October 31 was for the Celts the date which marked the beginning of the cold season and harvesting agricultural through the winter. The Celts were tied to the lunar cycle and farming, in particular, revered the vital principle of the cosmos that manifests itself not only in gods but mainly in nature. Many have spoken of the Celtic type monistic monotheism and pantheism, and indeed even some Christian writers such as Duns Scotus have this common belief well before Christianity. So for them every cycle of nature has a sacred character because it expresses the eternal becoming of the whole, of this divine energy represented by its Celtic cross. It follows that in the dead Celts a new lease of life and therefore considered to die with honor and the clan something positive. Death was not feared because it seen as a step towards a new life. As the soil in winter and spring to prepare for the rest to other crops, so the Celtic man was dying to be reborn. And the day when darkness prevails over light, cooling the heat, death over life, the spirits came into contact with the living and were greeted with celebrations in their honor. But because death is not only a way of rebirth, but also the chaos and destruction, it is purified with fire places and cast out evil spirits with magic. Only the positive energy must prevail, any negativity needed to be cut off otherwise you may not be born again and join with the whole. This is done by offering food to the dead, prayed in a state of contemplation and marks the symbolic sacrifice of the horned god. Cernunnos was the personification of the male principle of God and one who died to make way for the goddess, the Great Mother. About this sacrifice, we know that before the formation of nuclei with many tribes, personified by the god of a man was killed by the priestess-goddess. Obviously with the emergence of an organized system such as was that of the Gaels in Ireland became a symbolic sacrifice, as many of the violent sacrifices practiced by the pagans. The king became the horned god and the queen mother goddess. The cult of the dying god is among the oldest, Indeed it is thought to be the oldest ever, and the goddess wept during the winter and await the return in the spring. So it was not a ritual or cruel murderess, though it was seen as such by the most primitive Celtic communities. With the advent of the symbols had to overcome many superstitions and sacrifices violent and perhaps the birth of civilization itself (in many symbols and anthropologists talk about homo simbolicum). The god was represented by a puppet which gave fire or rites of passage faced with feigned death. Of course, other tribes, such as those of the Gauls, continued to practice the sacrifice itself using slaves. The Druid religion could be very cruel. We know for a fact that all the Celts practiced animal sacrifice, usually those intended for slaughter. The bones were thrown into the bonfire purifier.
Samhain feast of the dead was identified as first and foremost by the pagan Romans and later by early Christians. Celtic Christianity as I have said elsewhere, retains much of the ancient Celtic culture, having built very well and peacefully with it, and early identification of Samhain with the feast of the dead was a natural. The custom of asking for sweets from Halloween is still a custom in Christian folklore and modeled on the Celtic. The demonization of this cult is mostly from the Church of Rome, much less tolerant towards the Celtic pagans and often in open conflict with it. The identification of Celtic gods with demons and the association between Cernunnos and the devil has led to a complete misunderstanding of the meaning of Samhain and its unfair distortion. And so the feast of Saints stands in exact opposition to the cult of Celtic.
Halloween comes from this process deteriorizzazione of Samhain. Moving in various traditions and also fill them with superstitious beliefs is only the most gloomy, or that of evil spirits invading the world of the living. As long as the legend of Jack O Lantern, spread by Irish emigrants in America, gives a definitive basis for Halloween. The famous Jack makes fun of the devil and this prevents him out of pique, once dead, to enter Hell. Man is thus forced to wander in darkness with a firebrand in his hand, which becomes later in a hollowed pumpkin with a flame in the center. The hoax carried out by Jack is reflected in the popular practice "Trick or treat" people disguised as a monster, put in place by turning from house to house. A carnival might say, and in fact has been reduced to this. There's also the sad side of Halloween, Halloween or the Satanist who really celebrates as they think (wrongly) the Christian king of darkness. Yet these traditions can be traced back to the true meaning of this feast, and then to Samhain, also from the psychological and anthropological point of view.
Jack is an attitude typical of the Celtic world, which was the exorcising rites and myths, the frightening aspect of religious feeling and of life. Death always strikes terror in men, is seen as the greatest injustice. The deadpan and implacable scythe, the archetype of destruction, darkness, the end. Incredibly, the Celts, much more than we men of science, were able to conquer death. How? Overcome fear. Because, in their wisdom, they understood that death was not to be negative, but his fear and the way in which it is addressed. And Materialists scientist of today would say that they were deceived and that the myth is that, to deceive themselves and escape from reality. Instead, their reasoning is much more spiritual right of modern reason. They perceived the profound unity of every part of the universe and the existence of eternal energy that keeps everything in ceaseless motion and allows him to live. Those who oppose this really died. Rejecting this process smooth, claiming to live outside of the cosmos, was tantamount to really die. Indeed, who evaded the celebrations of Samhain could never be reborn. The evil spirits feared by the Celts, negative energies, are at a psychological level the dark and scary side of death, death that prevents the cycle of rebirth. What we want to emphasize, for the Celts was a step in the whole and not as the reincarnation means certain Eastern religions. Jack can not find peace after death because he led a dissolute life and wanted to take on a greater scale. I note that in medieval Christianity and also of a later period it was believed in limbo and the fact that some pagan souls going to Hell too good to live in this place. The Legend of Jack is also based on this old theory.
However, Jack is as a firebrand. The Celts took the embers from the bonfire with which turn the other burners. This means that only purified can find a way to rejoin the Whole. But first you must get rid of negative energies, bad experiences accumulated during the year and "kill", so they can be born fruit. The custom of dressing up as monsters was also practiced by the Celts to scare away evil spirits and can be accessed in key psychological and spiritual as a way of exorcising the fear of death destroyer, the bad, identifiable in their evil witches, ghosts, vampires, werewolves and other creatures of darkness. So it is also fine to use the tradition of Halloween, but only after having discovered the true essence of Samhain.
Samhain is celebrated by neo-paganism and Wicca, but also a Christian like me can draw valuable lessons. First, to overcome the fear of death because the only real death is what we want, choosing to live in violence and chaos and to deny the beauty and harmony that God has given the world. Second, honor the dead and to be in contemplation. Third, connect your spirit with the divine energy to purify and to "die" and "resurrect" already here, killing the reviving virtues and vices.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain
http://www.ilcerchiodellaluna.it/central_calend_samhain.htm
http://www.ilcalderonemagico.it/ruotanno_Samhain.html
http://www.bethelux.it/samhain.htm
http : / / www.halloween.it / Italy / legends / samhain.htm
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