Blu Heather
October 22nd, 2002, 07:55 PM
I apologize if this has been answered before...but this is my question:
On this other board I belong to someone posted this about Samhain:
The name Halloween means "hallowed" or " Holy evening" it takes place on on October 31st as a way to celebrate autumn. The ancient Druids had a great festival to celebrate autumn which began at midnight on the 31st and lasted through the next day, November 1st.
They believed that on this night their great God of death,called Saman, called together all the wicked souls who had died during the year and whose punishment had been to take up the life in the bodies of animals. Of course, this gathering frightened the simple minded people of that time. So they lit huge bonfires ank kept a watchout for these evil spirits. There are still people in certain parts of Europe who believe that this is all still true!
then after I posted a post with info on Samhain I found at http://pagan-home.com/samhain/samhain.html and witchvox.com:
Actually folk the name Saman IS the actual name!
I did quite a bit of research on this subject and the name samhain is an adapted name from SAMAN from the Druids.
NO offence but everyone always assumes that the Mythology out there today on the subject is the original spelling but it is not.
and eventually this:
Another note:
Saman was a god of the druids,which was adopted by the celts who did not understand the original reason for the celebration, then it was adopted by other European countries and people, who then in turn brought the idea to the United States with them on the first crossing.
All this is researched from the Library at Oxford.
I'm not hoping I'm right and she's wrong...but I haven't come across anything she has said on anything I've read on Samhain...did I just miss that part somewhere? Was Samhain adapted from the Druid Saman? Is the practice she is stating the origins of Samhain?
Any clarification would be very much appreciated.
On this other board I belong to someone posted this about Samhain:
The name Halloween means "hallowed" or " Holy evening" it takes place on on October 31st as a way to celebrate autumn. The ancient Druids had a great festival to celebrate autumn which began at midnight on the 31st and lasted through the next day, November 1st.
They believed that on this night their great God of death,called Saman, called together all the wicked souls who had died during the year and whose punishment had been to take up the life in the bodies of animals. Of course, this gathering frightened the simple minded people of that time. So they lit huge bonfires ank kept a watchout for these evil spirits. There are still people in certain parts of Europe who believe that this is all still true!
then after I posted a post with info on Samhain I found at http://pagan-home.com/samhain/samhain.html and witchvox.com:
Actually folk the name Saman IS the actual name!
I did quite a bit of research on this subject and the name samhain is an adapted name from SAMAN from the Druids.
NO offence but everyone always assumes that the Mythology out there today on the subject is the original spelling but it is not.
and eventually this:
Another note:
Saman was a god of the druids,which was adopted by the celts who did not understand the original reason for the celebration, then it was adopted by other European countries and people, who then in turn brought the idea to the United States with them on the first crossing.
All this is researched from the Library at Oxford.
I'm not hoping I'm right and she's wrong...but I haven't come across anything she has said on anything I've read on Samhain...did I just miss that part somewhere? Was Samhain adapted from the Druid Saman? Is the practice she is stating the origins of Samhain?
Any clarification would be very much appreciated.