extinguished only to be re-lit by family members lighting a torch from this great, sacred fire and carrying it all the way back to rekindle their own hearth fires. These hearth fires were kept continuously burning until Beltan or Bealtaine arrived – the start of the Celtic summertime. It was extremely bad luck if the fire was left to go out before this!
The tradition of carving out turnips, beets and potatoes and lighting a candle inside was said to ward off evil spirits. This practice obviously led to the ‘Jack-O-Lantern’ fable about a damned soul, popular with the later Catholic religion, particularly in America where the turnip was replaced by the Pumpkin.
Winter apples were one of the main harvest fruits and therefore used prominently for the festivities. The Roman Goddess of Pomona, symbolized by the apple, was NOT the reason for ‘apple bobbing’ nor had it anything to do with Samhain. They were celebrated on completely different dates and not merged as some may think
Christianity & Halloween
Several hundred years after the death of Christ, the Christian church had gathered enough influence within Celtic lands to establish a day of honoring the deaths of their Martyrs, it was on 609AD that Pope Boniface IV designated May 13th to remember all martyrs.
However this date was changed in 837AD, Pope Gregory IV extended the festival to include all of the saints and changed the date to November 1st, the day was called ‘All Hallows Day’.
Moving the date was an attempt to Christianize the pagan festival of the dead. The evening of October 31st was changed to ‘All Hallows Eve’ – the evening before ‘All Saints Day’. Or, as we call it today,