Who doesn't know about Halloween these days? And fashion has come to Russia on the night of October 31 to November 1 to go crazy with an otherworldly touch: go to a party dressed up as a witch or a vampire, tell fortunes …
True, the celebration of Halloween in Russia has not reached such a massive scale as in the West. And in the West, Halloween nowadays is just a fancy-dress game. But it was not always so.
Sacred night
One of the most widespread opinions today, when a passion for esotericism is dictated, rather, by fashion trends, rather than by a craving for a serious and thoughtful knowledge of the laws of the universe, is this: Halloween and the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain are practically the same thing, and now, like in old times, there are people those who want to play with the infernal woman, who believe that the forces of evil are not asleep on this night. In response to the query "What is Samhain?", The Internet gives out more or less traditional information: adapted for the superficially interested, or with a historical excursion for the more advanced.
In the spirit that this is such a Celtic New Year, the eve of the onset of winter, the time when it is necessary to appease the evil spirits, and at the same time to remember the spirits of their ancestors - they, too, do not always turn out to be kind, especially if they are not appeased with a proper funeral. And with the advent of Christianity, Samhain, they say, was transformed into Halloween - the night on the eve of All Saints Day: if people really want to be afraid and remember the spirits, let them remember about the fear of God. The Christian religion is known for its desire to adapt old beliefs to its needs.
But even if you think and draw certain conclusions just on the basis of standard information gleaned from the Internet or from reference books on mythology and religion, you can come to very interesting results. Of course, Halloween and Samhain have something in common: the night from October 31 to November 1, in either case, was undoubtedly festive, and this festivity is associated with certain sacred attitudes.
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Holy evening
The meaning of Halloween is in its very name. The English word “Halloween” comes from the Anglo-Saxon “Hālgena Ǣfen”, which literally means “Holy Evening”. That is, in fact, the eve of All Saints Day. Well, like Christmas Eve is Christmas Eve. All Saints Day is a great Christian holiday, which has been known since the end of the 4th century; the mention of the celebration of the day of "all saints who suffered throughout the world" is already in the sermon of John Chrysostom, who lived, as you know, in 347-407. But in the Orthodox tradition, this holiday is mobile - it is celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost, that is, the Day of the Holy Trinity, which usually falls on the end of May - beginning of June, therefore, it has absolutely nothing to do with Samhain.
And in the Catholic and Lutheran churches, the holiday is stationary: after spending some time on the calendar, in the 9th century, through the efforts of Pope Gregory IV, All Saints Day was set for November 1. On this holiday, all saints are remembered and in prayers to the Lord they ask for intercession on their behalf. Attending Mass in the Catholic tradition on this day is obligatory, neglecting the Mass is a great sin. After All Saints Day, November 2, Catholics and Lutherans celebrate All Souls Day, traditionally considered the day of remembrance of the dead, they certainly visit the graves of their deceased relatives.
The day of the Dead
Samhain is also sometimes called "the holiday of the dead", but it has nothing to do with the pious commemoration of relatives. The fact is that the Celtic population of ancient Ireland and Scotland believed that it was on Samhain that people who violated their gays die. Gays is a taboo, a kind of magical prohibition imposed on a person. Presumably, the system for identifying geis was run by the Druids. For example, geis could be appointed when giving a name, marrying, changing social status, for rulers - when joining the kingdom.
The meaning of the imposition of a geis in this case was an attempt to establish a magical connection between a person and the Otherworld, in order to protect against an unfavorable fate: a geis is designed to establish balance, not to anger higher powers with excessive well-being. Sometimes geis was appointed as a punishment for some transgression. Here are examples of gays: "There should not be a robbery during your rule" or "May a single man or woman not enter your home after sunset." By the way, if the king violated his geis, then misfortune fell on all his possessions.
Thus, the person who transgressed the geis triggered the destructive mechanism of fatal failures. Of course, the offenders who found their death on the night of Samhain were not remembered with a kind word, and the meaning of the Day of the Dead was an ominous reminder: observe the laws of the world order, or else punishment will fall on your head and on the heads of all those associated with you.
Two halves of a whole
But the "day of the dead" is far from the main meaning of Samhain. It was one of the most important holidays in the cyclical annual system of the Celts. As you know, the year was divided into two parts - light and dark. The bright half of the year, turning to summer, began in the month of Beltane (May), the same was the name of the holiday traditionally celebrated on May 1. The dark half of the year, turning towards winter, began in the month of Samhain (November), this was the name of the holiday that fell on November 1. And if we draw analogies, then Samhain is not akin to the eve of All Saints' Day or the Day of Remembrance, but to the harvest festival.
The last month of autumn is the time of corraling livestock from pastures to wintering in stalls, the time when the bins and storerooms are filled with supplies, the time of feasts and festivities. Of course, the deification of natural forces was inherent in the Celts - this is characteristic of all archaic religious beliefs. Therefore, the agricultural holiday Samhain acquired a magical meaning: with its onset, the border between the mortal world and the Otherworld was opened. Hence the belief about the dead due to the violation of gays, and the custom of the druids to light ritual bonfires that dispelled the darkness.
However, the attitude of the Celts towards the Otherworld, the center of magic, secrets and Power, was not negative. Of course, they felt fear and awe before him and its inhabitants. But these were respectful feelings. It is in these feelings that the meaning of the view of the structure of the world is rooted: do not break the taboo, be able to negotiate with the Otherworld through the right rituals.
Everything is changing…
Later, with the advent of Christianity, Samhain and Halloween, completely different canonically, mixed in the minds of people: the people, who received a new church holiday - All Saints Day, clung to the concepts and attitudes that had governed their beliefs for centuries. And the raid of "devilry" that formed on the semantic coloring of Halloween occurred, undoubtedly, due to the difference in the attitude of Christianity and paganism to magic: according to Celtic concepts, magic was the most important component of the world order, according to Christian concepts, it was under the jurisdiction of the enemy of the human race, Satan. Hence the conviction that Halloween (remember - "Holy Evening"!) - a time of revelry of evil forces: sorcerers, witches and all kinds of evil spirits.
It seems that the reason that Halloween for Russia has remained a fashionable Western fun, akin to a carnival, is rooted in the difference between Orthodox and Western Christian egregors. There, on Halloween, the fact was unwittingly projected that Pope Gregory IV chose the date of the pagan Samhain - November 1 to celebrate All Saints' Day. In Orthodoxy, this date is not associated with any great holiday, and All Saints' Day generally falls on the end of May - beginning of June. An even deeper reason is in history. If Europe, and America, to some extent (because of the Irish settlers who brought the custom of celebrating Halloween to the United States), are the heirs of Celtic culture, then this cannot be said about Russia. So Samhain and Halloween do not have such a sacred meaning for us as for the West.
Let us recall what an egregor is: it is an energy-informational-temporal structure that arises from the co-directed actions of a group of people with common aspirations. That is, the generation of thoughts and feelings of a group of people, acting independently of each of the members of the group, and possibly of the entire group as a whole: it was created by people, but once formed, the egregor himself begins to dictate his own laws to them. Egregors, as you know, are religious, historical, philosophical, magical.
And the fact that even in the West in our time, Halloween is increasingly perceived not as a sacred holiday, but as a playful costume performance, an extra reason to arrange a holiday for children, dressing them up not only with traditional witches, elves, vampires, but also Supermen and heroes of Star wars "; play magic, tickle their nerves, just as they excite them by watching some mystical or fantastic film (well, there is "The Omen" or "Harry Potter") - all this is explained by the change of egregors: the ancient Celts, with their beliefs and views on world order, receded into the darkness of centuries, modern people have different attitudes.
Svetlana Ivanova
