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Halloween, the foremost and momentous holiday of the Celtic year, was also popularly known as Samhain or Sah-ween. According to the belief of Celts, the ghosts of the dead populace could easily and effortlessly mingle with the living citizens at this particular time of the year. It was believed that at that point of time the souls of the dead men/women moved to the other world. All of them who had died were honored by lighting the bonfires. Huge crowd congregated to sacrifice fruits, vegetables and even animals to aid them on their journey to the different world. It was also important to satisfy the dead souls as they could not come close to the living individuals. Get to know how Samhain Became Halloween Once upon a time Christian missionaries attempted to alter the spiritual observances and practices of the Celtic people and from that time the Halloween became Samhain. Before Christian missionaries such as St Patrick and St. Columcille decided to convert the religion of Celts to Christianity, Celts used to practice and perform their religion ornately through their priestly cast, the Druids who were intellectual people and were writers, priests, scientists and scholars at the same time. Pope Gregory the First The Christians worked really hard to wipe out the pagan holidays such as Samhain. They were successful and triumphant to transform it. It was 601 A.D. when the Pope Gregory the first had issued a renowned proclamation to the missionaries on native convictions and conventions of the people who were enlisted for religion conversions. The Pope Gregory the First didn’t try to eradicate the mores and beliefs of the natives but very wisely he ordered his missionaries to use them. As an example, if a spiritual batch of people worshipped a tree, he didn’t instruct his missionaries to cut the tree down. Like an experienced and wise person he gave an opinion to consecrate the tree to Christ and allowed the devotees to worship it. The approach was praiseworthy and innovative. It helped missionaries a lot to spread the Christianity. Purposefully and intentionally those Church holidays were coincided with the native holidays. Christmas date was arbitrarily assigned on 25th December. It was also a mid-winter celebration day for many people. Similarly, St. John's Day had corresponded to the summer solstice. Good or Evil Missionaries astutely and intelligently identified their holidays and holidays of the Celts. The supernatural deities of Celts were marked as evil and missionaries had linked those with the Devils. The Celtic gangland inexorably became recognized with the Christian Hell and torment. The intention was to weaken the convictions of the earlier religion. However, missionaries didn’t want to exterminate the beliefs on the Almighty. Celts used to believe in mystical creatures and power. The Church just redefined the meaning. It was a deliberate attempt to let Celts know that those supernatural creatures are not hazardous and definitely malicious. Banquet of All Saints November 1st was the day when Christian fest was organized. The feast day came into the picture to replace and substitute Samhain. Gradually all the traditional and customary deities of Celts were diminished. Later on it became fairy or leprechaun. |
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