Episode 5327: Dark Enigma - Why Do We Celebrate Halloween – The Dark Origins of the Holiday

Please be aware the stories, theories, re-enactments and language in this podcast are of an adult nature and can be considered disturbing, frightening and in some cases even offensive.  Listener Discretion is therefore advised.  Welcome heathens welcome to the world of the weird and unexplained.  I’m your host, Nicole Delacroix and together, we will be investigating stories about the things that go bump in the night, frighteningly imagined creatures, supernatural beings and even some unsolved mysteries but I promise all sorts of weirdness.  So, sit back, grab your favorite drink, and prepare to be transported to today's dark Enigma....  And on today’s Dark enigma well, it’s my favorite time of year, so the next few episodes are going to be Halloween related, so if you have a favorite, let me know, but for today we’re focusing on how Halloween, well, became Halloween!  So, with that said, we will still be playing our drinking game and as you know, the drinking game is only for those of us that are at home and have nowhere else to go tonight.  The choice of libation, as always my darlings, is yours, so choose your poison accordingly… Alright, now for the game part how about every time I say Halloween that will be a single shot and every time I say people, that will be a double shot.  Now that the business end is out of the way we can jump headfirst into today’s dark enigma… so don your best , let’s dive into today’s offering of Why Do We Celebrate Halloween – The Dark Origins of the Holiday Most people agree that the origins of Halloween reside in the Celtic Festival of Samhain. This is the festival celebrating the time of year when “the summer goes to rest”. It was an agricultural festival and a time for “stock-taking” before the winter. Samhain was also, like we would expect in an origin of Halloween, a time of “supernatural intensity” where the force of darkness and decay were said to be abroad, spilling out from sidh, the ancient mounds or barrows of the countryside”.  At this time of year the Celtic people would build a large bonfire in the hope that it would please the gods and help the regenerative agricultural process. This foundation in an agricultural based festival is still visible today where in many agricultural based communities “the intervention of masks may help ensure that the crops grow well”. For the Celts this time of year held great symbolic significance, and it was said that many Mythic kings and heroes died on Samhain.