Teach your children the true meaning of Halloween

9:54am Thursday 30th October 2008

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I FIND it odd that although obviously a treat for children, commercial enterprises have taken advantage of the ancient festival of Halloween for their own devices, and parents seem happy to oblige.

Irish immigrants carried versions of Halloween to North America in the nineteenth century while other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century.

Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores.

The ancient Gaels believed that, on October 31, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops.

The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.

Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain which is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes regarded as the Celtic new year.

While trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas, receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day.

I would therefore ask parents not to embrace the commercial aspect of this holiday too much and teach children of the true meaning of this tradition.

Michael Jones Woodford Green