Samhain EXPERTS Reveal Ancient European Secrets EP 70 | Myth in Minute

At the end of October, there is a festival that people all over the world look forward to joining in the fun by dressing up as ghosts, fairies, and demons. Many people follow suit, forgetting that Halloween or All Hallows' Eve is an adaptation of an ancient festival into a Christian festival. The celebration, which was originally called Halloween, originated from an ancient festival of the Celts, an ancient culture of the Metal Age that spread from Europe to the British Isles. This festival is called Sáin or Samhain, which falls between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. The Sáin festival has many traditions that later became a model for Christian culture. In Ireland, the word Samhain is also the current name for November. An important place that reflects this belief is the Hill of Ward, originally named Cragda or the Hill of Tara in Irish, where the ritual is still practiced today. The Sáin festival is one of the three major Celtic festivals. Traditionally, a large bonfire or bonfire was built to celebrate the harvest and was burned as a sacrifice. This fire was considered sacred fire. Each household in the community would light a torch and bring it back to light in their own hearth or bonfire. The nature of the fire tradition, as well as the connection to fertility and death, suggests that the gods involved in the ceremony were the gods of fire and light, as well as the gods of the earth and the gods of death. Replacing the old fire with a new fire symbolizes a new beginning. The sacred fire would ward off evil spirits from the home. For this reason, the Sáin festival is like the Celtic New Year. The harvest was harvested in late autumn, and animals were slaughtered to prepare for the winter. This led to the custom of sacrificing some of the gods in return for the abundance received. The ritual may have been traced back to the era of animal husbandry, and it appears that the ritual of sacrificing sacred animals is similar to the Sáin ritual. It is the slaughtering of animals and putting the skin or head of the animal on, such as in the rituals practiced in Roman Gaul on the 1st of January, which is considered a festival that is assumed to have its roots in Celtic culture. Considering the format of the celebration, the lighting of a sacred fire to ward off bad luck, and receiving the sacrament through the consumption of meat in the ceremony, it can be said that the rituals of the Sáin festival are not very different. It is also in line with the festival of July, which is a midwinter celebration. Another important day that has been integrated into Christian traditions. The meaning of the name of this race is still unclear, but there are suggestions about its main meaning, which is that they come from under the earth or the sea, making them seem close to the devil from the perspective of other cultures. However, the identity of the Fomorians is the opposite of the Irish gods who are usually on the bright side, while the Fomorians are supernatural beings on the dark side. The Celts, a culture of the metal age, believed that there was a light and a dark season in a year. The transition between the two was often a fragile time, such as the end of the harvest season, when other plants died and animals went into hibernation. The world was virtually lifeless. The Celts saw this festival as a day of death, a day of transition, and the priests had to make offerings for the survival of the human world before it was absorbed into the later Christian festival. The bonfires at the Sáin festival can be said to represent the sun, as they were ritually performed by the priests and were built to enhance the sun's power. The fire therefore had the effect of purifying and bringing good fortune. These fires were lit and given to the villagers to purify their homes and protect them during the Sáin festival and throughout the winter. In Wales, there was a game of jumping over sacred bonfires, believed to protect them from the black boar, an evil being who ate human souls. She usually appeared as a short black female pig. Some said she walked on two legs like a person, but some legends were even scarier, as she appeared in the form of a headless woman. Although jumping over the fire would save the black boar, if the sacred fire died down, the sow would come after those still on the ceremonial ground. The black boar in this legend could be a reference to the Fomorians, or, if we think about it another way, it was a local deity in Gaul, the area of modern France and nearby, who was considered a fertility deity. Some of them took the form of a wild boar, such as the god Machus. This game seemed to have evolved from the origins of these wild boar deities, gradually changing its meaning until it became what it is today. This custom was consistent with the ancient Europeans' view of this time as a time of death, with the spirits of things in the world circling the people, including the dead who were sacrificed on that day.