Halloween in the Middle Ages

It seems to me that many people have difficulty envisioning the Middle Ages as anything other than dark, closed, and bleak.  I can see how, when looked at from a modern perspective, it can appear that way.  For a large segment of the population, death wasn't a specter--it was an unwanted cousin that hung about in the neighborhood, waiting for only a bad harvest, a simple injury, or an outbreak of illness to come pay a visit.  But the Middle Ages were not as utterly grim, dark, and joyless as it is popular to think.

I don't believe human nature has changed much in the last thousand years.  What better reason than a difficult and uncertain existence to make the most of every opportunity for celebration?  For the Celts, their celebration of Samhain, marked the end of summer, harvest, and the year on November 1 of our modern calendar.  For them it marked the break between the fruitfulness and life of summer, and the scarcity and death of winter.  They believed that on the night before the new year, the line between the worlds of the living and the dead blurred, and the souls of the dead returned to earth.  The presence of these spirits made it easier for the Druid priests to make predictions about the upcoming year, and for people so heavily impacted by the vagaries of the natural world, such predictions were hugely important.  Anything believed to make those predictions easier was a cause for celebration.  These celebrations included the lighting of large bonfires, where crops and animals were burned as sacrifices.

In the 1st century A.D. Rome conquered most of the Celtic-held lands of Ireland, the British Isles, and France.  Interestingly enough, Rome had it's own day of homage to the dead, Feralia, which took place in late October.  Rome was smart enough to allow it's conquered territories to maintain many of their native beliefs and rituals, and it was simple enough over the next four hundred years to combine the similar rituals and celebrations with Rome's own.

In the early 7th century, Pope Boniface IV established the feast of All Martyrs Day.  By the mid-8th century, Pope Gregory III sought to eliminate the celebration of pagan holidays by replacing them with Christian-based ones.  He moved the All Martyrs Day feast to November 1, and expanded it to include all saints, as well.  The celebration echoed many of the rites of Samhain, including bonfires, processions, and dressing in costume as saints and angels.  And probably devils, too, though I suspect the Church may have frowned upon that.  In Middle English, this holiday was called Alholomesse, or, All Hallow Mass, which eventually came to be known as All Hallow Eve(n), and our "Halloween."

Maybe this year I'll go as a Druid priest. I hope they liked chocolate.