Pagan Christian Connection Exposed (Book Only)
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Pagan Mysteries Of Halloween
Celtic scholar Jean Markale explores “the shadowy zones” of All Hallows’ Eve in The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween. Though the name comes from the Christians’ All Saints’ Eve, Halloween can be traced back thousands of years to Samhain–the beginning of the “dark half” of the Celtic yearly calendar. As a feasting and merrymaking festival, Samhain lasted about three days, and attendance was mandatory, according to Markale. It was also the time when fairy folk made themselves available to humans, and the borders between the worlds of the living and the dead were said to blur. Markale is a thorough historian, offering a plausible account of how Samhain evolved into the modern day celebration. For readers seeking general Halloween information, Mar
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(out of 7 reviews)
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Review by for Pagan Mysteries Of Halloween
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…that anyone could think this book is hard to read. Whoever does must have been home-schooled by Scooby-Doo. There’s nothing difficult to grasp in this book, least of all the language. I couldn’t find a single word on any page that I had to look up in the dictionary, for Heaven’s sake! Although it was written by a formidable scholar with stellar credentials, it is a concisely-written page-turner for readers who are interested in the mythic roots of Halloween, the origins of the Eve of All Souls, the pagan festival of Samhain. The only criticism I have of it is it uses words such as “carnival-like” and “manifestations” a bit too often, an easy oversight to forgive considering it is a translation. Come on kids, if it’s a book about how to carve pumpkins you want, you can pick that up at the dollar store.
Review by Zombie-F for Pagan Mysteries Of Halloween
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Perhaps it’s due to the fact this book was translated from French to English, but it’s impossible to read. Somewhere, either something was lost in the translation, or else the author just wants to torture the reader with words and references that can only make you feel dumb. Get the dictionary and a good reference to obscure literature, you’ll need them.There is some pretty good info in here, but I don’t think this book is geared towards the typical Halloween reader. There’s lots of info on pre-Christian pagan practices, which is Markale’s strong point, but I found that he often got sidetracked into talking about pagan lifestyles instead of staying focused on the subject at hand… Halloween.Being that it takes the average person (me being average, I guess lol) 2+ minutes to digest one page, I can’t suggest trying to read this book. Try the infintely more reader-friendly “Halloween, An American Holiday, An American History” by Lesley Pratt-Bannatyne.
Review by merrymousies for Pagan Mysteries Of Halloween
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Ok, this book (I think) has lots of really neat info in it but I must say, I feel a bit like I’ve been reading a text book in college and the professor is trying to make this extra hard. Here’s a sentence as an example: “The magical incantation, a geis, is as constraining as the argument that posits that one night and one day during the period of Samhain is the erquivalent of eternity.” Yea, I didn’t make that up either – that’s on p. 74. The whole book is like that. It takes me 10 minutes to read 2 pages (ok, that’s a liitle bit of an exaggeration but not much – you have to really chew on the words to get the meaning). In any case, if you can get past the writing style there seems to be a lot of reserach done here and there’s probably a real depth of information – there are subsections on interesting topics such as the interconnection with the other world, the prfound meaning of samhain, etc. I was successful in getting through the chapter on the festival of all saints and it has some interesting facts around the dating of samhain, the role of christianity, etc. Ok, I need to go look up the word “appurtenance” (p.101). Bottom line – this book is not a “light read” probably due to the writing style and use of anachronistic words. I don’t recommmend it because its so hard to read but am giving it 3 stars because if you can take the time to decode it there’s probably some interesting info here. I would not buy it again.
Review by JerryInSanJose for Pagan Mysteries Of Halloween
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As a lover of Halloween, I am always on the lookout for a good book about the subject – a difficult feat to accomplish if you’re older than 10. After reading other reviews, I bought the book hoping to have a more adult perspective on the subject, and was it ever. It is well researched but incredibly verbose and over written – a true scholarly book that is almost impossible to digest. The author is clearly educated but there is no real sense of writing style, or wit. This is more of a straight foward dissertation that a casual read. Of course all books needn’t be geared towards the consumer market.
Review by D. Weisberg for Pagan Mysteries Of Halloween
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If Halloween is your favorite holiday, then this book is for you! It’s a scholarly exploration of the holiday’s origins. Because the Pagan Celtics didn’t leave many written records, there’s not much to go on, but Markale does a plausible and interesting job. According to the author, whose picture on the back cover will cause nightmares, Halloween is descended from the pre-Christian Irish holiday of Samhain.Samhain, the end of the old year and the beginning of the new, is November 1. It is a time for renewal and the establishment of harmony. If the King had done a good job during the year, his powers were renewed. Legal contracts were also reviewed and renewed, and communal properties were redistributed if necessary to prevent discord. Everyone was required to attend the festivities, regardless of rank or class. Feasting, combined with heavy beer and mead drinking, created an air of joviality and a willingness to let bygones be bygones, preparing for a fresh new year.Samhain is also a time of spirituality, when a door between our world and the Land of Promise opens, and contact with the Sidh, or fairy people, is possible. The fairy people appear to be the ghosts of the dead, who exist in a parallel world underground and have knowledge of the future. Sometimes they play evil tricks on mortals, but sometimes they provide assistance or convey special powers. Intercourse with them is also possible.Is this underground world a metaphor for the subconscious? We only know that Samhain is a time of altered consciousness when time itself is compressed or expanded. Hemp and/or magic mushrooms may also have had a ritualistic role.The Celtic concept of the afterlife differs from the Christian in that there is no punishment for sin, nor special reward for the righteous. It’s simply a place where all dead souls go.The holiday eventually became Christianized and transformed into All Saints Day. When children today collect candy or money on October 31, they would be surprised to learn that they are actually collecting offerings for the dead!The holiday was implanted into Calvinist Scotland where the author says the people were more “rational” than the Irish Catholics. It was there that the shades of the dead were replaced by youths in masks and costumes. It is also in Scotland where the custom of making lanterns out of hollowed-out vegetables originated.Eventually the holiday made its way to the New World along with Irish and Scottish immigrants. It eventually spread to French-speaking Canada, and then to France where the holiday has been adopted. Its success on the Continent “is because the American-Celtic model corresponds perfectly to the latent customs of western Europe, customs smothered or censured for a number of centuries but which were only waiting for an invitation to come back to life.”