One of the most
important dimensions of spiritualities rooted in Sacred Immanence is that any
feature of our unfallen world has its sacred dimension.  I was reminded of this fact when
looking up the history of Samhain in Ronald Hutton’s Stations of the Sun.  
Hutton’s book is the most careful
study of Britain’s seasonal observances tat we currently have. 

There is little surviving
evidence that our traditional eight Sabbats were celebrated in ancient times
with the same symbolism we use, and in some cases they were probably not
celebrated at all.  But this fact,
and fact I believe it is, does not have the same impact on our practice as
recognition that Jesus never lived, or that he died of old age, would have on
Christian practice and theology.

The reason is
that we focus on the meaning within phenomena as symbols of a larger context toward which they point, rather
than celebrating historical events that are part of a Sacred story with a
beginning and an end.  Life is a
cycle, and we see it symbolized in the course of a year here in temperate
zones.  On the equator we would
need different symbolism to bring this insight alive.  (Though I am reliably informed that there are Gardnerian
covens in Nigeria.  I would love to
know how they handle the Wheel of the Year.)

Given this
symbolism, Samhain is the logical final Sabbat in our Wheel of the Year,
whatever its earlier significance.

There is no
doubt Samhain was a very old Celtic pastoral celebration of the beginning of
winter.  It was also a time when,
like May Day 6 months earlier, the veil between the worlds was unusually thin.  In addition, both Anglo-Saxon and
Scandanavian peoples also had periods where the beginning of winter was
celebrated, animals slaughtered, and the like.  But as with Samhain, evidence of their spiritual meaning is
lacking, surviving accounts having been written after Christian dominance was
well established.  Beyond this, the
historical record gets very thin.

Interestingly,
Samhain’s current celebration of the dead probably has at least partly
Christian roots, connected with All Souls’ Day.  This day was celebrated far beyond Celtic lands, and was a
time when souls in Purgatory could be assisted in getting into heaven by those
still living.  This greater approved
contact with the dead easily fit in with the earlier sense that during Samhain
the veil between the worlds was thinner. 
If there were Pagan connections to honoring the deceased, and there
probably had been whether or not they survived, this would have been a safe
hook on which to affix them.

As Europe became
Christianized, this Christian holy day would likely attract the energies any
Pagan celebrations of the dead would have had, just as some Pagan dates had
attracted Christian observances. 
December 25 was not celebrated by the early Church, and apparently was
chosen after AD 400, probably because of its symbolic significance in many
Pagan traditions.    The
date is very conveniently close to the Winter Solstice.

Apparently this
is also the case in reverse with Day of the Dead in the Americas’ Hispanic
societies.
It employs many pre-Christian Mesoamerican themes, such as the friendly
welcoming of the dead and meeting in cemeteries, but on a Christian date. The Aztec
equivalent had been held in the summer, but when we are thinking mythologically
rather than historically, moving a date is much less a problem than from within
a Christian perspective.

Hutton writes of
Samhain, “there is no evidence that it was connected with the dead and no proof
that it opened the year…” (370) 
This seems quite true.  But
we should be careful.  The totalitarian
Christian war against Paganism was extraordinarily effective in wiping out much
literature and destroying long established practices.  When practice was punishable by death, and remained so for around
1000 years, it is hardly surprising that few written accounts survive, even if
somehow practices did.  We will likely
never know for sure what, if anything, constituted a Pagan survival, what was a
Pagan interpretation of Christian practices or vice versa, and what constituted
more modern folklore additions.

Yet – and this
is my major point – it does not really matter which is the case in terms of
ritual practice and spiritual power.

For many Pagans,
Samhain and its sister celebration of the Day of the Dead are already mixes of
some of the world’s religious traditions, but this is not a problem for us.  Rather it reflects the ubiquitous
nature of life’s major themes once we see the sacred in all things.  If Samhain did not survive from the
past, we would have had to create it – and that is OK.

With warmest
Samhain greetings to all!