A Celtic Perspective on Samhain

from Lowell McFarland of Celtic Renewal

Under Pressure From Fundamentalists, Los Altos Schools Ban Halloween
and Then Reverse Themselves

The school district of Los Altos, California, a community near San Francisco, apparently under pressure from religious fundamentalists, banned school and pupil participation in the 1995 Halloween day parade and festivities. The board has to acknowledge Halloween's roots in Druid ceremonies and in the Celtic festival for Samhain, the Celts' god of the dead, quoted by the New York Times (Friday, October 13, 1995) as a statement by School Board President, Phil Fiallace, in announcing the Halloween ban.

Besides the New York Times, this ban received wide press in major newspapers and television stations. Multiple interviews of teachers, parents and pupils were published. After a firestorm of national protests, reportedly including a psychiatrist who labeled the ban sick, the School Board reversed itself.

Halloween Belongs to the Kids
(and Parents)

Halloween is a great secular family festival that has its own developing American traditions and is loved by all children because of, or in spite of, its Celtic, Roman and American Indian roots and history. Halloween, as a secular festival, combines American harvest festivals, brisk fall outdoors, falling leaves, children's games, family get-togethers in an unbeatable combination. Celts believe that parents and children should be in complete charge of this great holiday and not government, schools or religious groups. Apparently the School Board in Los Altos, California made the right retreat.

A Celtic Perspective

From a Celtic perspective, we are delighted that the children of Los Altos will have their Halloween festivities this year and that Celts worldwide, during this, our Season of Samhain, are alive and well. This should be sufficient, but there are still the issues of intolerance and ignorance that were at the root of the Los Altos fiasco. Abject ignorance of European history, comparative religion and Celts is not acceptable by leaders and members of school boards. Continued intolerance towards Celts and other non-Christians and to their non-Christian beliefs is astounding. Demonizing Celts shows more about the demons in some peoples' minds and nothing about Celts. Likening others' religious beliefs to Christian devils, demons, Satan and evil persons is barbaric and fanatic. We would hope that any significant policy decisions in the future, which have Celtic beliefs or customs at their core, should be made in consultation with Celts. [see Source List at end] The School Board, if they believe in atonement, should increase their depth of history studies and include courses on comparative religion and tolerance for all grades. I would hope that a Celtic Sidh (Witch) could also be invited to discuss Celtic Ways during each school year.

Some Celtic History

It was probably a surprise to Los Altos officials when so many people reacted with anger and disbelief at their banishment of Halloween. It may also be a surprise that Celts have not vanished, like the Phoenicians and Myceans, and that current Celts are not involved in any way with the devil worship, so important in Biblical and Christian religions. Celts were called Keltoi/Celts by Classical Greeks and Gauls/Gaelic by Classical Romans. Nominally, all persons with Celtic names, born in Celtic lands and with a Celtic heritage are Celts. Historically and by Celtic Ways, only nominal Celts who also live by Celtic Ways or with a sense of Celtic history are Celts. This definition of who is a Celt is used here. New research has found that Celtic origins go back over 5,000 years (with the Celtic religious sites at Newgrange/Bruge na Boyne and Emain Macha/Navan Fort in Ireland) and possibly 8,000 years (with various finds, including Celtic objects found in bogs or underneath Trackways (bog-bridges) radio-carbon dated at over 8,000 years). For perspective, Newgrange was built about 1,000 years before Stonehenge and several centuries before any Egyptian pyramid. Celts are thus contemporaries of both the fantastic Megalith Builders of Britain and France and the Red Ochre People who lived on the Atlantic Coasts of Europe and America. The oldest Red Ochre Person is the Red Lady [boy] of Paviland, dated 18,500 years ago. Very recent finds in China of 4,500 year old grave sites of female Caucasians with Scythian/Celtic tattoos and other Scythian/Celtic elements indicate that the Celtic world not only covered almost all of Europe, but may have extended into Russia (Scythia) and possibly China. Most cities, lakes and rivers of Europe have Celtic names, or are dedicated to Celtic gods, like Ireland/Celtic God Eerie, Britain/Brittany/Celtic God Brigitte, London/Leaden/ Lyons/Vienna/Celtic God Lugh, Danube/Danzig/Don/Celtic God Dana, Paris/Clan Paris, German/Clan Germanii, Bohemia/Clan Boi, Kent/Clan Kenti, Balencia/Galata(Istanbul)/Galatia/Galicia/Galilee/Galliae /Gallipoli/Gaul, etc. Most Christian Churches in Europe are built over Celtic sacred sites and grave yards. Recently a First Century slab was unearthed in the basement of Notre Dame in Paris (built 1163) dedicated to the Celtic God Esus. Ritual antlers, probably pertaining to the Celtic God Cernunnos who usually wears antlers, were unearthed during construction of a new wing at Westminster Cathedral (built 1065) in England. Celts had a stable set of laws with appeals courts and abilities to override any ruler 3,000 years before the Greek Dracos was born (621 BCE) and before his Draconian system of justice. His barbaric system made misdemeanors into capital offenses. There is much more, but it is important to note the dynamic and sad events that shape our world today pertaining to the Celts.

Caesar & Celts

Two thousand years ago, Caesar conquered the Celtic lands of Gaul and Southern England and replaced all Celtic leaders and government with quislings. Caesar instituted laws forbidding (under pain of capital punishment) all Celtic officials, religious and intellectual. To the Celts' shock, they learned that their stable world, then between 2,000 to 6,000 years old, could be easily torn asunder by a megalomaniac with a fanatic army and patriarchal spoils system. Celts learned that their systems, which had adopted equality of sexes over matrilineal systems, which codified tolerance for other tribes and variations on religion, which had at its heart, male and female wise people who selected all leaders, which had international Druids for arbitration of all tribal disputes and as an appeals court above all kings and clan chiefs, which had a law that all Celts naturally go to Heaven (Avalon, like King Arthur), without hindrance from any king, Druid or god, amounted to less than nothing against the sophisticated killing machine of Rome. Celts incredulously learned that their practice of not allowing standing armies, of disposing of weapons after breaking them, in lakes, wells and rivers, dedicated to peacemaking goddesses (like Sir Lancelot, Excaliber and the Lady of the Lake), that their respect and understanding of nature and all living things and clean water, that their encyclopedic knowledge of the complete history of Europe and its originating peoples, that their peaceful alliances with peoples, including Greeks and Romans, but especially Scythians (pre-Russians) and possibly Chinese, etc., came to naught against a barbaric, fanatic warlord like Caesar. With the destruction of a major portion of the Celtic world by Caesar, the evolution of civilization as a peaceful, tolerant, dynamic aggregation of families, tribes, cities and nations ended and Might Makes Right became the only law. Two thousand years later, Might Makes Right is still the world's primary law, but many people and especially Celts, know that there are better ways and a better primary law. It is interesting to contemplate how the world would be different if Caesar's conquest of Gaul had failed.

Christian Church & Celts

The die being cast that Might Makes Right, the Christian Church, after it gained power, used this principle against Celts whom they regarded as barbaric, devil worshipping, anti- (their) God and anti-Christ. The principle was embodied in that not only did God personally appoint His sole religious Vicar, He also appointed all kings who converted to Christianity as His temporal Vicars. (Queen Elizabeth rules today by Divine Right.) Generally, when any king converted, he obtained the considerable backing of the Church to his claim on the throne but was required to aggressively stamp out enemies of the Church, mostly Celts. Celts who believed that local wise people should choose kings, and not god, religious organizations or armies protested and were slaughtered. Celtic religious leaders and psychics (Sidhes), along with those who refused to convert, were also slaughtered. This year is the 1,001st anniversary of the conversion of the King of Norway. Thus, it is also the anniversary of the massacre of the Scandinavians who refused to convert after which the King of Norway led a prayer service for their departed souls. All Celtic sacred places were ordered destroyed, including rocks and forests. Iona, used by Picts for thousands of years as a Druidic school, had all its engraved stones thrown into the ocean by order of St. Colomba. The world will never know if a possible Celtic Rosetta Stone was destroyed by the intolerance and barbarism of St. Columba. Worse, when Celts continued to come to Iona to hold religious services because of all the ancient Celts buried there, all ancient Celtic bodies were disinterred and thrown into the ocean. Because of these monomaniacal and sacrilegious destructions, only the largest ancient Celtic sites (and largest megaliths) survived. Eventually, the destruction was ordered to be lessened and Celtic sites were to be blessed and converted to God's use. Croagh Patrick (St. Patrick's Mountain/The Reek/Cruachan Aigle, The Place of Festivals/Lughnasa), in Ireland, where St. Patrick supposedly kicked out the Celtic Harvest Gods and all snakes, is one of the most important Christian sites in Ireland. It was used for thousands of years by Celts to celebrate Lughnasa on August 1st. [Brian Friel wrote an award winning play about ancient Celtic Ways reappearing in modern Ireland, called Dancing at Lughnasa, see Source List at end.] Incidentally, Lughnasa, now christianized as Lammas, which is also associated with the cites of London, Leyden, Lyons and Vienna, was adopted by Caesar Augustus as the Feast of Augustus. We celebrate August, not as Celtic Lughnasa but as Roman August.

Pleiades

Christianization is the term for converting pagan (Celtic) sites, people, history and holidays into acceptable Christian items. The list of christianizations is too long, but the moving of Christ's Spring birth to Winter Solstice, St. John's birthday/Summer Solstice, Resurrection of Christ/Eastre the Celtic/Saxon Goddess, etc., may be prime examples of christianization. Halloween, the origins of the Los Altos problem, is a unique christianization. Before the Celts, perhaps some 8,000 years ago, most all tribes of the world celebrated four identical natural holidays. Besides the two Solstices, they celebrated the rising and setting of the star Maia, in the open star cluster Pleiades, in the Constellation Taurus. So widespread is the celebration of the Pleiades, that the Parthenon in Greece, Callanish in Scotland, Tiahuanaco in South America, etc., are all aligned to tell the exact time of rising and setting. When the first European set foot on Hawaii, Captain James Cook, in 1778, the Hawaiians sang the Pleiades Song for him. Subaru, in Japanese means the Pleiades and their logo is the stars of the Pleiades. Not so surprisingly, when the star Maia is first seen, it is May 1st. When Maia disappears/sets it is November (Roman Ninth Month). Celts also adopted the rising of Maia to signify Beltaine (May Day). Beltaine is the major gathering of Celts for Druidic reading of the law, judicial proceedings, arbitration, family and clan gatherings, games, contests, good eating and prohibitions against weapons and fighting. With the many Beltaine celebrations throughout the world and the Celtic fairs, gatherings, ceilidhs, feis, etc., that are weekly held everywhere, the 4,000+ year Celtic Beltaine celebration continues.

Celtic Samhain

Celts also adopted the setting of Maia for the timing of Samhain, our New Year's end and beginning. While Samhain is uniquely Celtic in many respects, non-Celts have adopted Maia and the Celtic New Year in most of its form. The Christian Church prohibited the celebration of Beltaine or Samhain. To participate in these celebrations was Devil Worshipping and criminally seditious, with death as standard punishment. Samhain was originally christianized into St. Michael's Mass (Michelmas) with little success. It was later re-christianized with aspects closer to elements of Celtic Ways, as Halloween, followed by All Saint's Day, when Christians are obligated to think about dead saints. Later, November 2nd became All Soul's Day, when the non-sainted Christian dead are to be remembered. (We are getting to the good part.)

What do Celts do on those days when Christians are required to think of dead people? Samhain is the best time to evaluate your life, your goals, your relationships (important to Celts) and to think about our departed family members and ancestors (even Caesar knew about the importance of Celtic genealogy). It is also a great time to think of our future and life, goals, relationships, etc. Celts make resolutions at Samhain, non-Celts on January 1st. Unique to Celts, there is a strange momentary psychic separation at year's end and before our New Year begins. This used to occur at Sunset until we moved it to Midnight. To my knowledge, nothing bad has ever happened in 8,000 continuous years, but it might. At the moment after Midnight, when another New Year starts without any problem, we give a whoop and celebrate. Non-Celts, who hardly know about our customs, also seem to celebrate this passing with a whoop, only again on January 1st. There are some ritual fires and some variations among individual clans, tribes, associations, covens, groves, etc., but in a nutshell, this is the story of Celtic Samhain.

Celts Today

Celts today, after 1,500 years of caution (to say the least) are beginning to speak out. We accuse ourselves, as 1995 Nobel Laureate for Literature, Celtic Seamus Heaney wrote in his poem Punishment, of casting stones of silence. Celts today live what is sometimes called double coded lives, one foot in the ancient past and one foot in modern religions. Given that Abraham may have been born in 1,800 BCE and Christ 4 BCE, Celts had a stable system of law and religion in effect several thousand years before most modem religions and governmental systems. Obviously, this may predate concepts of Adam's Original Sin, Eve's trickery, Fallen Angels/Lucifer/Satan, City of Hell, Banishment from Eden, Augustinian Grace, Vicar of God, Divine Right, Patriarchy, etc. Thus many Celts believe that Celtic Ways may be superior and better for the world than the patriarchal and death dealing systems that persist today. Often without identifying ourselves, other than our Celtic names and associations, Celts are in the forefront of working for equality of sexes, clean water, animal rights, peace, good government, better economics, justice, education, aboriginal rights and tolerance. Today, Celts are even more completely independent and tribal than before. Even so, Witches and Druids are still an important part of our Celtic Ways. As being wrong about Halloween and Celts is not difficult, I am curious whether Los Altos will join with Celts during this Samhain season and review the past and make wise resolutions for the future.

Fviking -Sons of Ammergin

Invoke, People of the Sea, Invoke the poets, That they may compose a spell for you,
For I, the Druid, Who sets out letters in Ogham, I, Who parts combatants,
I will approach the place of the Witches To seek a wise poet
That together we may concoct incantations.
I am a wind of the sea.