The Book of Hallowe'en Part 2

Samhain was then a day sacred to the death of the sun, on which had been paid a sacrifice of death to evil powers. Though overcome at Moytura evil was ascendant at Samhain. Methods of finding out the will of spirits and the future naturally worked better then, charms and invocations had more power, for the spirits were near to help, if care was taken not to anger them, and due honors paid.

CHAPTER IV

POMONA

Ops was the Latin G.o.ddess of plenty. Single parts of her province were taken over by various other divinities, among whom was Pomona (_pomorum patrona_, "she who cares for fruits"). She is represented as a maiden with fruit in her arms and a pruning-knife in her hand.

"I am the ancient apple-queen.

As once I was so am I now-- For evermore a hope unseen Betwixt the blossom and the bough.

"Ah, where's the river's hidden gold!

And where's the windy grave of Troy?

Yet come I as I came of old, From out the heart of summer's joy."

MORRIS: _Pomona._

Many Roman poets told stories about her, the best known being by Ovid, who says that she was wooed by many orchard-G.o.ds, but preferred to remain unmarried. Among her suitors was Vertumnus ("the changer"), the G.o.d of the turning year, who had charge of the exchange of trade, the turning of river channels, and chiefly of the change in nature from flower to ripe fruit. True to his character he took many forms to gain Pomona's love. Now he was a ploughman (spring), now a fisherman (summer), now a reaper (autumn).

At last he took the likeness of an old woman (winter), and went to gossip with Pomona. After sounding her mind and finding her averse to marriage, the woman pleaded for Vertumnus's success.

"Is not he the first to have the fruits which are thy delight? And does he not hold thy gifts in his joyous right hand?"

OVID: _Vertumnus and Pomona._

Then the crone told her the story of Anaxarete who was so cold to her lover Iphis that he hanged himself, and she at the window watching his funeral train pa.s.s by was changed to a marble statue.

Advising Pomona to avoid such a fate, Vertumnus donned his proper form, that of a handsome young man, and Pomona, moved by the story and his beauty, yielded and became his wife.

Vertumnus had a statue in the Tuscan Way in Rome, and a temple. His festival, the Vortumnalia, was held on the 23d of August, when the summer began to wane. Garlands and garden produce were offered to him.

Pomona had been a.s.signed one of the fifteen _flamina_, priests whose duty it was to kindle the fire for special sacrifices. She had a grove near Ostia where a harvest festival was held about November first. Not much is known of the ceremonies, but from the similar August holiday much may be deduced. Then the deities of fire and water were propitiated that their disfavor might not ruin the crops. On Pomona's day doubtless thanks was rendered them for their aid to the harvest. An offering of first-fruits was made in August; in November the winter store of nuts and apples was opened.

The horses released from toil contended in races.

From Pomona's festival nuts and apples, from the Druidic Samhain the supernatural element, combined to give later generations the charms and omens from nuts and apples which are made trial of at Hallowe'en.

CHAPTER V

THE COMING OF CHRISTIANITY. ALL SAINTS'. ALL SOULS'

The great power which the Druids exercised over their people interfered with the Roman rule of Britain. Converts were being made at Rome. Augustus forbade Romans to became initiated, Tiberius banished the priestly clan and their adherents from Gaul, and Claudius utterly stamped out the belief there, and put to death a Roman knight for wearing the serpent's-egg badge to win a lawsuit.

Forbidden to practise their rites in Britain, the Druids fled to the isle of Mona, near the coast of Wales. The Romans pursued them, and in 61 A. D. they were slaughtered and their oak groves cut down. During the next three centuries the cult was stifled to death, and the Christian religion subst.i.tuted.

It was believed that at Christ's advent the pagan G.o.ds either died or were banished.

"The lonely mountains o'er And the resounding sh.o.r.e A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament.

From haunted spring and dale, Edged with poplar pale, The parting genius is with sighing sent.

With flower-inwoven tresses torn The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn."

MILTON: _On the Morning of Christ's Nativity._

The Christian Fathers explained all oracles and omens by saying that there was something in them, but that they were the work of the evil one. The miraculous power they seemed to possess worked "black magic."

It was a long, hard effort to make men see that their G.o.ds had all the time been wrong, and harder still to root out the age-long growth of rite and symbol. But on the old religion might be grafted new names; Midsummer was dedicated to the birth of Saint John; Lugnasad became Lammas. The fires belonging to these times of year were retained, their old significance forgotten or reconsecrated.

The rowan, or mountain ash, whose berries had been the food of the Tuatha, now exorcised those very beings. The trefoil signified the Trinity, and the cross no longer the rays of the sun on water, but the cross of Calvary. The fires which had been built to propitiate the G.o.d and consume his sacrifices to induce him to protect them were now lighted to protect the people from the same G.o.d, declared to be an evil mischief-maker. In time the autumn festival of the Druids became the vigil of All Hallows or All Saints' Day.

All Saints' was first suggested in the fourth century, when the Christians were no longer persecuted, in memory of all the saints, since there were too many for each to have a special day on the church calendar. A day in May was chosen by Pope Boniface IV in 610 for consecrating the Pantheon, the old Roman temple of all the G.o.ds, to the Virgin and all the saints and martyrs. Pope Gregory III dedicated a chapel in St. Peter's to the same, and that day was made compulsory in 835 by Pope Gregory IV, as All Saints'. The day was changed from May to November so that the crowds that thronged to Rome for the services might be fed from the harvest bounty. It is celebrated with a special service in the Greek and Roman churches and by Episcopalians.

In the tenth century St. Odilo, Bishop of Cluny, inst.i.tuted a day of prayer and special ma.s.ses for the souls of the dead. He had been told that a hermit dwelling near a cave

"heard the voices and howlings of devils, which complained strongly because that the souls of them that were dead were taken away from their hands by alms and by prayers."

DE VORAGINE: _Golden Legend._

This day became All Souls', and was set for November 2d.

It is very appropriate that the Celtic festival when the spirits of the dead and the supernatural powers held a carnival of triumph over the G.o.d of light, should be followed by All Saints' and All Souls'. The church holy-days were celebrated by bonfires to light souls through Purgatory to Paradise, as they had lighted the sun to his death on Samhain. On both occasions there were prayers: the pagan pet.i.tions to the lord of death for a pleasant dwelling-place for the souls of departed friends; and the Christian for their speedy deliverance from torture. They have in common the celebrating of death: the one, of the sun; the other, of mortals: of harvest: the one, of crops; the other, of sacred memories. They are kept by revelry and joy: first, to cheer men and make them forget the malign influences abroad; second, because as the saints in heaven rejoice over one repentant sinner, we should rejoice over those who, after struggles and sufferings past, have entered into everlasting glory.

"Mother, my Mother, Mother-Country, Yet were the fields in bud.

And the harvest,--when shall it rise again Up through the fire and flood?

"Mother, my Mother, Mother-Country, Was it not all to save Harvest of bread?--Harvest of men?

And the bright years, wave on wave?

_"Search not, search not, my way-worn; Search neither weald nor wave.

One is their heavy reaping-time To the earth, that is one wide grave."_

MARKS: _All Souls' Eve._

CHAPTER VI

ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF HALLOWE'EN OMENS

The custom of making tests to learn the future comes from the old system of augury from sacrifice. Who sees in the nuts thrown into the fire, turning in the heat, blazing and growing black, the writhing victim of an old-time sacrifice to an idol?

Many superst.i.tions and charms were believed to be active at any time, but all those and numerous special ones worked best on November Eve. All the tests of all the Celtic festivals have been allotted to Hallowe'en. Cakes from the May Eve fire, hemp-seed and prophetic dreams from Midsummer, games and sports from Lugnasad have survived in varied forms.