Your video editing software makes your sound a bit muffled/lower quality. Compare the sound from the Kenneth Anger livestream and the edited version and you can hear a difference... For sometime now the audio hasn't been the best quality.
Some fun facts. The term 'bonfire' comes from the direct translation of the Irish name for these fires 'tine cnàmh' which translates to bone fire (bones of the animals killed during the festival were burned). Over time it morphed into bonfire. In Ireland it is still very common to light bonfires on Halloween night despite the fact it has been illegal for many years. Unfortunately it is dying out in some areas As many probably already know, the costumes people wear, were to trick the fairies and other supernatural beings into thinking you were one of them, hence saving you from harm or their trickery Jack-o-lanterns served a similar purpose but their origins are a myth about a man called Stingy Jack who tricked the Devil and was cursed to wander the earth with the light from his lantern to guide him. Since pumpkins are not native to Ireland, the original lanterns were carved out of turnips. I suggest Googling some of these turnip lanterns. Much creepier than the pumpkin ones!
Yes, I remember making turnip lanterns for Hallowe'en when I was a kid in the 70s (I am from Scotland). The turnips were awkward to carve and were always scary. The smell of turnip still make me think of Hallowe'en. We also had treacle scones hanging from string to be eaten without hands (very sticky and messy) and dunking for apples.
Like any old tradition, it is our duty as modern practitioners to keep it alive to it's roots yet adapt it respectfully to the modern challenges of our new world. Thank you Dr. Angela for furthering the studies into the practices of our ancestors :) Happy Samhain
🧙♂️ I particularly appreciate the accurate captioning, I have horrendous ADHD and subtitles help me follow along SO much, especially when there is so much great information! Great video!
🧙🏻♀ We have an interesting autumn tradition called Dziady. In my part of family it died out, but our great aunts and their part of the family still follow it. At one night around start of November (I think it's normatively Friday before the 8th of November for Orthodox and 2th of November for Catholics, but the date varied depending on location) people would place an empty plate of food on the table, for the visiting spirits of dead relatives. When I started university, I lived with my great aunt Sonia, because I couldn't get student lodging, and she actually observed that: she did put another plate when calling us to the table. There were no other differences from a normal day, just one more plate at the table. (I don't remember what date she observed, though.) I think it's similar because it's also about an autumn night when borders between our world and the other world became thinner, so deceased people can visit their families.
Went to look it up-interesting tradition-bits of various fall/winter holidays as we know them now. Thanks! I’m watching Nov 1, so I think I may start a new home tradition of the extra plate!
Are you from Ukraine, Belarus or somewhere in the area? We used to have Dziady in Poland too (in fact, that's the title of one of the most important theatrical plays in our history). For non-Slavic people here, Dziady literally means Forefathers :-) . I think it's been completely substituted by the All Saints' Day, but in the play (from the 19th century) a ceremony is described where villagers gather at night in a chapel, set out food and drink and call out to wandering souls to tell them if they need anything. The tradition with the spare plate is something we do for Christmas Eve and it has many explanations (that it's for the Baby Jesus, or for a stranger that might stray into your house, or for the ancestors).
That corresponds to the solar cross quarter if it was around the 7th/8th of november. That's legit Celtic stuff right there. THere's burial sites where the sun aligns perfectly on that day. That was the original Samhain. Those witches pretending to be edgy on a full more or October 31st don't know what they're doing. Also supposedly the thinning of the veil could be used for good or ill and even Christians would practice divination in those times (yes, Christians practiced magic at some point. So did jews. Casting lots is a form of divination. Witchcraft is the use of a false god in Judeo-Christian lore and that's all but forgotten.)
November is known as Mis Du (Black Month) in Cornish and Breton. Linguistic evidence suggests that the Brythons adopted the Roman calendar after occupation. Prior to that they may have used some form of luni-solar reckoning which would have made Samhain a movable feast. Good overview, thanks! 🧙
Truly love all that you've explained and pin-pointed regarding Samhain's nuanced origin that nowadays makes it a day worthy to feist in all the ways possible. Happy Halloween Angela🧙🏻♂️🎃🔥
🧙🏻♀️Thank you so much! So glad I found your channel-evidence & scholarly based or cited information is so hard to come by on these platforms. I sincerely appreciate the time & effort you put in, & for sharing it for free! Happy Halloween / Samhain! 🎃🧡🖤
Thank you SO much for this video, and others! New subscriber here! Your videos fascinate me! You are simply lovely to listen to! Happy Samhain to all! ❤
I found your channel by accident and was fascinated by it. thanks for this video. I wish more people knew about you and supported you. Happy Samhain 🧙🏻♀️🌙
The curated transcript is now available to all symposiasts at www.innersymposium.study/?p=4983 Also, there is a quiz on the video here www.innersymposium.study/?page_id=4830. 🧙♀🪄🧙
Great video! I would add, however, that the Christian celebration of the dead, All Saints, Day that became associated with Samhain was likely acknowledging a theme that already existed in Samhain. Otherwise, there would have been no need to move it in the 9th century, from its previous date in the spring which covered the Roman ancestor celebration called Lemuria.
I think it all goes back to Inanna rising out of the underworld with "zombies" and going around to visit cities in Sumer. Hence, the idea that scary things are happening.
@@1cruzbat1 Samhain wasn’t unique to Ireland, we have folkloric evidence across the Celtic and post-Celtic world under various names. The oldest, possibly, being the Coligny calendar in 1c BCE in Gaul.
Angela, when I first saw your name and didn't know better, I wondered if it was a pseudonym alluding to the Púca, so I got a wee chuckle when you mentioned that😆. Cheers, and Samhain shona daoibh!
👻📥📤 Dr Puca, I can't find a witch to post, but I replaced it with a ghost to honor the times of the thin veil. The IN and OUT boxes to represent the tribal leaders who met at Samhain for administrative purposes. 😂 Thank you for educating us on the real meaning and purposes of this time.
in UK now we have bonfires on the 5th of November to celebrate the failure of Guy Fawlkes' attempt to burn down the houses of parliament.. bit of a coincidence,, like easter and xmas
👻Thank you, a very interesting video and I learned a few new things too. hope you had a Happy Hallowe'en. (Sorry, I couldn't find the witch emoji - she must be off somewhere)
here in the real pagan north it was the other new year or old summer vs. new winter (timed by leaves falling and waters freezing). what´s interesting is that here too it lasted seven days (and nights, during the time when the rivers froze) where they burned fires for the river spirits (basically it was the end of the summer fishing season). also what´s known is that they asked for an easy winter from the river totems (whom were the main gods, ancestors originally). in some records they also ate seven times or shouted seven times (a form of praying here). it was also done in the home shrines where they changed the birch twigs collected in the spring for spruce twigs for the coming winter (which tells of the two way split of the year). just some small details.. to summarize in many places here (uralic areas) it was one of the two yearly main sacrifice dates (the other one being in the spring when the ice melted from the rivers, river based cultures they were / still are). also i want to say that in the real pagan discourse it´s always the agricultural customs vs. the older hunter-gatherer customs (christianity does not exist in that paradigm). ps. evidence is NOT lacking! (i have over 1000 notes on autumn alone and i haven´t read shit) :)
also if you don´t have a fire just put on two stoves! it´s nice to celebrate there by the warmth, skin on skin (the real kitchen witchery). it´s seven days and seven NIGHTS!
Thank you for this! I'm American, and I've always wondered about the origins of Samhain (as well as how to pronounce it because I've been saying it wrong since forever now). I don't practice European based spiritual systems, but I've always wondered what the hype is around Halloween since Christians always demonized it. Thankfully I came across your channel and you now have a new subscriber. 😁🧙🏿♂️🧛🏿🧟♂️
@@susanhelwig1468in which details is Angela wrong? I mean the TikTok witch aesthetics can be off-putting, but she's a legitimate academic, the decorum is irrelevant.
I am Irish therefore Celtic . As a child we Never celebrated this festival. We were just taught it was a thing our ancestors did. But my generation was told it was evil . And it is .
😃 Hi, Dr. Puca! Happy to see you again! I love your newsletter! 😃 😃 This video is super interesting, thanks to you I learn more about this fascinating topic! 😃 And about your nickname as well. 😁 😃 Blessed and happy Samhain to you, Dr. Puca! See you next time! 😃
The term "Celtic Fire Festival" refers to specific things. Samhain is one of those festivals. That doesn't mean that's the only way it was celebrated, but to say it's not a Celtic Fire Festival is false. Also, Nov.1st is the Celtic New Year. It is a festival of the new year. That wasn't the main aspect of what Samhain was about, but to say it is not a new year festival is also false. It happens on the Celtic New Year, that is when Samhain is observed. Every festival considered to be Celtic are subject to multiple regional differences and such. When people today attempt to explain them, it doesn't mean that is all they are. What it means is that these are commonalities of the festival. These are generalized traditions. The ideas presented about these festivals hold up under scrutiny. The Celts were not a monolith, so there will always be alternate views and things to discover. You don't have to be contrarian to explore and showcase other unique aspects of cultures. I am a Druid that works with an evidence based reconstructionist group. The things that you say Samhain is not are aspects that I do observe. There's more to it than that, but it is incorrect to say these things are false. Also, when you talk about how it was practiced in Ireland and such as if what you share is the real observances is dishonest. In Ireland itself the practices changed quite a bit over time. It depends on when you're looking at. You shouldn't make things sensational at the expense of truth.
I am curious, was old Pagan practices stomped out pretty much entirely and the new Paganism is trying to pick up the threads of the old ways? Or, did practice just go underground all these years and the practices are the same as they always were. I find religious studies very interesting. I think more people should study this. It's quite obvious we are the same.
there is no witch emojis, here is a wand: 🪄 4:52 I'm glad you called this out here. I was confused on how folks started to celebrate Samhain on October 31. If we look at Irish the language, Samhain is the name for the month of November (nov 1st) and even when I first got into new age neo paganism, I was told it was done at midnight (thus being nov 1st). There is actually a name still used in Ireland today that means the eve of November or "Samhain eve" - "Oíche Shamhna". That aside looking at the modern neo pagan wheel of the year, there are the four major and four minor days celebrated. The four major being, Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain. All are on the 1st, except for some claiming Samhain on the 31 and some Imbolc on the 2nd. The minors are all on the 21st. So complete a perfect wheel we would have no day, 1st, 21st. with four groups of months through out the year. that would be October with no day and November 1st, followed by December 21st.
So something I don't entirely get here, it sounds like from watching this it's not so much that modern Halloween is rooted in Samhain, but that lingering Samhain traditions potentially influenced and added to the celebrations and activities held around All Saint's/All Souls day? It sounds like the association with the dead mostly comes from the christian side of things and Samhain inherited that vibe?
Also in this video you say at one point that there's no evidence Samhain marked the Celtic New Year, but then again later you say it did. So which is it?
