Halloween has evolved into a modern, tacky celebration, but its origins were much creepier. The Celtic Samhain traditions involved communion with the dead, divination, misrule, excess, and fire. It was a time of withered crops and creepy birds, which eventually turned into a festive occasion.
; pumpkin-flavoured, glow-in-the-dark lube and an email from your accountant laboriously joking about spooktacular self-assessment: Halloween these days feels tediously, tackily modern, when actually we’ve probably been scaring ourselves silly at this time of year since pre-history. It’s not like there was much else to fill the lengthening winter nights back then, except getting killed by Vikings, starvation or plague.
With that kind of worldview, it’s no surprise old-time Halloween was creepier than the current version. The Celtic Samhain end-of-harvest traditions from which it evolved proved impossible to sanitise entirely into the tidier Christian celebration of All Saints’ and All Souls’. It was variously a time of communion with the dead, divination, misrule, excess and fire .
Withered crops and creepy birds scream “party time” and that’s what Halloween became, if by “party” you mean “throwing a cabbage stalk at your neighbour’s door, then trying towith your significant other to see which of you will die first”. Before it was defanged by the only force stronger than religion – capitalism – “Heathenrie, Devilrie and Drunknennesse” .
There’s no visual record of the wildest Samhain excesses, but we’ve got some absolutely cursed images, so grab your fattest cabbage stalks, nuts and hempseed , and let’s get started.revellers wearing extremely normal costumes. Far right, the weird fish guy from The Shape of Water ; front right, a sexy anime cat; front middle, just your basic dog-pinstripe-scarecrow-nightmare, and front left is preparing to scuttle through your nightmares for all eternity.
Halloween Origins Celtic Samhain Traditions Creepier Withered Crops Creepy Birds Festive Occasion
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