Is Halloween Pagan?

Is Halloween Pagan?

The idea that all the traditional holidays and festivals of the year are “pagan” in origin and were simply “stolen by the Church” is one that has permeated popular culture and is repeated without question in newspaper, magazine and online articles. It is perhaps not surprising that harried journalists and underpaid online content writers are uncritical about these claims, but it is more strange that prominent atheists are as well, given they are meant to be sceptics who check their facts and “question everything”. Unfortunately, many anti-theistic polemicists cannot resist a chance to get in a jab at any aspect of Christianity being “really pagan”, so every October we see supposed rationalists parroting pseudo history about the “pagan origins of Halloween”, with no sign of any fact-checking, let alone engagement with scholarship. In fact, the claim that Halloween is “pagan” is largely a nineteenth century myth.

Is Halloween pagan?

We see it every year in the lead up to Easter, to Christmas and to Halloween: articles assuring us that these festivals are “pagan” in origin. Easter, we are told, was really a pagan fertility festival of a goddess (Eostre, or maybe Ishtar) whose feast day and symbols of bunnies and eggs were co-opted by Christianity, despite this being almost complete nonsense. Similarly, we are told annually that Christmas is actually the ancient pagan festival of Saturnalia, which also had feasting, gift-giving and decorations, despite this also being almost entirely wrong. It is hardly surprising, therfore, that the most obviously pagan-seeming festival of the year – Halloween – is also presented as a wholly “pagan” enterprise, which had once again been stolen by Christians and given a superficial make-over. After all, what could a festival that focuses on spirits and spooks, demons and the dark and tricks and pranks have to do with Christianity? All those supernatural elements, spooky costumes and trick and treating must surely have a pre-Christian origin.

So every October we see a plethora of articles with titles like “What’s the Real History of Halloween—and Why Do We Celebrate It on October 31?” or “The Pagan Origins of Halloween” all telling us much the same thing: Halloween may be the evening before All Saints Day, but it falls on this date because it was originally the pagan Celtic festival of Samhain, and all the spooky associations that it has come from this pagan festival of the dead. Trick or treating, Jack-o’-lanterns, dressing in costumes associated with the supernatural – all these things, we are assured, are pagan in origin and date back to pre-Christian times.

So it is not surprising that this commonly held idea, one that is reinforced every year, is accepted without question by many atheists. And, therefore, some of them use this “fact” to taunt Christians for celebrating what is actually a “pagan” festival. Unfortunately some of these atheists are the same ones who preach to others about checking their facts, paying attention to scholarship and researching evidence for claims. But when it comes to the alleged “pagan” origins of various festival days, they do not manage to do any of these things. They simply accept the standard claims because … it suits them to do so. So the Christian radio host who turned atheist activist, Seth Andrews, assured his 328,000 YouTube followers last December that Christmas is originally “pagan”, stumbling from one historical howler to the next in the process. Andrews also mentioned Halloween in passing during this extended mangling of history. Writing of this imaginary co-opting of Saturnalia by Christians, Andrews tells his listeners:

Now, this is a lot like what the Catholic Church did with Halloween. Halloween was essentially a Celtic tradition involving the druid priests and the people dressing up in masks and tricks and treats – very pagan. And the Church was coming in going “Well, we can’t have all this paganism, but people sure like the holiday’, so the Catholic Church sort of redressed it and made it All Saints Day, All Saints Eve or Halloween, changed the date, stamped a brand of ownership on it and said “Aha! Now we, the Catholic Church, own the holiday!’ Christianity did much of the same thing with the festival of Saturnalia in the month of December.

Seth Andrews, “What Christians (Probably) Don’t Know About Christmas”, 35.20 – 36.02 mins)

These ideas are far from exclusive to atheist activists like Andrews. Modern neo-pagans propagate them with gusto as well, “reclaiming” their supposedly pagan holiday from any association with Christianity. In 1993 the British Pagan Federation for Halloween issued a pamphlet making a series of emphatic claims about the origins and significance of the festival:

Hallowe’en developed from the Celtic feast of Samhain (pronounced ‘sow-in’), which marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter. For the Celts, Samhain was the beginning of the year and the cycle of the seasons. …. Samhain was a time of change and transformation where both the past and the present met with the uncertain tides of the future yet to come. It was a time for magic and divination, when Druids and Soothsayers would forecast the events of the coming year. …. When Christianity became established in Britain, the Pagan Goddesses and Gods were said to have fallen under the rule of all the saints. All Hallows Day (November 1st), now known as ‘All Saints Day’, celebrates this take over. The old Pagan traditions, however, were not eradicated and lived on in the guise of Hallowe’en—the eve of All Hallows Day or All Saints Day.

(quoted in Ronald Hutton, Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, Oxford, 1996, Ch. 35)

And here the neo-pagans in turn were responding to evangelical Christians, who have long attacked any celebration of Halloween as “pagan” and “Satanic”. Most moderate Christians generally regard Halloween as a bit of harmless fun, but the less fun end of Christianity regards it with great suspicion, precisely because of its supposed “pagan” origins and articles aimed at fundamentalist audiences like “What is Halloween and Should Christians Celebrate It?” answer the question with a firm “no”. Though few take this to the gloriously bonkers heights of the late Jack T. Chick‘s cartoon tracts on the subject, which Christians were encouraged to leave out for (no doubt disappointed) trick or treaters.

So atheist activists, neo-pagans and evangelical Christians are all, oddly, in complete agreement: Halloween is pagan in origin and both the date and the traditions around it derive from a druidic, Celtic festival. This strange consensus is made even more ironic by the fact that these ideas are almost entirely wrong.

Is Halloween pagan? - All Saints

The Christian Origins of Halloween

The name “Halloween” (or “Hallowe’en”) is a traditional contracted form of “All Hallows Eve”. This in turn is a reference to the feast of All Saints Day, traditionally called All Hallows Day, or simply All Hallows (or sometimes Hallowmas) in English. In the Catholic liturgical year All Saints Day falls on November 1 each year and, as a first rank feast day, was always celebrated with a vigil and, later, with an octave. This means that it was not only celebrated on the day itself, but also, like Easter Sunday and Christmas Day, with preparatory prayers and a mass the night before. The octave – an extended eight day sequence of liturgy following the feast day – was added by Pope Sixtus IV in 1480, though it was removed in the twentieth century. The vigil held the evening before, however, seems as old as the feast itself. So Halloween refers to this vigil and its associated traditions.

All Saints Day, as the name would suggest, is a commemoration held in several Christian denominations of all of those deceased believers who have attained heaven. In the Western tradition, it is followed by All Souls Day on November 2, for remembrance of the dead generally. The veneration of the triumphant dead is a very old tradition in Christianity and seems to have its origin in the cults of martyrs in the first centuries of the religion’s history. Annual commemoration of martyred Christians appears in the sources very early on, with The Martyrdom of Polycarp (c. 150- 200 AD) referring to this practice:

Accordingly, we afterwards took up his bones, as being more precious than the most exquisite jewels, and more purified than gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, whither, being gathered together, as opportunity is allowed us, with joy and rejoicing, the Lord shall grant us to celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom, both in memory of those who have already finished their course, and for the exercising and preparation of those yet to walk in their steps.

(Ch. XVIII)

The same text places Polycarp’s death and therefore this commemorative day on April 25th, though the exact year is not certain. From the fourth century onward we find references to annual commemorations of all martyrs and saints on various days depending on location; so the Orthodox tradition celebrated All Saints on the Sunday after Pentecost (as it still does), while Syrian tradition held it on the Friday after Easter. On 13th May 609 AD (or perhaps 610 AD) Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon in Rome as a Catholic church dedicated to all saints and ordered an annual celebration of the saints in that church on this date, which is held to this day. At some point in his pontificate (731-41 AD), Pope Gregory III dedicated a chapel in St Peters to all saints and martyrs and some accounts say this was on November 1, making this the potential origin for the western date for All Saints Day. Sometime later in the eighth century the English Martyrologium Poeticuma poetic calendar of saints days and other feast days celebrated at York – makes a clear reference to a feast of All Saints on November 1:

Multiplici rutilet gemma ceu in fronte Nouember
Cunctorum fulget sanctorum laude decorus.

(As a jewel worn on the brow sparkles time and again, so November
at its beginning is resplendent with the praise given to all the saints.)

Given this was a practice at York, it is not surprising to find the great scholar, Alcuin of York, writing to his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg, urging him to celebrate All Saints Day on November 1:

Kalendis Novembris solemnitas omnium sanctorum. Ecce, venerande pater Arne, habes designatam solemnitatem omnium sanctorum, sicut diximus. Quam continue in mente retineas et semper anniversario tempore colere non desistas

On the kalends of November is the solemnity of all the saints. See, venerable father Arno, you have marked the solemnity of all the saints, just as we said. Keep that ever in mind and never cease to celebrate it on that annual date

(Alcuin, Letter 193, 800 AD)

This urging suggests that All Saints Day was perhaps celebrated on other dates and Alcuin, by this stage back at the court of the Frankish ruler Charlemagne at Aachen, preferred the tradition he knew from England. Or it could be that he is urging the importance of the feast rather than the date of the celebration per se. What we do know is the November 1 date caught on in Frankia, with Pope Gregory IV promulgating it as the date for All Saints Day for both East and West Frankia, and this was reinforced by an edict by Louis the Pious in 835 AD as recorded in the entry for that year in the Chronicon of Sigebert of Gembloux. With the date established across the Frankish Empire, it became more widely adopted and over the next two centuries became standard Catholic liturgical practice across Europe.

What is obviously missing from all this is any hint of an influence by anything “pagan”, let alone some Irish or “Celtic” festival presided over by druids. Even if the dedication of the chapel in St Peters by Gregory III was not the origin of the November 1 date and the practice arose independently in England and spread to Frankia via the influence of English scholars like Alcuin, there is a serious problem with the idea that this was due to Irish “Celtic” influence on England. This is because the earliest Irish reference to an All Saints Day does not have it celebrated there on November 1, but on April 20.

The Félire Óengusso or “Martyrology of Óengus” is another martyrology, attributed to Saint Óengus of Tallaght. It seems to date to the ninth century and is based on earlier English martyrologies (like that of Bede), but with significant local Irish additions. It mentions a feast of All Saints in its listing for April 20:

Day of the suffering of Herodius,
priest who crucified desire;
Feast in Rome – that noble town –
of the whole of the saints of Europe.

Under November 1, on the other hand, we do find – finally – a reference to “Samhain”. But it is not associated with commemorating All Saints, but rather with three Irish saints only:

Lonan, Colman, Cronan
with their bright sunny followers —
the hosts of Hilary, many, sure,
ennoble stormy Samain.

So while the English were already celebrating All Saints Day on November 1 in the eighth century and that date became predominant in Frankia by the mid ninth century, the Irish were doing so on April 20, with “stormy Samain” the feast of three local holy men only. As esteemed historian of folklore, Ronald Hutton, summarises it in his Stations Of The Sun (Oxford, 1996):

Charlemagne’s favourite churchman Alcuin was keeping it by [800 AD], as were also his friend Arno, bishop of Salzburg, and a church in Bavaria. Pope Gregory [IV], therefore, was endorsing and adopting a practice which had begun in northern Europe. It had not, however, started in Ireland, where the Felire of Oengus and the Martyrology of Tallaght prove that the early medieval churches celebrated the feast of All Saints upon 20 April. This makes nonsense of [the] notion that the November date was chosen because of ‘Celtic’ influence.

(Ch. 35)

Hutton favours a “Germanic” origin for the date – either the practice of the English church which influenced Frankia or perhaps the other way around. Or it could be that the Roman celebration on that day deriving from Gregory III spread to both. But since the Irish in the same period seem to have used April 20 for their date and paid little regard to November 1 at this stage, the claim the whole thing began in Ireland as an originally pagan festival makes no sense.

Is Halloween pagan? - Samhain Fire

Samhain in the Sources

The claims about the origins of Halloween lying with Samhain tend to be very detailed about this “Celtic” festival, with references to all the key elements of it that thus made their way into Halloween traditions: trick or treating, Jack-o’-lanterns, dressing in costumes and masks and a general association with the dead. But when we turn to what we know about this pre-Christian feast day, we find few to none of these elements.

Is Halloween pagan? - Coligny Calendar
The Coligny Calendar

There is certainly some evidence that November 1 was a key date for several cultures across the Celtic language group, marking the end of summer. The Irish word “Samhain” (also found as “Samain” or “Samuin” and pronounced “Sow-win”) seems derived from an ancient word meaning “summer”. A key piece of evidence here is the Coligny Calendar: a inscribed bronze tablet discovered in south-east France in 1897. This represents a lunisolar calendar, which reconciles moon phases with the solar year over a cycle of five years via the insertion of an occasional intercalary “leap” month, and it dates to the first century BC. The inscriptions on the Calendar use Roman script and numerals, but the names of months on it are in the Celtic language of the ancient Gauls. These include a month called “Samonios” at the beginning of the year, derived from the Gaulish root “Samo-” meaning “summer”. This is almost certainly a cognate with the Irish “Samhain”, but “Samonios” began in May and did not fall in November (called Giamonios on the Coligny Calendar). This means “Samhain” is a compound word meaning something like “summer’s end”.

As already mentioned, the ninth century Félire Óengusso refers to November 1 as “stormy Samain”, and the early tenth century Welsh text, The Laws of Hywel Dda, repeatedly uses “the calends of winter” (i.e. November 1) as a key annual demarcation for various laws, again indicating the end of summer on this day as an important date. What we do not find in early references to either Samhain or the calendrical significance of November 1 as the end of summer is reference to rituals or religious practices. The early Irish glossary Sanas Cormaic, which dates to the tenth century, is a word list with etymologies and explanations of over 1,400 words and it mentions the spring festival of Beltane on May 1 and refers to druids driving cattle between two ritual fires to protect them for the coming year on that date, but does not mention Samhain at all, let alone any rituals associated with it. The Ulster Cycle epics, possibly dating to the tenth century or earlier, make a couple of mentions of Samhain. Tochmarc Emire (“The Wooing of Emer”) lists Samhain as one of the year’s “quarter days”, along with Imbolc (1 February), Beltane (1 May), and Lughnasadh (1 August) and Serglige Con Culainn (“The Sick-Bed of Cú Chulainn”) gives us some more details about what marking Samhain may have traditionally entailed:

Every year the men of Ulster were accustomed to hold festival together; and the time when they held it was for three days before Samhain, the Summer-End, and for three days after that day, and upon Samhain itself. And the time that is spoken of is that when the men of Ulster were in the Plain of Murthemne, and there they used to keep that festival every year; nor was there an thing in the world that they would do at that time except sports, and marketings, and splendours, and pomps, and feasting and eating; and it is from that custom of theirs that the Festival of the Samhain has descended, that is now held throughout the whole of Ireland.

(trans,. A.H. Leahy, Heroic Romances of Ireland. Vol I., London, 1905, p. 57)

Here we get a lot of feasting “and splendours and pomps”, but no rituals or any indication of overtly religious significance. It seems more of a chance to get together and have a good time before the weather turns too wintery. It is not until the twelfth century Macgnímartha Finn (“The Boyhood Deeds of Finn mac Cumhaill”) that we find something supernatural associated with the references to Samhain:

However, Finn went to Cethern, the son of Fintan, further to learn poetry with him. At that time there was a very beautiful maiden in Bri Ele, that is to say, in the fairy-knoll of Bri Ele, and the name of that maiden was Ele. The men of Ireland were at feud about that maiden. One man after another went to woo her. Every year on Samain the wooing used to take place; for the fairy-mounds of Ireland were always open about Samain; for on Samain nothing could ever be hidden in the fairy-mounds. To each man that went to woo her this used to happen: one of his people was slain. This was done to mark the occasion, nor was it ever found out who did it.

(Tom P. Cross & Clark Harris Slover, ed.s, Ancient Irish Tales, New York, 1936)

The idea that the world of the Sídhe, the fairy folk of Irish legend, is open to the mundane world at certain times of year is also found associated with Beltane. But even here we do not find any indication of ritual or religious observance. Perhaps the closest we get to that is in the Dindshenchas (“The Lore of Places”), also from the twelfth century, which tells a story of Saint Patrick throwing down an idol of the pagan god Cromm Crúaich at Magh Slécht (“the plain of prostration”). The Dindshenchas says “the firstlings of every issue and the chief scions of every clan” were sacrificed to this idol. It also details how each year at Samhain the High King would lead the people in prostrating themselves before the idol of Cromm Crúaich and how they would fling themselves on the ground so violently that three quarters of them died each time. Other, later, versions of how Patrick ended the worship of this god also mention sacrifices of children to his idol, but make no mention of Samhain. Hutton is sceptical of whether these stories reflect anything historical and concludes “the Magh Slécht story sounds … like a medieval Christian fantasy, developing over time and growing more lurid with each retelling” (Hutton, Blood & Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain, Yale, 2009, p. 41). It should be noted here that even in these stories the references to child sacrifice to this this idol are not associated with Samhain.

All this means that, despite some rather strained attempts to make these and other references conform to the idea of Samhain as some ancient Irish festival of the dead, we really do not have any clear evidence of Samhain as a religious festival at all. And we definitely do not have so much as a hint of the alleged “pagan” practices that are the origin of modern Halloween traditions of trick or treating and Jack-o’-lanterns etc. So what is the origin of the claims these things come from Samhain?

Is Halloween pagan? - Frazer

The Construction of a Modern Myth

The earliest reference to Samhain as a time of ritual, sacrifice and druidic ceremony comes in 1634, in an account by Seathrún Céitinn or Jeffrey Keating; a priest, poet and antiquarian from Tipperary who Hutton describes as “the thoroughly unreliable seventeenth-century Irish antiquary”. Keating’s account mingles a few elements from the medieval sources with a lot of lurid fantasy:

It was there the Fire of Tlachtgha was instituted, at which it was their custom to assemble and bring together the druids of Ireland on the eve of Samhain to offer sacrifice to all the gods. It was at that fire they used to burn their victims; and it was of obligation under penalty of fine to quench the fires of Ireland on that night, and the men of Ireland were forbidden to kindle fires except from that fire; and for each fire that was kindled from it in Ireland the king of Munster received a tax of a screaball, or three-pence, since the land on which Tlachtgha is belongs to the part of Munster given to Meath.

(Keating, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn: The History of Ireland, Book 1. XXXIX)

Like Hutton, all other modern scholars reject this account as largely lurid fantasy on Keating’s part, cobbled together out of references to fire rituals associated with other times of year, with a heavy layer of Keating’s imagination (see Binchy, D. A. “The Fair of Tailtiu and the Feast of Tara.” Ériu 18 (1958): 113–38; specifically pp. 129-30). Unfortunately, as one of the few early and seemingly scholarly books on early Ireland, Keating’s work was highly influential on later claims about Halloween’s “pagan” origins. Here we find the druids and the human sacrifice found repeatedly in later claims about the pre-Christian Halloween, along with a garbled origin story for the traditions around fires which did feature as part of many Halloween practices.

Partially thanks to Keating, the association of the supposed rituals of “the druids” as the origin of various traditional practices and ancient sites became a mainstay of antiquarian speculation from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth century, with John Aubrey’s Monumenta Britannica (1693) fixing the still persistent association of druids and Stonehenge in the popular imagination. Protestant polemicists took this idea up to blame the druids for all manner of residual Catholic traditions, which they condemned not just as “Popery” but traced to bloodthirsty pagan origins – a line of argument that also persists to this day and leads directly to fervid evangelical fantasies like the Jack T. Chick tracts noted earlier.

By the nineteenth century better researchers began to examine the evidence more carefully, though the “pagan origins” idea established since Keating’s time continued to be their key assumption. In 1886 the Welsh-born Oxford philologist Sir John Rhys argued in his Lectures on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by Celtic heathendom (1886) that November 1 had been the “Celtic new year”, largely based on Welsh folklore associating Halloween with new beginnings. This idea was greatly expanded by Sir James Frazer in his heavily influential The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion: originally published in two volumes in 1890 and eventually expanded to twelve volumes in its third edition, published 1906–1915. Frazer’s book caused something of a scandal for treating Christianity like any other form of ancient mythology, but effectively established the discipline of comparative religion in the English-speaking world. It was and remains culturally significant in that it influenced everyone from Sigmund Freud to Joseph Campbell and writers and artists from Robert Graves to Jim Morrison. This is despite the fact modern scholars find much of Frazer’s arguments unconvincing.

For Frazer, Samhain had been nothing less than the pagan Celtic feast of the dead. Like Rhys, he saw it as marking the death of the old year and also as a numinous time when the supernatural was abroad. But he argued that it was common for many cultures to honour their dead at the close of the year and so argued that the Christian feasts of All Saints and All Souls on November 1 and 2 had to have their origins in this posited earlier Celtic festival. Of course, this is based on the idea that All Saints began in Ireland and the Celtic tradition and transferred to the rest of Europe. But, as discussed above, this does not seem to be the case, with the earlier Irish celebration of All Saints (April 20) giving way to the date established in Frankia in the ninth century (November 1). Frazer got the influence completely the wrong way around.

But thanks to the influence of The Golden Bough on popular culture, the idea that there was a “Celtic” day of the dead as the origin of both the date of Halloween and its traditions involving ghosts and the supernatural persists. This is mixed with the anti-Papist claims in the Protestant tradition that links this supposed pagan origin to druids and human sacrifice that also persists in some versions of the Halloween origin story. So, we are assured, the practices of wearing costumes and masks, trick or treating, Halloween games and Jack o’Lanterns are also firmly “pagan”.

Is Halloween pagan? - Jack

Halloween – Past and Present

The problem with the claim that the key traditions of Halloween are all “pagan” in origin is the same as that with all such arguments. They assume that no new traditions could possibly have arisen in the centuries since the conversion to Christianity and so all traditions which are old (or seem old) must be pre-Christian, therefore “pagan”. There are many unwarranted assumptions in this line of reasoning, but it seems to be widely accepted without much question. As it happens, the elements of Halloween which may be pre-Christian are actually not common today and the most common practices today do not seem to be pre-Christian at all.

One of the most common elements in traditional Halloween folklore involves the lighting of fires. This seems to be the source of Jeffrey Keating’s antiquarian fantasy about druids burning people alive at Samhain, but fires that are watched as they burn out over the course of the night at Halloween are found in traditions across Ireland, Scotland and many parts of Wales. These “Hallowmas fires” were discouraged in Protestant areas as a holdover from Catholic traditions, since watching the fire as it burned down while remembering the dead was part of the tradition in many parts, and was clearly connected to the feasts of All Saints and All Souls. But there are elements in these practices that could indicate a pre-Christian origin, such as the Scottish tradition that the fire is burned to “keep the fairies á awá” or to drive off witches. The fire traditions are also associated with divination, which is another cluster of practices around Halloween that has largely died out. In North Wales each person put a white pebble in the fire and if any of them was missing from the ashes the next day, this was a sign that person would die that year. Similar practices in Scotland could indicate an pre-Christian origin for these ideas, though there is no way of being sure of this.

Other, better known and still popular traditions do not seem to have “pagan” origins at all, despite persistent claims to the contrary. The lurid fantasies of druids carrying off people for human sacrifices unless they were placated with gifts and food are often alleged to be the origin of trick or treating. In fact, this seems to have its origin in a Christian practice. Since All Saints and All Souls were feasts focused on the afterlife, in the old Catholic tradition they were also a time where charity was encouraged by the living to boost their chances of attaining heaven. So distributing food to the poor was a central part of Allhallowtide – the three day period from Halloween to the end of All Souls. Special “Soul Cakes” were traditionally baked to be given as charity to the poor and other seasonal food, such as nuts, apples and berries – all abundant in early autumn – were also distributed.

Poorer people going to houses to receive food as charity gave rise to people visiting others in disguise to demand “soul cakes” as part of a game. This took many forms that varied by region, but this practice of “guising” or “mumming” was part of celebratory folk practices at other times of year, particularly Christmas. At Halloween, the “guisers” often sang “soul cake songs” demanding traditional food gifts in return for a blessing. In some places the practice meant any “guiser” could enter a house and had to be welcomed and given soul cakes, while the owners pretended to not know who the visitors were. This is why traditional “guiser” masks were designed largely to hide someone’s identity from their neighbours rather than the modern version of the Halloween “costume”. In some versions the “guisers” simply painted their faces black. The game consisted of people in a close knit community pretending not to know each other while breaking social norms. This element developed into a “misrule” element – again, something also seen at Christmas – were acts of damage and violence were threatened (and minor acts carried out) if the “guisers” were not rewarded with food. The clear line of descent from this to modern “trick or treating” is obvious. That this all arose from a Christian practice of charity on a holy day is also clear, though in places it also involved leaving out food “for the dead”. Again, it is impossible to tell if this too was an pre-Reformation Christian practice or a remnant of something pre-Christian.

“Guisers” often carried vegetables carved with faces holding candles as lanterns as they went around the houses of their community. These could be turnips or mangel wurzels, and this practice was common in Ireland but also in northern Scotland and in parts of Somerset, where they were called “punkies” or “spunkies”. This was a dialect word for the phenomenon of ignited marsh gas, thought to be apparitions, and in eastern England these will-o’-the-wisps were referred to as “Jack o’lanterns”. This has given us the Irish-by-way-of-the-United-States modern version their name, though now made out of pumpkins. Again, the origin of the practice is obscure and there is no way of knowing if it was a pre- or post-Christian tradition.

Other traditional Halloween games and practices involved various forms of divination, to predict the future regarding death, marriage and children. Not surprisingly, Halloween games often involved apples (e.g. bobbing for apples) or nuts, given these were collected around this time of year. But the most common modern Halloween traditions are a few Irish and Scottish practices that were transplanted to the United States, and then really only became popularised after the Second World War. The influence of American popular culture and the commercial opportunities the modern American-style festival provides to manufacturers of confectionary, toys and costumes means that, these days, the commercialised version of the holiday is now almost international.

So, is it “Pagan”?

The short answer is “no”. Contrary to Seth Andrews’ claims about “the Catholic Church” stealing a pagan festival “involving the druid priests and the people dressing up in masks and tricks and treats”, the date and most of the traditions are firmly Christian in origin. The November 1 date that is the centre of “Allhallowmas” was not derived from any “Celtic” original and the original Irish date for an All Saints feast moved from April 20 to November 1 due to the influence of Continental and English liturgical practice. That this meant the new All Saints Day fell on the “quarter day” of Samhain was pure coincidence. Contrary to repeated insistence in popular sources, scholars can find no clear indication of any ritual or religious practices on Samhain, and certainly none that can be traced to later Halloween traditions. Masks, costumes, trick or treating, Halloween games etc. all either have known traditional Christian origins or simply cannot be linked to anything definitely pre-Christian. Possibly the main thing that does connect Halloween to earlier beliefs about Samhain is the idea that it is a numinous time of year when this world and the otherworld become closer and, thus, it is a time to be wary of malevolent entities. But how much of that idea comes from pre-Christian beliefs and how much of it is a result of a Christian feast focused on the afterlife and the dead is, again, impossible to tell. It is most likely some combination of the two.

What is very clear is that anti-theistic activists like Seth Andrews simply do not care about the details, let alone the truth behind the popular claims about Halloween being “pagan” in origin and simply “stolen” by Christianity. Despite exhorting others to “question everything” and check their facts, supposed rationalists like Andrews do not bother to practice what they preach if an idea fits neatly enough with their strong confirmation biases. And that is genuinely scary. Happy Halloween.

152 thoughts on “Is Halloween Pagan?

  1. “therefore, some of them use this “fact” to taunt Christians for celebrating what is actually a “pagan” festival.”
    This only makes sense on the assumption of cultural essentialism. The never changing essence here is that a festival that started out pagan always will remain pagan. At best this is silly, at worst it’s the cultural version of racism.
    In The Netherlands this non-argument is hard to maintain. Two of the most popular festivals are St. Martin’s Day and Sinterklaas, that are definitely are of catholic origin (the saints Martin of Tours and Nicolas of Myra respectively) . As long as I remember Dutch mainstream protestants celebrate it just as enthusiastically.
    So as usual I don’t even see the appeal of this New Atheist approach.
    Last years my sympathy for the War on Christmas has grown. I’ve already seen the first christmas pieces in shops and supermarkets. The latter already sell “pepernoten” (literally pepper nuts – a treat handed out at St. Martin’s Day and Sinterklaas) since August. The cause has nothing to do with religion of course, but is entirely commercial.

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  2. Tim,
    Fascinating analysis, as always. I note you state that the name is “a traditional contracted form of All Hallows Eve”. But, according to Palmer’s Folk-Etymology dictionary (quoting Oliphant), Halloween is “the modernized form of old Eng. halehenes (or halezene) in the Ancren Riwle, p.94, A. Sax. halgana (sanctorium), a genitive plural (….) The Ancren Riwle has also the form Alre halewune dei (p. 412).”
    Also, “Hallowmass (Shakespeare) is for All Hallows’ Mass, from Mid. Eng. halowe, a saint, A. Sax. hálga.

    Just thought I’d mention it!

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      1. Wait “Folk-Etymology dictionary” is supposed to be about spurious derivation, isn’t it? It has to list wrong etymologies.

        1. Yes, the full title is “Folk-Etymology, A Dictionary Of Verbal Corruptions Or Words Perverted In Form Or Meaning, By False Derivation Or Mistaken Analogy”. As I said, it claims Halloween is NOT a contraction of [All] Hallow’s een, All Saints’ Eve(n), but instead the modernised form of old Eng. halehenes… etc etc

          If, as Tim says, it’s “total nonsense”, so be it.

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          1. It is. For example “alre halewune” is just “all hallows” in the Ancrene Riwle‘s dialect of Early Middle English. Whoever wrote that silly “dictionary” didn’t have the linguistic skill to understand what he was talking about.

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          2. Ah ok, then he didn’t list that popular etymology as spurious, instead, he considers the real one spurious.
            So it was a kind of “dictionary of alternative etymologies” not in the sense that it is a serious and knowledgeable book on folk etymologies, but in the sense that it is itself an example of such false derivations.

          3. I recall a joke spot on some tv show from my youth about how it was from the “Ween tribe” of native americans who would fast before a big ceremony, and by the time they got finished on Oct 31st, they felt “hollow.” And spelling being slipshod in those days it became “Halloween.” 😉

            Now where’s my soul cake? Don’t make me soap your windows 7/8/10/11 !

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  3. Hello!

    Great analysis! I wished your content was translated into Spanish! It is really good!

    I did have a question though. The section “Halloween – Past and Present” where you talk about the origin of the trick-or-treat or Jack O’ Lantern traditions, what are your sources on that?

    Thanks!

      1. That explains it! This whole article reads like someone who read one part of one book and thought he knew the lot.

        Beltane and Samhain are ‘book-end’ festivals, they have similar purposes and rituals around them. You acknowledge Beltane’s because it doesn’t diminish your viewpoint but conveniently leave out the fact that the same is true for Samhain.

        Another glaring mistake you make is not realising you disprove your own point when you argue All Saints Day was celebrated at the time of Beltane (and later you admit they have similar practices) before being moved to the same time as Samhain. Then you use as proof that they’re on different dates as evidence.

        There is more than the strawman evidence you provide here for why it was originally a pagan holiday, if you were in anyway bothered about truth you wouldn’t cherry pick and lie your way to establishing your points.

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        1. “This whole article reads like someone who read one part of one book and thought he knew the lot.”

          No. I was asked specifically about the scholarly source for the history of the modern traditions. So I directed that person to Hutton’s work. He’s the leading authority on the subject and the book I noted summarises the last few decades of scholarship, with full references. He does know “the lot”. And I referred to various works in writing this piece, not just Hutton. So your weak attempt at snide dismissal fails.

          “Beltane and Samhain are ‘book-end’ festivals, they have similar purposes and rituals around them. You acknowledge Beltane’s because it doesn’t diminish your viewpoint but conveniently leave out the fact that the same is true for Samhain.”

          Nonsense. I “leave out” baseless speculation that “the same is true for Samahain”, because I work from evidence, not wishful thinking. We have some evidence for rituals at Beltane. We have none for Samhain. End of story.

          “Another glaring mistake you make is not realising you disprove your own point when you argue All Saints Day was celebrated at the time of Beltane (and later you admit they have similar practices) before being moved to the same time as Samhain. Then you use as proof that they’re on different dates as evidence.

          If you’re going to fling around claims about others making “glaring mistakes”, it would help if you didn’t make glaring mistakes as you did so. Nowhere do I “argue All Saints Day was celebrated at the time of Beltane”, because it wasn’t. You are very confused and need to read better to avoid … glaring mistakes.

          “There is more than the strawman evidence you provide here for why it was originally a pagan holiday”

          Yet, strangely, the leading scholars who I refer to don’t seem to know about this. And every time I challenge people like you to produce this “more evidence” that the experts have missed, I get … silence. I suspect that you too will come up with nothing.

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  4. A fine article. You’ve also expressed the material from Hutton in a more accessible way than he does. I wasn’t aware that Frazer was the key figure in all this – thank you.

  5. I’ve known “having pagan roots” for Easter is wrong, thought it overstated for Christmas (now think it’s just about all bunk), but Halloween? I thought Halloween, with the supposed link to ‘Samhain’, did have “pagan roots” (or at least a clear pagan influence). But, as I think this article clearly lays out, not even Halloween! 🎃

    Emerging take: ironically, it’s actually neopagans and New Atheists who’ve been appropriating Christian traditions and claiming them as their own.

    Granted, I think neopagan and New Atheist stances have been assisted by the strict, evangelical Christian condemnation against the holidays, but that brings me to another emerging take: so-called “fundamentalist” or “puritan” Christians ironically lack a “fundamental” or “pure” understanding of Christian doctrine and heritage.

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      1. Some actually have a dualistic view of the world, in which the world of Satan is “pagan” (freely associated with pop culture and also the Catholic Church) and its opposite is Christianity (the purified version they claim to practice), so anything that seems to affirm that dichotomy is accepted without much argument. If one’s level of research is limited to encyclopedias, it’s not surprising even those outside this worldview are also easily confused.

    1. That’s not so surprising if you realize that both fundamentalism (including the jewish and islamic versions) and new atheism to a great extent cling to outdated 19th Century views.

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  6. As a child I lived in the central belt of Scotland and in those days we both went “guising” and carried turnip lanterns.
    So the use of vegetable lanterns weren’t confined to northern Scotland, but were used pretty much common throughout the whole country.

    Of course it’s all trick-or- treating now, with pumpkin lamps. Another American cultural takeover.

    1. The reference to northern Scotland was from Hutton’s analysis and seems to refer to where the earliest recorded references are located. No doubt the practice was found in many other places as well.

    2. Then again, there are both Protestants who want to replace Halloween with “Reformation Day” and also Catholics who want to re-emphasize dressing up and celebrating the Saints rather than the secular, commercialized version of Halloween. But from both perspectives, the secular version (maybe not wearing risque costumes at boozy all night benders; I mean the trick or treating and child-like fun) is widely accepted at least here in the states.

  7. At the end, it all seems to be the other way round: an originally Christian holiday has become a mostly pagan one.

    Anyway, I’m not a Christian, but I do not see how asserting the previous existence of pagan holidays can be an attack on Christianity. I mean, it even seems a good idea: if you have to find a date for a new holiday, use one that is already celebrated.

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  8. Oh the Druids! No one has any idea what the Druids thought or practised, because they did not have a written culture. Modern knowledge of them is derived from Roman records (who don’t seem to be that interested, tbh) . ‘Celtic’ deities and religious practices were absorbed fairly easily into the general religious landscape of the Empire, where similar deities were aligned to members of the Roman Pantheon ( a Greek word, of course). They drew the line at human sacrifice, though, that was extirpated.

    It’s worth noticing that Druidic practice and culture seems to have changed over the two centuries that the Romans had contact with it. Caesar seems to think quite highly of them if I remember correctly, later of course they came into profound conflict, although that was mainly political and territorial, rather than religious.

    Great article, I so look forward to these. The podcast is my go to for enlivening grim jobs like defrosting the freezer.

  9. Growing up in Switzerland, there was a tradition for children to walk in processions holding turnip lanterns, in celebration of St. Martin’s Day (11th November). I wonder if this might also have some relation to the Halloween tradition of Jack-o-Lanterns.

    1. Here in the Netherlands some places also celebrate st. Martin’s day. With paper laterns kids walk door to door, singing a song and asking for candy. I always regarded it as a more native childrens feast than the American Halloween, but I do wonder if there is any relation between the traditions.

  10. The whole everything is pagan and co-opted by Christians becomes a simple and boring explanation quite fast. For instance, I’ve gotten someone say that King Arthur is a completely pagan legend that got Christianised (although I don’t deny some aspects of it are).

    Other times I’ve gotten someone say that a monastery or a church is really a pagan place of worship because it was built next to a spring water and pagans worship water. I’ve got someone say Gargoyles are pagan just because. No evidence or anything. Just because they think it is.

    1. I simply never understood anti-theistic arguments exclaiming that Christmas, Easter, etc. are all pagan and have been “co-opted” by “the Church” as though this is some sort of knock out argument. A deeper question exists, namely – even if these arguments are correct (which this series of Tim’s articles demonstrates is not so), so what? Does that somehow “disprove” Christianity or other religion? I just don’t see how an alleged pagan origin of x y or z festival has any significance of any kind in a deeper and far more interesting argument or debate about veracity of religion of any kind.

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  11. It seems like there is little appreciation for how long it has been since European pagans existed. I thought one of our best sources on Druids was Julius Caesar. The idea that our current tradition of carving pumpkins and dressing up as as sexy pirates dates to the iron age is laughably implausible.

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  12. Anyway, there is no such religion as Pagan, at least, not in the ancient world. Pagans just means someone who lives in the countryside ( and so has no access to all the exciting new intellectual and religious ideas that we town dwellers enjoy). I suppose a good translation might be bumpkin.

    Except for the over arching ‘religion’ of reverent recognition of the Emperor and Rome, associated with the Roman pantheon, ancient religion was extremely heterodox. The followers of Sulis would not have recognised themselves a sharing a common religious identity with an initiate of Isis, Mithraists would not have much in common with the Turones who had a number of sacred trees.

  13. The whole attempt to discredit Christianity by showing that various festivals or practices were appropriated from pagan sources, even if it was true, strikes me as a bit misguided from the start. Unsurprisingly, Protestants historically used it as anti-Catholic propaganda (gosh, when else have they done that? *cough* Warfare Thesis *cough*). These days, it’s mostly only extremists like Jack Chick who are squeamish about these things, and also heterodox groups like Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, who use it as a way to differentiate their brand from conventional Christianity. Any Christian (like me, back in the day) who was influenced by people like C. S. Lewis is going to shrug their shoulders.

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    1. I should have read this comment before posting my own – it makes my point better and more eloquently. I’m in agreement (to the extent you may care [lapsed Christian, USA, here]).

  14. A very good and informative article. Thank you for your work. Here is another that fleshes out some of the history you bring up on the Catholic origins of All Saints across Europe from the perspective of liturgical history, e.g. the Pantheon being dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and martyrs rather than all saints, the difference between martyrs and confessors, and that it was Pope Gregory IV who instituted All Saints as a universal feastday. It also speculates that All Saints may have arisen partly in repudiation of the iconoclasm heresy.

    https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2017/11/the-origin-of-all-saints-day.html#.YW9TdBrMKUk

    1. It’s not really speculation. There are a lot of history books about Gregory III which explicitly talk about how the dedication of the oratory of All Saints in Old St. Peter’s was the big flashing opening event at his anti-iconoclast synod.
      Of course, it’s hard to find those books….

      Given that the iconoclast Emperor Leo the Isaurian kept sending assassins to kill Popes Gregory II and Gregory III, they had every reason to be not so thrilled with iconoclasm.

  15. Obviously Haloween came out of thin air, maybe even ancient aliens?

    The basic issue I have with this article is that it ignores the actual history of religion. If you view a difference between monotheism and polytheism, ignore ancestor worship and anamism and shamanism, then this article makes sense.

    Christianity was born of Judaism. Judaism from eastern gods, etc…

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  16. I also see mentions “Mari Lwyd” and claims of this holiday involving wearing masks and trick or treating going back to the vikings and Saxons. Problem is we have so little reliable information about pagan practices and New Atheists & neo-pagans are equally bad at history that I’m immediately skeptical

    1. Given that the Mari Lwyd traditions are, pretty obviously, Welsh, the attribution to “the Vikings and Saxons” is immediately dubious. It is also associated with Christmas or several other festivals, including Halloween, so it seems to be something people did at festival time rather than something exclusively associated with Halloween. All that aside, it’s another tradition that does not seem to have any actual pre-Christian roots and is just assumed to because of the assumption that anything traditional has to be “pagan” somehow.

  17. It might be a methodological mistake to look for a very markedly “religious” origin in very ancient times. Most anthropologists and even Religious Studies scholars suggest that most ancient “religious” feasts and holidays, actually marked, exactly, major times of the year for very important agricultural activity; harvests especially, with their subsequent feasts.

    Scholars note this is even true for most ancient Jewish holidays.

    1. Yes, I’m aware of that. This is why my article repeatedly refers to “pre-Christian” traditions and puts “pagan” in inverted commas. That said, there are some pre-Christian traditions that have more of an overt connection to the worship of gods than others and these are closer to what we call “religious” traditions than the ones which are calendrical markers. So that’s what I’m referring to when I talk about pre-Christian traditions that don’t seem to be obviously “religious”.

  18. Christian pastor here. Thanks for the well-researched article. I was raised a fundamentalist and tiptoed into agnosticism as a result. I eventually found my way back to Christianity (of the “mere” variety), and am always eager to learn more about the supposed roots and histories of our big “feast days” in today’s West. This was a really cool read!

    Thanks again.

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    1. But if the predecessors for Halloween could be essentially ancient harvests, and attendant feasts? Then the possibility remains that the origins were in some particular feast days, even in non Catholic and pre-Christian regions.

      Particularly if whatever symbolic icononology we find in Halloween, often seems markedly non Christian. With only a few probably later Christian add-ons.

      Any “religious” references may even seem rather shamanistic, not Christian, perhaps.

      Once again, allowing a possible pre-Christian or non-Catholic origin for Halloween.

      1. Except there is nothing to suggest that. The date appears to be purely Christian. And there’s no indication of any “ancient harvest feast” in the regions in which it arose: Italy, Frankia and England. It only overlapped with the Irish and Welsh traditions around Nov 1 by pure coincidence. And I note in the article that the most we can say is some of the traditions may be pre-Christian, but we can’t be sure and we can’t say much more than that.

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        1. Thank you for your research. I found the section on “guisers” most interesting. Though people traveling around in disguise, threatening violence if you don’t give them food, does not sound Christian, just on the face of it ?

          1. Just because a tradition arose out of a Christian one in a period in which Christianity was dominant doesn’t mean the tradition is “Christian”. The Christian tradition of baking “soul cakes” was an act of public charity associated with All Saints and All Souls. The tradition of “guising” and of mischief associated with it then arose out of the practice of going from house to house in disguise to ask for soul cakes. The former tradition was Christian. The latter was something that developed out of it. That’s all.

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          2. There’s an argument that such practices would almost inevitably have existed prior to Christianity.

            Anthropologically, we might expect that in any region in the world that confronts a very cold winter, the need to harvest and stockpile preservable foods, is a near cultural universal. And those who did not have such stockpiles, might naturally be even aggressively knocking on the doors of (/raiding) those who did.

            This Anthropological/ economics model supports now-unpopular scholarship; where often it is thought that a broad or “catholic” church, allowed many local traditions, holy ancestors, to be syncretistically incorporated into the body of “saints”; in order to accomodate such various traditions. The very name “All Saints” Day, incorporating all saints, “known and unknown”, is thought to fairly openly announce such a broad, synthesing aim.

            Such attempts however, would naturally have to deal with local differences in similar – say, the very common fall harvest – traditions; including differences in exact dates. So at some point, a single date, or a period of a few days, would have to be almost rather arbitrarily set. Or set late.

            Further confirming this, a standard encyclopedia account of All Saints and All Soul’s days, in fact shows a church father urging the newly firm establishment of one or two days, only as late as 790 AD. Making 1) the phenomenon itself timeless; but 2) the Church adoption specifically dated to 790.

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          3. Sorry, but I work from evidence, not speculation. The evidence indicates quite clearly how the trick or treat traditions arose and show they arose (i) late and (ii) out of Christian practices. And your “standard encyclopedia” is wrong. Encyclopedias are fine for children doing projects for school but are simplistic and usually wildly out of date. Try using actual scholarly sources, not outdated kids’ stuff.

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          4. Even some “childish encyclopedias” like Wikipedia often contain at least a few accurate facts. History records that Alcuin of Northumbria recommending the Nov. 1 date to friend in Bavaria, c. 790. In his acclaimed and extensive series of letters.

            The fact that the date had to be recommended, clearly implies, logically, that the matter had not been firmly or universally decided by the date of his letter, c. 790.

          5. “History records that Alcuin of Northumbria recommending the Nov. 1 date to friend in Bavaria, c. 790. “

            Perhaps you should actually read my article above. It seems you haven’t.

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          6. When your writing is duly published in a peer reviewed professional jounal, I promise to review it more carefully.

            In the meantime, if we are thus speaking informally? If the dates for All Saints and Souls had not been determined by the Church until after 790? That in itself does not prove that similar celebrations had not existed, outside of the immediate purview or timeframe of the Church.

            And in fact, established History records that ancient Pharaohs establised graneries; in order to stockpile food in part, to alleviate famines. And? Rioting; bad behavior. This was partly alluded to in a dream in the Old Testament/ Torah. Long before the Church was born.

            Parts of this later develop, in Aesop, c. 550 BCE. The folkish and albeit homely, but widely known folk wisdom tale, of the Ant and the Grasshopper.

            Given this longstanding and very extensive appreciation of the need for stockpiling, and then judiciously distributing food, to prevent starving people from misbehaving? It seems the belated Church recognition and personal formalization of all this, was even a bit … too slow to keep up with things adequately.

            Even in historical times, and probably many years before, starving tribesmen would show up at the margins of more prosperous villages; dancing with spears. And threatening misdeeds. Unless the villagers paid tribute. By handing over goods.

            If the Church, or territories ruled by it, did not really adequately note this until 600-800 AD, then … this would be still more evidence of the slowness of the Church. Or say, written records, vs. modern Anthropological evidence of stockpiles, and related conflicts.

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          7. “When your writing is duly published in a peer reviewed professional jounal, I promise to review it more carefully.”

            If you’re going to comment on my stuff, you should actually read it first. That way you can avoid the embarassment of pompously trying to inform me about things that are … covered in detail in my article. And I can assure you the modern scholars who I refer to and draw on are all “duly published in a peer reviewed professional journal”.

            “If the dates for All Saints and Souls had not been determined by the Church until after 790?”

            Alcuin’s letter is dated to 800 AD, not 790 AD.

            “That in itself does not prove that similar celebrations had not existed, outside of the immediate purview or timeframe of the Church.”

            And that’s more weak and baseless speculative fantasy. I deal with historical analysis based on the evidence we have, not hand waving. I think you’ve wasted enough of our time here.

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          8. Anthropological evidence, with its models, is not “baseless”; it is science. And in some ways, more accurate than dubiously recorded history.

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          9. It’s baseless as a foundation for historical analysis if it doesn’t line up with the available evidence. If the practices you claim “should” be the pre-Christian basis for the “guising and then “trick or treat” traditions existed, we should find earlier evidence for them. But we don’t. We should also not see clear evidence of these traditions evolving out of the Christian “soul cake” practices. But we do. Finally, if your interpretation of “anthropological models” was correct on this point, we should find evidence of these kinds of traditions everywhere. But we don’t. They are highly localised, mainly in the west and north of the British Isles.

            So all that means that, despite however much you fondly want these traditions to be pre-Christian, the evidence indicates that they aren’t.

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          10. Anthropology works in part 1) from archeology; in this case, uncovering ancient protected food bins, caches. Then 2) historical accounts of say, the pharaohs and graneries, and rioting subjects in times of famine.

            And then? We cross rederence, 3) triangulate that, with observations of modern “primitive” tribes. Many of whom have been observed in countless stylized, “threatening” rituals, and 4) demanding goods. As say “tribute”.

            Given all that and much more, in hundreds of examples? Anthropology can arrive at a very high probability – or at times, ceritude – that this or that kind of behavior, regularly took place. Greatly augmenting and extending the limited and often biased – but provisionally useful – written history of say, churches.

            This is invaluable, when investigating things so far back in time, that few or no written records are available; in “pre-history”, or “prehistoric” times.

            Many might be dissatisfied with the “merely” probabilistic or statistical nature of many such findings or models. But science has found “probability” very useful in say, quantum mechanics. And every other subfield, in Science.

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          11. I’m pretty clear on how anthropology works thanks. Your problem is your supposition is (i) not supported by the evidence where it should be and (ii) is also contradicted by other evidence. Again, if these posited autumn traditions that you’ve conjured up were so ubiquitous, we should find traces of them everywhere. Not just in parts of the western British Isles. Then there is the fact that we can see how the traditions in question evolved out of Christian practices in recorded history. So we know how they developed. And so your woolly and unsupported hand waving is not required. These facts remain, however much you try to dress up your weak hypothesis as “anthropology”. Give it a rest Nigel.

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          12. With an obviously biased Church very firmly in charge of literacy, and Western written records, till about 1560, it is not always a good strategy to rely on things “thoroughly documented” in written records.

            In the matter of why Halloween did not appear in other countries? I’ve just noted that very similar traditions are easily located in countless cultures.

            Do you demand that every single detail of every aspect of a British or Anglo Saxon Halloween be fully duplicated? Let’s learn to see the forest beyond the single tree in front of us. The larger – and more important – generic, multicultural – worldwide – constant.

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          13. When you’re having to make excuses for the fact that the evidence doesn’t fit your ideas, you aren’t doing historical analysis, you’re writing fantasy. Goodbye Nigel.

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          14. In my eyes Nigel provides an interesting example of how quack science works. Pile speculation upon speculation + don’t care about evidence = forget about Ockham’s Razor. His comments remind me of Jonathan Sarfati’s calculations regarding the Arc of Noah.
            His is a relatively innocent case, but I have noticed that anti-vaxxers do the same. As there are way too many of them his “method” is a serious problem.

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          15. Let’s not too easily confuse “Christian” with “morally decent”, especially not if that is judged according to 19th century or our present standards.

            It’s a Christian (to be perhaps more precise: at least a Catholic) tradition to celebrate the feasts and other occasions brought by the liturgical calendar; and while the traditional word is “celebrate”, we can also say “party hard”. When all the people are partying hard, experience tells that sins are going to happen (though the party does not *consist* in the sins); the Church did not condone the sins, of course, but, thank God, she did (generally; and for the most time of Church history) refuse to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

            (For those who like details: There was one exception to that, though. The original vigils, with Mass in the evening after a day of black fast, followed by eating, and being awake all night etc. were transferred – just the Mass – to the preceding morning for precisely these reasons even *before* the Enlightenment moralizers appeared. And coming to think of it, Halloween is by definition a vigil, actually.)

            A prime example for this is Carnival, which is a Christian feast despite having, as its content, the mere “let’s have a party before it’s forbidden” in connection with the Lent that follows. (Sounds familiar, in these Corona times? but I digress). Coming to think of it, back in the days Advent was, sometimes, longer than the four weeks it has now, and was also a period of fasting or at least something similar (which yields November 11 as the official beginning of Carnival); Halloween is one of the occasions that precede Advent.

            When the enlightened absolutist princes forbade the whole lot of Christian feasts and pilgrimages, their reason was to get the party stopped and get those Catholics to do some work for a change, in a sense.

            (And yes, maybe they might have had just a tiny bit of a point. But I cannot hide my sympathy…)

        2. Nigel usnt making any excuses. Hes simply pointing out your using inevitably biased accounts of history doesnt make for anything better than wild fantasies as you like to decry other’s theories.
          His tske however is based on probabilistic science and available evidence of universal themes throughout cultures the world around.

          That doesnt mean hes right and you’re wrong. But it does expose your admittedly rigorous work to a quite fatal flaw.

          History is written by the victor.

          1. Nigel usnt making any excuses. Hes simply pointing out your using inevitably biased accounts of history doesnt make for anything better than wild fantasies as you like to decry other’s theories.

            How exactly is the material I’m using “biased”? You can’t just wave around the fact some or all of it may be biased to then dismiss it and believe whatever you want. Yes, some material historians used has biases. Historians take that into account in their analysis. And some of the material I refer to my article has clear biases that we are aware of and so factor in. Jeffrey Keating’s seventeenth century antiquarian book is a clear mix of fantasy and bits and pieces of genuine evidence, written to make the ancient pagan past as lurid and bloodthirsty as possible. So we don’t take Keating’s claims at face value at all. But you can’t just declare sources to be “inevitably biased” and so dismiss any analysis based on them as “wild fantasies”. You have to demonstrate this. Can you?

            His tske however is based on probabilistic science and available evidence of universal themes throughout cultures the world around.

            He made some broad generalisation that he claimed were based on these things. So I noted how the evidence contradicts his generalisations and asked him to account for this. He failed to do so. His handwaving doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

            History is written by the victor.

            That’s a nice cliché, but it’s not how it works. Historical analysis is written by trained historians who take potential biases into account in their analysis, including those in accounts written by “victors”. This is how history is done. You don’t get to just wave that away with some trite cliches and weak generalisations. Present a coherent, evidence-based argument and we’ll pay attention. Make excuses for why you can’t and you’ll be ignored.

          2. The history of the American Civil War was, rather famously, written by the losers for about 100 years in a long-successful effort to whitewash their foul cause. The history of Nazi Germany’s war against the Soviet Union was, as far as the West was concerned, written by the losers there too, especially when it comes to the conduct of the war by the Heer and even the Waffen-SS, again in an effort to whitewash their even fouler cause. ‘History is written by the victor’ is a lazy excuse for not bothering to actually learn the history.

          3. True. The other example I use is the fall of the Western Roman Empire, where all the sources are Roman. We have no sources from the barbarians (apart from some much later and highly Romanised ones). “History is written by the victor” is a silly cliché, not some wise principle used by historians. And I’ve consistently found it gets used by people who want to dismiss the consensus of professional historians, but can’t actually produce any evidence-based argument to do so. It’s dumb and wrong.

          4. “History is written by the victor.”
            Apparently you are blissfully unaware of all those German historians writing about their country’s history from 1914 – 1945 …..

  19. Great article. Christmas, Easter, Halloween… I wonder, how long until the hot take that Saint Valentine’s Day and Saint Patrick’s Day are actually “pagan” holidays in disguise takes off? Surely these so-called saints are pre-Christian deities in disguise!

    I come from a traditionally Catholic country, though I’ve never been religious myself, and I wonder how much of this misguided pseudo-skepticism surrounding Christian feast days is a leftover from the Reformation’s anti-Catholic propaganda. Maybe folks raised in Protestant countries have a hard time squaring Christianity and partying, but it seems to me that’s not so much the case in more Catholic climates.

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  20. Perhaps there is a good opportunity to rebut Frank Viola & George Barna,

    “Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices”

    1. Those guys seem to be writing in the very old Puritain tradition of “anything about other people’s forms of Christianity we don’t like is originally pagan!”

  21. It would be a good trick for the Druids to leave Jack-O-Lanterns in exchange for their victims, given that pumpkins originated in South American and likely wouldn’t have been seen in the British Isles until about 1500 years after the last Druid converted to Christianity.

    1. So that would put the Jack-O-Lantern firmly in the Christian era; and say, potentially linked to Christian iconography after all?

      Many ancient celebrations that approach the Winter solstice, attempt to deal with the longer nights of winter; by bringing in fire, and artificial “light”.

      Though equally? Early Christians may simply have used some other gourds and fires, until pumpkins showed up?

      1. As I said in the article, they originally used turnips and other vegetables – the pumpkins are a very recent development.

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          1. The Museum of Country Life in County Mayo exhibits a painted plaster cast of an early twentieth century carved turnip that shows what they looked like.

            https://i.redd.it/nx0jwb5o08vz.jpg

            Unfortunately the exhibition they have it in perpetuates the whole “Halloween was originally Samhain” stuff.

  22. Thanks for this thorough post; I was vaguely aware of the role of All Saint’s Day and All Hallow’s Eve in the development of Halloween, but I hadn’t realized how much of Halloween’s ritual elements owed to Christian practices.

    You cited Hutton several times in the blog (thank you for being so good about including sources). I’m curious if you’ve also read the book Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, written by Nicholas Rogers for Oxford University Press in 2003? I have only gotten to read excerpts, but I noticed the first chapter is “Samhain and the Celtic Origins of Halloween.” Though the snippets I’ve seen include the beginning of the second chapter, which seems to attest mostly to what you’ve described (that Samhain imparted liminality, but not any ritual), though he attributes some degree of fire rites to Samhain. Rogers writes, “If Samhain imparted to Halloween a supernatural charge and an intrinsic liminality, it did not offer much in the way of actual ritual practices, save in its fire rites.”

    1. As I note in my article, those fire rites are the element in traditional Halloween practices which are most likely to have some pre-Christian roots. Ditto for the idea of some kind of liminality at this time of year, though that does not seem to refer to some kind of idea of an opening of “the world of the dead”, but to the “other world” of the Sidhe/Fae/”Fairy Folk”.

  23. I’m a Christian and this helped me get over my fear of the holliday, and the claims that i would be worshiping the devil by celebrating it. thank you for the article.

      1. No, not “countless”. I get occasional messages from both Christians and non-Christians saying my articles help them to understand history better. Where is the problem with that?

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        1. I guess there is no problem, even when they explicitly reference their Christianity, and explicitly thank you for strengthening their faith. Though it seems like an odd result, for a blog written by an avowed atheist.

          1. Show me anyone saying that I’ve “strengthened their faith”. I send messages from Christians to spam every day because this is not a venue for their preaching. But someone saying “I understand history better thanks to your article” is not a problem to me nor should it be. Annoy me again and the spam file is where you’ll end up.

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          2. Can I ask, would it be your position then to “change” or hide historical truth that is published, so as to not accidentally encourage some Christians? Or even perhaps to deliberately discourage them?That this is more important than being truthful about history?

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          3. I’ve actually had a rabid anti-theist tell me that it doesn’t matter that the historical information I present is true, the fact that some of it may “give comfort to Christians” makes me presenting it a bad thing. Some of those people are total fanatics.

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          4. (In reply to Tim’s latest)
            Fegh. One of the more pernicious effects of (some) religion is to foster the tribal mentality that divides the world into a Virtuous Us and a Villainous Them. It’s just as pernicious when atheists do it.

            I am an atheist because I am first a rationalist who values understanding the world as it really is, and after long consideration I find that is where the evidence points. A theist who believes that the evidence points elsewhere has, in my opinion, made a mistake and should think harder (I did). But someone, of any persuasion, who just wants to do propaganda regardless of what the truth is, is a liar and is not on my side.

          5. @SteveW: largely the same for me. I’d go even a step further: any (un)believer who has his/her (lack of) faith confirmed by historical, ie scientific conclusions makes a quite silly mistake. Because that’s my only quibble: evidence is by definition taken from our natural reality, hence (lack of) evidence for a supernatural entity is as nonsensical as a square circle. Kierkegaard was right. Believing requires a leap of faith; atheists (like me) simply don’t jump. End of discussion, as it was until some christians apologists showed up a few decades ago.
            This means that science, including historical research, is for believers and unbelievers alike. See eg the origin of our Universe, Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lemaitre. See also A Marginal Jew by JP Meier.

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          6. @Gregg:
            As an atheist myself; I cannot understand why you and your ilk are even interested in whether anyone else adheres to a religion or faith-based belief system or not, let alone concerned that their faith might be strengthened by something than an atheist might do.
            Being atheist for me just means that I do not believe in any deities. I couldn’t care less what other people believe or don’t believe, it’s no more my business than my lack of belief is theirs. And there is so much more to people than their religious beliefs, so often those beliefs contribute very little to nothing that defines them and their character, personality, etc. I have had Muslim & Christian work colleagues who (politely) asked me about my religious beliefs and I told them straight-up but politely that I am a non-believer. My atheism has yet to present any problem with any religion-adhering colleague, very probably because I respect their right to hold their belief’s. And even if I wanted to change their mind; I severely doubt I would be able to anyway.

            Being atheist doesn’t by default make you also anti-theist. I don’t know if this is something from the millennial generation or from the USA (or a mixture of both): But you don’t have to be automatically against & opposed-to the things you dislike and don’t involve yourself in. There’s this thing called tolerance, it’s really no more difficult than getting yourself worked-up. One Christian having their faith more reinforced is not the end of the world, it may not even necessarily even be a bad thing.

      2. …I’ve been a frequent commentator for years and I’m open about being a Christian. Any Christian who reads this blog and trusts Tim’s analysis is NOT going to come away from HFA with a stronger faith in the traditions of Christianity or the historicity of biblical narratives.

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  24. Well, here to be sure, in the present case, it is only implicit.
    Though as a former Christian, I know that in the context of explicitly acknowledging one’s Christianity, the reference to overcoming fear, reflects a very common sermon. On how our religion, faith, strengthens us, and overcomes our fears.

    In any case, you acknowledge that you – and the scholars you cite – get a noticeable amount of positive mail from Christians?

    1. “you acknowledge that you – and the scholars you cite – get a noticeable amount of positive mail from Christians?”

      No. I countered your feeble sneering by noting that I exclude all overtly Christian comments here without exception. I do get some positive feedback from Christians, but mainly because I debunk ideas they held, not because I somehow reinforce their faith. Most of the positive feedback I get is from people who are simply interested in history and I have no idea what their beliefs might be. That’s as it should be – the past doesn’t care what we believe and historical analysis should strive for objectivity.

      And if you make another sneering insinuation it will be the last comment here you make. So watch your mouth.

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  25. I am sincerely pleased to hear that you are sincere in your atheism. But I worry about many of our historian sources. Who may not be as fully objective as they seem to think, or appear. Since it is very hard for a formerly Christian historian, to really recognize and root out all of the old Christian ideas, biases.

    The Bible insisted that those who are raised as Christians from infancy, would find it hard to completely abandon those values; since they were inculcated in them from childhood.

    So all of us who were once Christians, need to be constantly watching ourselves, and what we read; even scholarly articles. To make sure.

    Thanks for your work to date.

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    1. “Since it is very hard for a formerly Christian historian …..”
      It’s not any easier for lifelong atheists, converted christians, lifelong christians, muslims etc. etc. either. The problem of subjectivity is well known in the humanities and in the social sciences. I suspect less so in the natural sciences, but it’s there. Just read discussions about the interpretations of quantum mechanics.

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      1. Yes; when Heisenberg set up indeterminacy, he left a God of the Gaps opening, even in physics. And having grown up on missile test ranges and so forth, I’ve grown weary of the nuclear voodoo priesthood that resulted.

        But that said? Nobody but a Christian actually swears full and clear oaths against objectivity and empirical data. Repeating after the preacher, Paul’s “we walk by faith and not by sight”.

        So I submit that Christisn subjectivity is a particularly hard nut to crack.

        At least our missiles worked; miracles and prayer, not nearly as well.

        I wish Tim luck with say, anthropology. Which anyone from Australia has from birth. His look at Samhain shows just a bit of that.

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        1. “I wish Tim luck with say, anthropology. Which anyone from Australia has from birth. His look at Samhain shows just a bit of that.”

          What is that gibberish supposed to mean?

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          1. Well, it is partly joking.

            Though with a major city named “Darwin”, and a thousand ethnic studies of the famous indigenous population, Australia developed a very strong “realist” school of philosophy; and perhaps a slight bent toward science? And ethnography?

            Certainly scientists outside of Australia are absolutely fascinated and mesmerized by its to-us, very strange mammals, indigenous population, etc..

            Australians to the rest of the world, seem to have been born onto a fantastic scientific jumping-off point.

            Maybe that is just an external perspective however?

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        2. “So I submit that Christisn subjectivity is a particularly hard nut to crack.”
          You can submit as much as you want, but your comment confirms exactly the opposite. See, you only provide arguments and not any evidence. Just like religious apologists.

          “Nobody but a Christian actually swears full and clear oaths against objectivity and empirical data.”
          Or must I conclude that you’ve never heard of the Soviet-Union and North Korea, where definitely non-christian authorities did/do exactly that?
          You’re intellecual dishonest or ignorant; perhaps both. Or perhaps you’re just incapable of coherent thinking, because I’ve no idea what your “partly joking”reaction to ToN is about. Your choice.

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          1. My statements are full of evidence that somehow people miss. You mentioned my quote from the Bible for instance.

            By the way, I think that quote is commonly misinterpreted by preachers. They usually present it as opposing science, and visual empirical evidence. But? I read it as a lament; that Christianity for a time, was proceeding without material evidence, with an invisible kingdom in heaven only; while much of the rest of the Bible promised real physical material goods: “fruits,” works, signs, deeds, and proofs; here in physical form, on this material “earth.” As visible with our literal eyes, in a timely way. And in a way comfortable with “science” (Dan. 1. 4-15 KJE?).

            Anyone can be too subjective. But real science is not. And oddly? Even the Bible supports that.

            If you look closely, and know your Bible, you will notice that I just quoted or alluded to about 20 things in the Bible, as evidence.

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  26. Brilliant article as ever, I learnt a lot with this one.

    Where do you think the Slavic custom of Dzady fits in all this? Its focus was communing & feasting with the dead & took place either twice or four times a year – including at the end of October/beginning of November. Its remnants certainly seems to have had an impact on the way All Saints is marked in some countries, especially Poland. Does that mean, a little like Saturnalia & Christmas, the main link is the way in which people mark the occasion – the way they already knew how?

    It’d seem odd that a part of Europe outside the Christian world until much later would have an influence, so is it just a case of a coincidental date, or like you say several cultures seeing that time of year as significant. Perhaps the already previously established Christian festival was moved there because of a common association with that time of year as you say? https://lamusdworski.wordpress.com/2015/10/31/dziady/

    1. For me, the simplist answer is that Halloween was just a typical fall harvest festival; of the kind found throughout the world. With some stress on distributing food widely, before the onset of winter.

      That seems clear in the case of Samhain; though what were the roots of Samhain in turn? Christians might like to proudly (/vainly) claim that the roots of Samhain were Christians. But to me it seems more likely it came from far older traditions: ancient and widespread harvest festivals, going back tens of thousand of years.

      So Halloween, and Samhain, and All Saints, and at least one Polish festival, were really all just regional variations of fall harvest celebrations, found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, say, around October/November.

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      1. “Christians might like to proudly (/vainly) claim that the roots of Samhain were Christians. “

        No-one claims that. Did you actually read my article? Try doing that.

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      2. I certainly wasn’t suggesting that at all. I was merely intrigued about some of the geographically specific cultural hangovers in the way it is marked. It’s already well known All Saints & Halloween (its vigil) were established at a totally different & separate time of year. The move to November only has this coincidental overlap with Dziady & nothing else. I just find it interesting how because of that coincidental overlap some of the rites & practices were carried over.

        That’s all. I’m not implying Halloween/All Saints is a repurposed Pagan harvest festival.

        1. Well, Israel actually had some crops that came in, in the spring. Other parts of the world, likewise.

          If you liked eggs for instance, before the domestication of the chicken that lays all year around, spring harvest was indicated.

          So even harvest fests, feasts, have various dates. But a church that oversaw large territories, might like to consolidate, and for convenience, stipulate just one date. The Fall, being the largest harvest, was a natural choice.

          So finding “the” original date etc ., is useful if possible, but not absolutely necessary.

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  27. I feel we are talking at crossed purposes here. I gave some pretty solid examples with demonstrable evidence & the article did too, not supposition based on nothing. Which is why I was asking about the importance of a pre Christian festival’s practices on the specific nature in a certain place. Again,not that I think any of the beliefs around it are pre Christian.

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    1. As we go further and further back in time, written records are harder and harder to find. Some people who are used to many such records, find this unsatisfactory. But this is in the natire of investigating “pre history”.

      The Church kept many records fairly early; in part because a particular book was even holy to it; and literacy therefore had great importance to it. But ancient pagan practices, from more illiterate tribes, are only partly known. Or known through anthropological methods. Though ? While I am not a specialist in this area, I am familiar with the general outlines that anthropology has deduced through the ages. And I know that hundreds of scholarly articles exist on such subjects; that can be found partly on say, Google Scholar. I am not for the moment currently affiliated with a teaching institution, and do not have easy access to fuller library material. Though again, I clearly remember references from graduate school.

      Those with some basic scholarly training – and fuller access to academic library resources – I am positive, can find hundreds of scholarly books and articles on the general topics I have mentioned. In particular, reseaech the hundreds of works on the llinksb etweenh oholiday feasts, and harvests.

      One random book I happen to have on hand, is Social World of Ancient Israel, 1250-587 BCE, by Matthews and Benjamin , Hendrickson Pub. 1993. Which mentions harvests and priests, pp. 38, 187. This book includes useful bibliography for further research.

      Other standard texts on (note, pre- Christian) Judaism, mention the link of most major Jewish feasts to harvests. Like say, the “Feast of Tabernacles”. ( See “feasts”, in People of the Covenant.)

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      1. This amounts to nothing other than vague suppositions and excuses for the fact you don’t have evidence to support your claims.

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        1. It provides an outline for more scholarly research than you often find on the Internet.

          I’d also suggest that we all, like anthroplogists, weigh our own personal observation, in considering this matter. Here, most of us know Halloween very well. Did you notice the season? Any products of harvests? Any emphasis on food distribution?

          Many of us also notice an odd emphasis on death. Could that fit a concern for dying vegetative food sources – and threats to our own lives, in a primitive culture, in a hard winter? Remembering the already dead, encourages us to take the season more seriously.

          I wish everyone luck, in their own serious investigations of this subject.

          There is even room for original conclusions, research, based on past scholarship, and your own observations.

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          1. This is getting tiresome. Again, we know the origins of the relevant customs. They aren’t pre-Christian. Your wishful thinking and “outline for more scholarly research” won’t change that. You’re wrong. Now, go away.

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  28. I’ve even read some neopagans claim that the cross was a revered pagan symbol and that the Christians stole it. How true is this? Because from what I’ve gathered, it seems to have been more of a symbol of shame in Roman times since it was associated with one of the worst forms of execution.

    Also it doesn’t seem like Emperor Julian thought highly of the cross as a symbol. He seems to have strictly associated it with Christianity only and not paganism. In fact, he seems to have detested it as a symbol, asking why they had abandoned the symbols of Zeus and other pagan Gods for the cross:

    “And the shield which fell from the clouds and the head which appeared on the hill, from which, I suppose, the seat of mighty Zeus received its name, are we to reckon these among the very highest or among secondary gifts? And yet, ye misguided men, though there is preserved among us that weapon which flew down from heaven, which mighty Zeus or father Ares sent down to give us a warrant, not in word but in deed, that he will forever hold his shield before our city, you have ceased to adore and reverence it, but you adore the wood of the cross and draw its likeness on your foreheads and engrave it on your housefronts.”

    1. “that the Christians stole it”
      Anyone who uses “to steal” iso “to take over” is too prejudiced to be taken seriously. Nobody eg ever complained that modern mathematicians stole the numbers 0 – 9 from the Arabs.

  29. That is partly true. Though? Historians tell us to study History, in part because we believe that discovering the ancient origins of things, will help us nore fully understand the fuller nature of most, if not all, present institutions.

    Granted, it would be better to call it say, “borrowing”, rather than stealing.

  30. It seems to me that the cries of ‘Halloween is pagan’ comes as a pushback against those who claim ‘western culture is Christian culture’, or perhaps more precisely, the idea that we in the west hold certain views because of Christianity. I think that notion is mistaken, and can be demonstrated to be so when we consider how Christianity is practised not just in the west but in the whole ‘Christian world’. This is not to say that particular ideas did not originate from the core belief system of Christianity, but it seems that there are far too many variances in Christian practise around the world, and far too many traditions that have absolutely no grounding in the Bible, to claim that Christianity is the source of culture, rather than the ‘garnish’.
    To argue that Europeans abandoned non Christian traditions and invented new Christian traditions seems like, to make a crude analogy, arguing the dinosaurs suddenly died out and their line was discontinued, only to have their place taken by completely unrelated creatures.

    What do we even mean by ‘Christian culture’ and ‘Pagan culture’. Surely we’re talking about the same folk culture that existed during two eras, one where people believed in pagan gods, and one where people believed in the CHristian God – with a transition between the two that was gradual and somewhat superficial. This premise accounts for why all these weird rituals with hollowed out veg, and masks, and blacking up were able to exist within the Christian worldview – like parasites jumping on to the new host.

    I’ve not read Hutton’s book, but I did come across a talk he gave, where he emphasised the habit of medieval Christians to brush aside, downplay, fantasise and generally propagandise about ‘the old beliefs’ – reframing that which was once seen through the lens of paganism and introducing a Christian narrative. And when the original stories you’re rewriting weren’t even written down by their originators…
    With this in mind, it seems reasonable to propose that if there was a history of religious celebration at Halloween, records of such traditions would have soon been lost, reinterpreted or even deliberately discarded in order to protect the ‘new beliefs’ from the charge of plaguarism. I mean, you can’t be the one and only original saviour of mankind if you’re just doing cover versions of the classics.

    Because it seems like an awkward theological position to admit that the cultural practises of a people who now worship Jesus, are essentially the same cultural practises of people who used to worship Herne or Freyja.
    We know that, for instance, the Romans incorporated local deities into their pantheon – the god Sulis became Sulis Minerva after the conquest of Britain. I think it is very reasonable to assume that the Christian ’empire’ adopted the same tactics.

    Your well written article alluded to the uncertainty shcolars have concerning some of these Halloween traditions, and there seems to be a retiscence to fully commit to pre Christian origins based on a lack of evidence – but we’re dealing with a situation where a lack of evidence might well be expected, for the reasons I’ve considered.

    As a complete aside – do you think the modern term ‘geezer’ derives from ‘guiser’? Makes sense.

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    1. To argue that Europeans abandoned non Christian traditions and invented new Christian traditions seems like, to make a crude analogy, arguing the dinosaurs suddenly died out and their line was discontinued, only to have their place taken by completely unrelated creatures.

      Yes, that is a “crude analogy” because it assumes its own conclusion. We know that the later creatures were not unrelated because we can trace their lineage through evidence. But we can’t do that with the modern Halloween traditions and any pagan traditions. If you read my article carefully, I note that a few old Halloween traditions do seem to have pre-Christian antecedents (though here we run into the tangled problems of conflating “pre-Christian” with “pagan”). So traditions involving bonfires and Halloween as a “quarter day” marking the end of a period in the legal or traditional year survived into the Christian period in various British regions. It’s just that the modern traditions which are claimed to be “pagan” in origin – trick or treating, associations with ghosts and the supernatural, jack o’lanterns etc – demonstrably are not. They are all Christian in origin.

      1. yeah – I did read your article and I referred to your mention of certain pre christian traditions as evidence that there is scope to assume the avian Christian halloween can trace lineage back to the dino pagan traditions of pre Christian Europe.

        And yes, my analogy did assume the conclusion. That was the point. To make another crude analogy, paleontologists assumed the idea of transitional species was true in order to predict the existence of TikTaalik despite having no actual evidence for it – until it was found obviously. I was simply stating the case that it is possible and reasonable to suppose that the beginning of November was a period of celebration when people were pagans, and was still a period of celebration when they had become Christian. My analogy was designed to demonstrate the transition from pagan to Christian Europe wasn’t ‘special creation’ with one species of religion dying out to be replaced by a completely unrelated one, but a gradual evolution with inherited traits – so of course it assumed the conclusion I was hoping to posit.

        I think you are right to say it’s problematic to conflate pre-christian with pagan – and to be honest I think that there is also a problem with conflating ‘post christian’ with Christian for the same reasons.
        The traditions that appeared during the medieval period or later – the jack-o-lanterns etc – don’t seem to have any Christian ‘reason’. I maintain that these are folk traditions being associated with a Christian festival, rather than Christian traditions per se. To say they are “Christian in origin”, I think, is to mistake folk culture for Christian culture in the same way that it would be a mistake to call the Queen’s speech at Christmas a Christian tradition.

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        1. I referred to your mention of certain pre christian traditions as evidence that there is scope to assume the avian Christian halloween can trace lineage back to the dino pagan traditions of pre Christian Europe.

          Not for the modern traditions which are usually wrongly claimed to be pre-Christian and “pagan”. We can trace their origins and they are post-Christian. So, wrong.

          I think that there is also a problem with conflating ‘post christian’ with Christian for the same reasons.

          Okay. But all of the modern traditions which are claimed to be pre-Christian and “pagan” aren’t. End of story.

          1. “Not for the modern traditions which are usually wrongly claimed to be pre-Christian and “pagan”. We can trace their origins and they are post-Christian. So, wrong.”

            So because some post Christian traditions exist, the notion of celebrations at the time now called halloween in pre-Christian Europe is wrong?
            I’m not disputing that some traditions emerged in the post Christian period – and I think I made that clear enough.
            I’m also not denying that there is a great deal of invention of a false history of pre christian rituals to sift through.
            My point is that while it might be wrong to call Halloween pagan, it’s equally wrong to call (at least some of) the various traditions associated with Halloween, Christian.
            These are folk traditions that have no basis in Christian theology.
            Furthermore, the idea that Christian festivals grew up from nowhere, with no relation to old rites and rituals practised by the newly converting population seems absurd – at least to me, anyway. To be honest it seems like the sort of Christian exceptionalism I would expect from some American apologist.
            I think your desire to correct atheist overrreach has led you to overlook the nuance, somewhat. You cautiously limit your assertions to available evidence, which is fair enough to a degree, but absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence, and it seems like you are dismissing my hypothesis with undue prejudice. Maybe being an australian you don’t understand how entwined with the seasons European culture is – but it seems that there are some pretty major Christian festivals that coincide a little too coincidentally with important seasonal markers for the question of cultural appropriation to be ignored.

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          2. So because some post Christian traditions exist, the notion of celebrations at the time now called halloween in pre-Christian Europe is wrong?

            No. And that’s not even close to anything I’ve said.

            My point is that while it might be wrong to call Halloween pagan, it’s equally wrong to call (at least some of) the various traditions associated with Halloween, Christian.

            Good thing that I’ve never said that all Halloween traditions are Christian then.

            These are folk traditions that have no basis in Christian theology.

            I detail traditions that seem to be pre-Christian and post Christian folk traditions that have no obvious Christian theological or liturgical origin. And I’ve already agreed with you that not all the post-Christian traditions have that kind of Christian religious origin. So why are you repeating these things as though I’ve disagreed with you? The key point of my article is the date and the main modern traditions are claimed to be pagan in origin and there is zero evidence they are and good evidence they are post-Christian.

            the idea that Christian festivals grew up from nowhere, with no relation to old rites and rituals practised by the newly converting population seems absurd

            What is getting “absurd” is your repeated disputing of things I have never said and are actually the opposite of what I actually did say. This is also getting annoying.
            To be honest it seems like the sort of Christian exceptionalism I would expect from some American apologist.

            See above. Stop attributing positions I don’t hold to me. This is your last warning.

            You cautiously limit your assertions to available evidence, which is fair enough to a degree, but absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence

            Sorry, but in many years of debunking bad history, that hackneyed cliché is almost always used to excuse the ignoring of evidence and believing whatever crap you want. It doesn’t fly, sorry.

            it seems like you are dismissing my hypothesis with undue prejudice

            I’ve agreed with you. This is getting ridiculous.

            Maybe being an australian you don’t understand how entwined with the seasons European culture is

            We have seasons in Australia. And I’ve studied European folklore and traditional religion for a long time, so I think I’m pretty familiar with the concept of the traditional year, thanks. So stop talking down to me.

            but it seems that there are some pretty major Christian festivals that coincide a little too coincidentally with important seasonal markers for the question of cultural appropriation to be ignored.

            Good thing I’ve acknowledged this from the start. The fact remains that the date and the main modern traditions are claimed to be pagan in origin, yet there is zero evidence they are and good evidence they are post-Christian. The end. So if you’ve finished beating up some straw man arguments that have nothing to do with anything I’ve said, are we done here? Because my patience with you is running out fast.

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  31. Tim, I remember being told in elementary school that wearing masks for Halloween originates (at least partially) from when Chinese people don them in order to frighten away demons. Is this true? And if it is, was that pagan or did Chinese Christians do it?

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  32. Hey Tim, it’s possible I missed something. I did read the whole article but what about the traditional October 31st date for Halloween? What is the origin of that? Also, I know this is something easy that I could just look up but I was just curious as to why you didn’t mention it.

    1. I did “mention” it. I have a whole section in the article on how the date of All Saints Day seems to have been established. And how Halloween is simply the vigil of that feat day.

    1. I would respond to that, but it seems that Twitter user has already blocked me. I think he may have done so last year when I refuted claims he was making about Halloween. What exactly is he claiming?

      1. I’m sorry. It’s a long thread, I don’t know if I can bring all his ideas here. Would you mind accessing Twitter without logging in to read the thread without being blocked? 😅
        But anyway I think you would agree with him since you think “Many Catholic saints do seem to be appropriations of pagan gods”. When I saw you demystifying the idea that halloween is “pagan”” I thought you didn’t believe that pagan gods and goddesses were converted and assimilated into Christian Saints. I don’t know how to express myself so copying an idea I read a while ago I think the saints filling the same niches that pre-Christian gods but not that there was a Christianization of the pagan gods (example: Poseidon/Neptune and St Nicholas)

        1. I’m sorry. It’s a long thread, I don’t know if I can bring all his ideas here. Would you mind accessing Twitter without logging in to read the thread without being blocked?

          Okay. I did that and found a long thread full of assertions made without any supporting evidence and contradicted by modern scholarship. I debunk these kinds of claims in my article above and in my video. Since I assume he hasn’t blocked you, why don’t you just post links to these and tell the people upvoting his nonsense that he’s wrong?

          When I saw you demystifying the idea that halloween is “pagan”” I thought you didn’t believe that pagan gods and goddesses were converted and assimilated into Christian Saints.

          Why did you think this? Just because one claim of pagan origins and Christian appropriation is wrong doesn’t mean all such claims are. The Catholic Church itself has struck some traditional “saints” off the register precisely because they recognise that some of them were simply pagan deities given a Christian makeover. Others are still venerated, but historians strongly suspect they never existed and were originally pagan deities. St Brigid is the classic example. She has the same name, same attributes and same feast day as the pagan Irish goddess Brigid. Of course, there may have been a Christian Brigid who took on the attributes of the her namesake goddess. Or she may never have existed. We just don’t know. Then there are St Barlaam and St Josaphat, who were venerated in both the Orthodox and the Catholic calendars, despite being characters in Arabic and Georgian versions of the life of the Buddha.

          I read a while ago I think the saints filling the same niches that pre-Christian gods but not that there was a Christianization of the pagan gods (example: Poseidon/Neptune and St Nicholas)

          See above. That certainly does seem to have happened. But there is no reason to think it didn’t happen “as well as” the Christianisation of gods and goddesses rather than “instead of”.

          1. thank you so much for doing this. as I said my english is rusty so I was unsure to sum it up for you. being honest with you: although I really want to promote your site because i like your work, but i definitely don’t have the patience anymore to suggest a bibliography that answers an accusation and have so many people who simply ignore it because the vision they created is convenient to their feelings. about “Saints and Pagan Gods” i have this thought based on a reading by the author you mentioned. i don’t remember very well the title of his text that I read and that clarifies what I’m talking about, i think it’s “How Pagan Were Medieval English Peasants?”. I may have chosen the words poorly but i was not trying to say that “Just because one claim of pagan origins and Christian appropriation is wrong doesn’t mean all such claims are.” i wasn’t trying to say that because “pagan halloween” is false all the allegations are false. i was trying to say that because you were based on this author (ronald hutton) i thought you didn’t believe that pagan gods and goddesses were converted and assimilated into Christian Saints. this author (as i recall reading from him) says what i was trying to say.

          2. I’ve read that article by Hutton. I don’t have a copy in front of me now, but I don’t recall that he argued NO saints were derived from gods or that this was somehow impossible. Can you quote him saying that? Because it doesn’t sounds like something a careful scholar like Hutton would say.

  33. By the way, do you have any books to recommend me that can answer the accusation that Catholic Saints are just appropriations of “pagan gods”? (i should have made this comment along with the other one I sent you sorry)

    1. Many Catholic saints do seem to be “appropriations of pagan gods”. It’s always hard to be certain, of course, but the similarities in names and attributes between some deities and the saints later worshiped in the same place makes this very likely. I only debunk things that are wrong. This is not.

      1. I’m not able to reply to your original comment so I’m writing it here:
        “The cult of saints was a steadily-developing feature of medieval English Christianity, much more prominent in the later Anglo-Saxon Church than in the early one, and still stronger in the high and later Middle Ages. It did, however, both appear early and seem to be driven by popular demand, as has been illustrated by studies of the inception of the cult of St Oswald (Lambert 2010, 208- 11). It does not seem to have derived from a direct transformation of pagan deities.”
        “The medieval English cult, therefore, was not a Christianisation of pagan deities, but a provision of new figures who offered a parallel service”
        maybe i misunderstood what hutton meant by this text, but these sentences seem to me to corroborate what i’m trying to say

        1. I have no problem with either of those statements by Hutton and agree with them entirely. But they only argue that the cult of saints can’t be wholly or substantially attributed to the Christianisation of pagan deities, not that there was no such Christianisation of deities in any way at all. This is not an “all or nothing” proposition.

          1. “not that there was no such Christianisation of deities in any way at all”
            I think I understand what you’re talking about and I think this is close to the meaning of when I said that “the saints filling the same niches that pre-Christian gods but not that there was a Christianization of the pagan gods” and when Hutton says that “was not a Christianization of pagan deities, but a provision of new figures who offered a parallel service”

      2. By the way, I have been reading Hutton to understand “paganism”, because I noticed that he was highly praised for his works in this area and I read your posts on “pagan Christmas” and I remembered that in an excerpt from Hutton’s book “Stations of the Sun : A History of the Ritual Year in Britain,” he says:
        “The reason for the choice of this date, and the success of it, was stated with admirable candour by a Christian writer, the Scriptor Syrus, in the late fourth century:
        It was a custom of the pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day.”

        “It was a general custom in pagan Europe to decorate spaces with greenery and flowers for festivals, attested wherever records have survived. One of the problems addressed by early Christian churchmen was that of how far this custom could be adopted by the new religion and, as usual, they disagreed. Those who condemned the practice included St Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop Martin of Braga, and the clerics who gathered at the latter’s Council of Braga.”

        Wouldn’t these be phrases that contributed to the belief that Christmas is a convenient appropriation of a pagan festival?

        Since you have answered me with patience and politeness I leave here once again my thanks.

        1. Read the next paragraph re this “birthday of the Sun”:

          “The pagan feast which Christmas replaced was not, however, itself much older. It had apparently been decreed only in 274, by the emperor Aurelian, as a major holy day of a new and syncretic state cult with the sun as its official chief deity.”

          Steven E. Hijmans, the leading expert on the solar cult in the Roman Empire, argues that this very new “birthday of the sun” on Dec 25 was not the origin of a Christian celebration of Christ’s birth on that day, but a reaction to it. This is because this day was already being used by Roman Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ based on Biblical calculations of when he died, when he was therefore conceived and so when he must have been born. Andrew Mark Henry explains this “calculation theory” in one of his Religion for Breakfast videos: “Did Christmas Copy the Sun God’s Birthday?”. This work by Hijmans and others postdates Hutton’s book and so he doesn’t refer to it. But it makes it pretty clear that the Christian celebration on Dec predates the very new “birthday of the sun” of the Solar cult and has nothing to do with it.

          Of course the practice of decorating spaces with greenery for festivals pre-dates Christianity and was done by pagans. Was this the origin of us doing with with holly and ivy at Christmas? Maybe. Does this make that practice “pagan”? Hardly. In midwinter in Europe, what else are people going to decorate their homes with except the few evergreens available. There’s nothing inherently “pagan” going on here.

          1. oh, I know a little bit about Hijmans and the “Religion for Breakfast” channel (I think Rolls also brings important contributions). but Roger Pearse said “Hijman is a revisionist, so it is necessary to be wary”. since then I was looking for other authors who could contribute to the understanding of this subject and then I met Hutton, but he brings this idea that the date of Christmas was set to replace a pagan festival. The paragraph you mentioned brings precisely that Christmas “replaced” a pagan festival and says that this festival (274 year) precedes the celebration of Christmas (354 year).

          2. “Revisionist” does not mean “wrong”. And Hijmans is hardly alone in concluding the date of Christmas preceded the new “birthday of the sun” solar cult festival. See also Thomas C. Schmidt, “Calculating December 25 as the Birth of Jesus in Hippolytus’ Canon and Chronicon”, Vigiliae Christianae, 69, (2015) pp. 542-563. Hippolytus of Rome – 170-235 AD) proposed the date as “eight days before the calends of January (i.e. December 25) long before new pagan feast day was instituted, which is why it’s clear at least some Christians were celebrating Christmas on this date before the pagan feast. This is one reason why current scholarship has swung against the old “pagan feast day appropriated by Christians” idea.

  34. Stumbled accross this article and was inclined to leave a comment. Haven’t read all of the comments that followed the article but did quite a few. There is one thing i couldn’t find and it is to do with the state of the dead. Please, don’t wish to be misunderstood, it is not my intention to open up a new debate. Just trying to raise awareness around why some christians regard Halloween as ‘pagan’.
    If this has already been covered in the rest of the comments i do apologise for my intrusion.
    In a few words, the reason behind rejection of Halloween as essentially christian, is based in the view that there is no afterlife, as in heaven and hell, souls rewarded or condemned immediately upon dying. That would supposedly come at the end of this world’s history.
    The idea of afterlife, as seen by some christians, is imported from ‘paganism’, hence the rejection of Halloween being christian in origin. This is not denying the origin of the holiday being christian traditionally. Just saying that it would not have taken root if a different view of afterlife was followed.
    Again, hope I made it clear that I am not arguing a new doctrine, just throwing light on the reasons for rejection of the holiday being deeply rooted in christianity.

  35. This comment isn’t meant as a correction, it’s just something I thought was interesting.

    You cite the earliest connection between Halloween and human sacrifice as 1634. However, I think we could push this back by a century at the very least. The Scottish Lowland ballad “Tam Lin” (Child Ballad #39) is first attested in writing in 1549. In the ballad, the titular character is kidnapped by the fairy folk and is set to be used for the “Teind to Hell” – a human sacrifice made by the fairies every seven years on Halloween night.

    Of course, this is not evidence that the association of sacrifice and Halloween has pagan roots. However, it can be argued that the association goes back in written (and likely oral) tradition ell before Jeffrey Keating.

    Aside from serving as historical evidence, “Tam Lin” is also a darn good ballad. Have a listen if you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtpMzAn6x10

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