The gate of the year

Figure above:

Night view of the cemetery in Sanok, Poland, during the celebration of the All Saints’ Day.

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:01259_All_Saints_Day_ Sanok,_2011.jpg]

The creation of the feast of All Saints is seemingly to attribute to the Cluniac order, between XI and XII century, with the Christianization of the ancient Celtic celebration of Samhain, which was established on November 1st , followed the next day by the commemoration of the dead (Cardini 1995, p. 180). In the Celtic world, Samhain was seen as a crucial time in the seasonal cycle, at the end of the harvest period and of the housing of animals, waiting for the beginning of winter. It was also regarded as a time of transition, during which the barriers between the human and the spirit world were temporarily lowered and it was thus possible, for the inhabitants of the world of the dead, to return visiting the living and their houses. Part of these folk beliefs have survived, even if the Church has tried to transform them into a simple commemoration of the dead.
One could also hypothesize that the choice of the month of November, to celebrate the commemoration of the dead, instead of the period from the winter solstice until the beginning of Spring, as it was in continental Europe since ancient times, was due to the Church’s attempt to contrast the celebrations, of pagan origin, through the gradual weakening of deeply rooted beliefs. The masks of the Carnival festivals were, for the medieval man, personifications of the returning dead, with all their energy originating from the earth, in which they had reposed until that moment. The attempt of weakening the ancient cult of the dead, also through the deletion of the symbolism associated with them, has not prevented the custom of honouring the dead with offerings of flowers. Though the feast of the dead is celebrated in a moment when nature is miserly provided with flowers, even today the graves narrate with their flowering ornaments of the ancient bond between death and the rebirth of life.
The association between the cult of the dead and the celebration of fertility is still perceptible in some folk traditions, like the one according to which, in Sicily, the dead bring gifts to the children, on the night between November 1st and 2 (Cardini 1995, p. 93). The feast of Halloween, which is held on the evening of October 31, is nowadays become very popular throughout contemporary society, but it is an ancient tradition to be reconnected to Samhain celebrations, one of the main festivals of the Celtic calendar. Anciently, it implied the presence of masked individuals, who, personifying beings coming from the realm of the dead, visited each home, where food and drink were offered them. The days of the “questing”, often carried out by groups of children, characterized the transition time which went from All Souls’ Day through Christmas until the New Year and Epiphany (which became the days typically devoted to distribute gifts to children), and also to Saint Anthony’s feast (January 17) (Cardini 1995, p. 93).

Figure below:

Traditional mask obtained from an emptied turnip, popularly known as Jack-o’-Lantern, realized in the early XX century, now in the Museum of Country Life, Castelbar, County Mayo, Ireland. A light put in the turnip’s interior transformed it into a sort of worrying lamp, employed during Halloween evening, before All Souls’ Day. The popular name derives from a legend, according to which a shrewd blacksmith, called Jack, had been able to deceive the Devil who wished to bring him into the Hell. But the inconvenience was that he found foreclosed form him both to entrance to Hell and to Paradise. He thus remained in a marginal condition, between one world and the other. After the introduction of the pumpkin from America, these lanterns have become Halloween’s traditional image.

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Traditional_Irish_halloween_Jack-o%27-lantern.jpg]




Feasts

Back

Figure above: Night view of the cemetery in Sanok, Poland, during the celebration of the All Saints’ Day. [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:01259_All_Saints_Day_ Sanok,_2011.jpg] The creation of the feast of All Saints is seemingly to attribute to the Cluniac order, between XI and XII century, with the Christianization of the ancient Celtic celebration of Samhain, which was established on November 1st , followed the next day by the commemoration of the dead (Cardini 1995, p. 180). In the Celtic world, Samhain was seen as a crucial time in the seasonal cycle, at the end of the harvest period and of the housing of animals, waiting for the beginning of winter. It was also regarded as a time of transition, during which the barriers between the human and the spirit world were temporarily lowered and it was thus possible, for the inhabitants of the world of the dead, to return visiting the living and their houses. Part of these folk beliefs have survived, even if the Church has tried to transform them into a simple commemoration of the dead. One could also hypothesize that the choice of the month of November, to celebrate the commemoration of the dead, instead of the period from the winter solstice until the beginning of Spring, as it was in continental Europe since ancient times, was due to the Church’s attempt to contrast the celebrations, of pagan origin, through the gradual weakening of deeply rooted beliefs. The masks of the Carnival festivals were, for the medieval man, personifications of the returning dead, with all their energy originating from the earth, in which they had reposed until that moment. The attempt of weakening the ancient cult of the dead, also through the deletion of the symbolism associated with them, has not prevented the custom of honouring the dead with offerings of flowers. Though the feast of the dead is celebrated in a moment when nature is miserly provided with flowers, even today the graves narrate with their flowering ornaments of the ancient bond between death and the rebirth of life. The association between the cult of the dead and the celebration of fertility is still perceptible in some folk traditions, like the one according to which, in Sicily, the dead bring gifts to the children, on the night between November 1st and 2 (Cardini 1995, p. 93). The feast of Halloween, which is held on the evening of October 31, is nowadays become very popular throughout contemporary society, but it is an ancient tradition to be reconnected to Samhain celebrations, one of the main festivals of the Celtic calendar. Anciently, it implied the presence of masked individuals, who, personifying beings coming from the realm of the dead, visited each home, where food and drink were offered them. The days of the “questing”, often carried out by groups of children, characterized the transition time which went from All Souls’ Day through Christmas until the New Year and Epiphany (which became the days typically devoted to distribute gifts to children), and also to Saint Anthony’s feast (January 17) (Cardini 1995, p. 93). Figure below: Traditional mask obtained from an emptied turnip, popularly known as Jack-o’-Lantern, realized in the early XX century, now in the Museum of Country Life, Castelbar, County Mayo, Ireland. A light put in the turnip’s interior transformed it into a sort of worrying lamp, employed during Halloween evening, before All Souls’ Day. The popular name derives from a legend, according to which a shrewd blacksmith, called Jack, had been able to deceive the Devil who wished to bring him into the Hell. But the inconvenience was that he found foreclosed form him both to entrance to Hell and to Paradise. He thus remained in a marginal condition, between one world and the other. After the introduction of the pumpkin from America, these lanterns have become Halloween’s traditional image. [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Traditional_Irish_halloween_Jack-o%27-lantern.jpg]