Halloween

Monday, November 04, 2013



RSS / Archive



The Daily Star



Letters















Home

Newspaper

Frontpage

Backpage

City

Country

World

e-Daily Star

Business

Sports

Op-Ed

Entertainment

LifeStyle

Shout

The Star



Letters

Science



Published: Tuesday, November 5, 2013









Halloween: Paganism in a new package















Ted Rudow III, MA, Encina Ave, Palo Alto, CA

The true name of Halloween is “Samhain.” This was the Celtic Lord of the Dead. For 3 days from Oct 29-31, the Celtic people, along with their priestly class called Druids, hold an ancient rite which marks the beginning and the end of the year. A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic Western Europe, during the Iron Age.

Very little is currently known about the ancient druids because they left no written accounts about themselves. The druids then also appear in some of the medieval tales from Christianised Ireland like the Táin Bó Cúailnge, where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who opposed the coming of Christianity.

Usually a week before the rites of Samhain began, the Druid had ordered the people of the Celtic tribe to disperse throughout the countryside and gather thousands of wicker reeds. They would then construct a giant human effigy as the wicker man. A wicker man was a large wicker statue of a human used by the ancient Druids (priests of Celtic paganism) for human sacrifice by burning it in effigy. Many cages had been built. Each prisoner would be tied to one of the cages. Then the Druids began their idea of fun and games.

Yet, I have seen many Christian churches throughout this nation hold Halloween parties within the church building. Every single one of these things is directly from the celebration of Samhain. You are simply trying to turn something evil into something good!







©2013 The Daily Star. All Rights Reserved.

STAR ARCHIVE