http://www.suite101.com/content/halloween-in-medieval-times-a71922
Halloween in Medieval Times
How All-Hallows Eve was Celebrated in the Middle Ages
Oct 6, 2008 Rachel Bellerby
Animals Were Slaughtered in Preparation for Winter - Rachel Bellerby
Halloween was originally the celebration of Samhain, an important Celtic feast which marked the beginning of winter.
The Christian church adopted the feast as All Hallows Eve, which was celebrated the night before the important feast of All Saints on 1 November.
The Origins of Halloween
The celebration of Halloween was tied in with a fear of the dead, as well as looking to the winter months ahead. Late October was the time of year when animals were slaughtered to provide food in the cold weather and a time when plants and trees lost their bright colours.
The ancient Celts believed that on the night before their new year of 1 November, the line between the world of the living and the dead was at its thinnest and it was possible for the living and dead to communicate. Halloween traditions grew out of a desire to appease or scare away the dead who walked on that night.
Read more at Suite101: Halloween in Medieval Times: How All-Hallows Eve was Celebrated in the Middle Ages http://www.suite101.com/content/halloween-in-medieval-times-a71922#ixzz13xe3PTtP
How Halloween was Celebrated in Medieval Times
In 601AD, Pope Gregory made an important directive. He announced that Christian missionaries were to take a new tack when attempting to convert pagans to the Christian religion. Christian missionaries he said, where possible, should incorporate the beliefs, festivals and sacred sites of pagan beliefs into the Christian religion. This directive meant that the important Celtic festival of Samhain had to be marked in a Christian manner.
In the year 609AD, All Saints Day was officially designated a Church feast, which was celebrated in May and was later moved to November by Pope Gregory in 835AD. The Christian Church may have intended that people would spend their time praying for the souls of the dead on an important holy day. However, the fact that this was a day off from work gave many people even more of an excuse to celebrate Halloween with more excitement and excess than ever.
In the eleventh century, a further festival was added to the church calendar; All Souls Day on 2 November. The three festivals of All-Hallows Eve, All Saints and All Souls were together known as Hallowmas.
Read on
Medieval Halloween Traditions
Many Halloween traditions which are practised in the present day, have their roots in medieval times. Halloween celebrations during the Middle Ages included bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes, all of which are believed to have been intended to confuse and frighten any spirits wandering the area.
In pagan times, soul cakes were left outside on the night of Halloween to feed the spirits, but the medieval Church changed this to the practice of people taking cakes around to neighbours which they offered in exchange for their neighbour�s prayers for the dead.
No church undertaking could eradicate centuries of ancient beliefs. The Samhain feast and its associated beliefs and legends in the walking dead were too strong to be entirely replaced by another festival. However devoted people were to the Christian religion throughout the year, many could not resist the pull of ancient superstitions and traditions on Halloween night.
Source
Rowling, Marjorie, Life in Medieval Times [Perigree,1973]
Read more at Suite101: Halloween in Medieval Times: How All-Hallows Eve was Celebrated in the Middle Ages http://www.suite101.com/content/halloween-in-medieval-times-a71922#ixzz13xeKV88A
![[]](http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/BuffUpBanner.png)
![[]](http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/BuffUpLogo.png)
