November 1 All Saints (All Hallows) If ducks do slide at Hollantide, At Christmas they will swim; If ducks do swim at Hollantide, At Christmas they will slide. On allhallow-day cut a chip from the beech tree; If it be dry the winter will prove warm. All the gods of the world were worshipped on this day from sunrise to sunset, goes an Irish saying. [Kightly] The Celtic Coligny calendar designates these three nights as the end of summer (which begins on Beltane, May 1st), the time when flocks are moved to the winter pastures, the beginning of the dark half of the year. The time of the last harvest, of apples and nuts, which are used for divination. The dead are honored with offerings of food: soul cakes in England, fava beans in Italy. In Mexico, offerings include bread, fruit, sweets, wax candles, flowers, liquors, cigarettes, mole, pulque, tamales. The candles burning in pumpkins, gourds or turnips light the way for the dead to return.
The Catholic feast day of All Saints was celebrated on the Sunday after Pentecost, until 609 or 610, when Pope Boniface dedicated the Pantheon to Saint Mary and martyrs on May 18th and that became the new date. This is interesting as there are other feasts of the dead in May, including the Roman Lemuria (May 9) and Memorial Day was long associated with the dead also. The date of November 1st was established in the eighth and ninth centuries.
The Irish and Scotch call this date Samhain and Samhuin and honor the dead by lighting bonfires. This is seen as the start of the dark half of the year, and since the Celts began their days at dusk, it is thus the start of the new year. In Ireland, this day is known as the feast of Moingfhionn, a demoness whose name means Whitehair, perhaps a representative of the coming winter and the old age of the year.
M. Martin, writing in 1716, tells of a curious custom of the inhabitants of one of the islands off Lewis, which took place on this day. All of the inhabitants came together at the church, bringing with them a peck of malt, to brew ale. At night, one man then waded into the sea with a cup of this ale and offered it to a sea-god addressed as Shorrey, asking for his blessings upon their crops. Afterwards they went into the church and watched a single candle burning, until at a signal, the candle was put out and all adjourned to the fields where they drank the rest of the ale and sang and danced. It was many years, according to M. Martin, before the ministers in Lewis "could persuade the vulgar Natives to abandon this ridiculous piece of Superstition."
Blackburn, Bonnie & Leofranc Holford-Strevens, The Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press 1999 Kightly, Charles, The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, Thames and Hudson 1987 November 1 Pomona The feast day of a Roman goddess whose name means fruit. She is associated with all fruits, especially those that can be preserved, particularly apples, which are important symbols at this time of the year. Among the last fruits to be harvested, they are used in drinks (wassail, cider) and divination (see Halloween), and are emblems of both love and death. November 1 and 2 According to the Pennsylvania Dutch, the weather on these two days predicts the weather for the next six weeks. If the weather is fine, there will be six more weeks of sun. But if cold and unpleasant, winter will begin. Yoder, Don, Groundhog's Day http://www.schooloftheseasons.com/novdays1.html#allsts
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