.

Witch: So how did you mark this shift of power, from the god of light to the god of darkness?

Celt: There were things that had to be done. We drove the cattle in from their pastures and stabled them for the cold months ahead. We brought in the harvest from the earth and bundled it away in cellars to sustain the community until the dawn of another spring. For us Celts, Samhain (Saween) was the great hinge of the year, partaking equally in the dual mysteries of life and death. On one hand, the new harvest, the bounties of the earth; on the other, the whistling cold just beyond the wattle, the chill, gray dying of the world. For us Celts, all the nights of the coming year were contained in the Eve of Samhain ("Saween"). We called it "the first night of a year measured in nights" and regarded it as a living symbol of eternity.

Witch: So it is that Halloween was a religious holiday. Let us now call upon a Druid priest of ancient Ireland to tell us of the rites and rituals of this religion. Are you there, Druid priest? Come forward, so we can see and hear you.

Druid priest: Witch, I am not sure you will want to hear what I am about to tell you.

Witch: Well, priest, it is important for us to see the whole picture, not just the things we want to see about the history of this holiday.

Druid priest: All right then. We began our celebrations with a ceremony that re-enacted the creation of the world by the primordial gods, who had divided light from darkness. Just before twilight people all over the island extinguished their hearth fires. After the fall of night, on the sacred hill of Tara, we Druid priests of the Celts kindled a fire from sacred oak. From this fire, and this fire alone, could all the new hearths of the country be relit. Witches, my ancient sisters, would travel from place to place carrying the fire by candle in hollowed out gourds, protecting the fire from the wind. And so today we have jack o' lanterns.

Witch: But what is the part we might not want to know?

Druid priest: It's the other purpose the fire served, a more grisly purpose. Like other ancient peoples, we Celts sacrificed regularly to the gods, seeking to placate them with gifts. Usually this meant animal sacrifices, but at times of disaster, and at great seasonal festivals like Samhain ("Saween"), the Celts sought the favor of the gods by offering up the most potent gifts they could imagine--human lives. Julius Caesar wrote about our practices, describing them as the stuff of nightmare. Men and women, young and old, criminals and innocents, were forced into huge wooden and thatch cages. Often these cages were fashioned in the shape of giants--"wicker men"--perhaps representations of Samhain ("Saween") himself. Along with the human victims, goats, chickens, cats, and other animals were crowded into the great frames, along with wine, honey, and bread. At a signal from the presiding Druids, these immense structures were torched, everything in them burned to cinders. After the sacrifices, a great feast was held, during which the stores of fruit and dried beef prepared during the harvest were opened for the first time.

Witch: A great feast had to mean a great fire. Is that how bonfires got to be so popular?

Druid priest: Yes. These thanksgiving feasts were held around roaring bonfires set on hillsides all over Europe. The fires brought the New Year's festival to an apex. They were kindled in honor of the departed sun god and were thought to give him strength and encouragement during his long winter exile.

Witch: You know, even today such bonfires are seen in Scotland. I've seen them myself. They're visible for miles around.

Druid priest: The feast had a dual purpose, reflecting both fear and honor of the dead. For on this night, which contained all nights, all times, the wall between the worlds became very thin; to roam out of doors after dusk could prove fatal. The Celts believed that all those who had died the previous year in a state of sin had been transformed into animals. Now, on Samhain ("Saween"), they were called before the god of death for judgment. He decided whether they would remain in animal form for another year or be released into paradise. Called forth to trial, the spirits of the dead hovered in the air and, if angry at their purgatorial state, could do great mischief. The power of evil sorcerers was at its fullest, and the fairy folk were out in force and bent on wicked tricks. But it was also a time of celebration and renewal, and a time to comfort spirits in pain. Room was made around the fire for wandering souls to come and warm themselves; food and drink were laid out in offering. Ghosts were welcomed in from the darkness and offered a place by the fire, as well as a bit of barley cake and a cup of wine. To welcome the dead further, the Celts dressed as animals, in shaggy skins, horns strapped around their heads, and danced through the night. As the dawn broke, they made a great parade to the edge of the settlement, in hopes of leading the ghosts into paradise. The living comforted the departed in the face of a common fate. With the first of November came a new year, and the cycle began again.

Witch: And so it is from Celts that we get Halloween's supernatural splendors, the conviction that the "other side" presses very close, the prevalence of beings like ghosts, costumes and mischief. Even Halloween's colors, orange and black, reflect Celtic origins. Orange is the color of the autumn harvest, black the symbol of death. But Halloween is, for all its frightening imagery, a happy, often frivolous night. Much of its buoyancy comes from an unlikely source--the conquering legions of Rome. The Romans allowed the Celts to continue their religious rites at Samhain ("Saween") excepting the human sacrifices, which they outlawed. Of course the Romans did not see their gladitorial games as sacrifice. Under Roman rule the bonfires still burned every autumn, and gradually, as Romans and Celts intermarried and settled together, new rites, Roman in origin, were added to the holy day. Chief among them was the worship of Pomona, goddess of the harvest. Pomona, please come forward so that we can see you and hear you.

Pomona: I was always shown in art sitting on a great basket of fruits and flowers, a horn of plenty at my feet. My festival was held in early November, just after the last harvest of the Roman year. Apples were my sacred fruit, so I encouraged my people to invent games using them. One of the most popular was bobbing for apples. A large tub was filled with water and apples, then people were blindfolded and took turns trying to catch the floating fruit using only their teeth. If a person caught an apple, its shape would tell you about your future spouse; if he or she failed to catch one, it meant that that person was not destined to marry that year. Under my influence, Samhain ("Saween") became a happy celebration of the harvest, full of music, games, and feasting.

Witch: Still, the old Celtic ideas of the supernatural clung stubbornly to the holiday through the years of Roman rule and into the next great era, the time of the Catholic Church when the holiday was grafted onto one of the church's great holy days, All Saints Day, and became All Hallow's Eve, and ultimately Halloween. But that's another large piece of the Halloween story to be saved for another time, another visit. Until then, we friends of ancient times wish all of you modern folk Happy Halloween. And may this modern "incantation" be with you as you encounter those "ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night":

Greed and hate, war and blight
Evil of our world unite
And vanish with the speed of light!
Be off! Be gone! Return no more!
Let love and peace now vanquish war!