Eastwood

The Celtic, Pagan & Druid origins of Samhain (A.K.A Halloween or All-Hallows Eve)
Samhain the festival of fire, the feast of the dead, the end of the harvest, a time to give thanks to their Deities, to honour the Deities they believed in, respected & worshipped and a time to respect & honour the dead.
All Soul's Day was a Christian holiday celebrated after Samhain/Halloween they would pray for people that they believed were in purgatory.
To open a doorway to the Otherworld and welcome in the spirits of the ancestors, Deities and the dead loved ones, the spirits were guided back home a candles was placed in the windowsill to help guide spirits back to their home and they were welcomed, they were give a warm welcome
(the hearth was lit), food to eat.
There is a difference between Samhain (The Celtic, Pagan or Druid celebration or festival of fire the harvest festival, and as a memento mori remembrance, honour and respect of the dead, their ancestors) & Halloween (it is the trivial, superficial, diluted version of Samhain and in my opinion the original meaning, customs, beliefs of Samhain has been forgotten, or it is not respected by everyone)
To Celtic people believed in honouring their ancestors and the dead & they also protected themselves from evil or evil spirits that could be potentially harmful during or after Samhain.
Samhain is the new year for Witches, the dark half of the rest of the year, the harvest festival, the end of the harvest season.
Samhain is associated with divination
(To gain knowledge of the future via meditation/going into a trance)
Necromancy-
(Death magick-a type of witchcraft that involves summoning spirits, divination of the future, working with the essence, spirit or embodiment of death, including animal spirits, familiars, servitors, human spirits) animal sacrifice, blood sacrifice for the Deities they believe in, respect & worship.
People originally worn masks on Samhain so they wouldn't be confused for the dead, it would scare away the spirits that were free to roam the earth because the veil between the living & the realm of the dead was very thin and it allowed the dead to return.
A Scottish tradition known as "Guising" people disguising themselves, so they would blend in with any wandering spirits and remain safe from harm.
After performing tricks or songs, guisers were given gifts to help ward off evil.
This is why we wear a mask, or a costume/disguise to protect yourself and ward off evil, or harmful spirits on Samhain/Halloween.
Samhain is usually celebrated from October 31st- 1st of November.
(One to three days celebration, depending on which calendar you use and if you were Celtic, Pagan, a Druid or Christian)
The Origin of Samhain has always existed in ancient, England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales it wasn't originally started by America like they seem to think they created everything when they didn't.
Irish immigrants fled Ireland in the 1840's to escape the potato famine they chose to go to America.
Irish immigrants brought the customs, beliefs of Samhain with them when they immigrated to America in the 19th century.
Scottish & Irish immigrants were in America at the time & they brought with them their spiritual beliefs, customs and Samhain traditions.
Jack-O-Lanterns (carved pumpkins that were hollowed out and a candle was placed inside it, originally it was carved turnips. (the turnips were used due to people being poor at the time)
America adopted the idea of celebrating Halloween in the 19th century but they seem to forget that most modern celebrations of Halloween are based on Celtic, Pagan & Druid traditions & spiritual beliefs/practices.
Celebrating your birthday, making a wish and blowing out a candle is Pagan, a lot of things that are part of modern Christianity is Pagan/borrowed from Paganism so Christianity is a man-made & made up religion that's not 100% original. (Just my opinion)
I like the way America celebrates Halloween but I think they should respect the origin of Samhain since celebrating Halloween is based on ancient festival Samhain.
The original traditions of Samhain have become very trivial, superficial which is sad, the modern celebration of Halloween is separate from the original spiritual beliefs, customs & traditions & the original meaning of Samhain or relevance of Samhain.
Why can't people just respect the original Celtic, Pagan, Druids beliefs, spiritual practices & customs, traditions even if you don't believe in it in the modern world.
Witchcraft is real, people respect, honour, their ancestors, carry on their traditions, they respect & honour the dead, give thanks for their prosperous harvest & welcome in the new year.
One thing that is very prevalent in this book is Christianity, the dismissive, hateful, disrespectful way they thought of and treated anyone that at the time was a Celtic, Pagan or Druid.
The way the Christians deliberately tried to discredit, disrespect & demonize the spiritual beliefs/spiritual practices of the Celts, Pagans & Druids disgusts me.
What right have the Christians to try to take away the beliefs/spiritual practices of the Celts, Pagans & Druids, to vilify their beliefs & practices or to make their own version of a festival, celebration based on their beliefs?
If the Christians hated the Celtic, Pagans or Druids so much, then why is most of Christianity in the modern world "borrowed" from Paganism?
If you demonize their beliefs/spiritual practices, are hateful, fearful because you don't understand or even attempt to understand due to willful ignorance & have no tolerance of them as a tribe of people, then why would you want to adopt some of their spiritual practices & beliefs?
This doesn't make any sense to me, Christians historically hated/feared, vilified, demonized anyone they described & labelled as a "heathen" "heretic" "witch" "savage"etc..
People always hate & fear what they don't understand, but due to being willfully ignorant they don't even want to try to learn & understand a alternative belief, religion or spiritual practice that is separate or different to Christianity.
Just because the Celtic, Pagans & Druids believed in a different pantheon of Gods & Goddesses that doesn't make any of these tribes of people evil, or bad in any way, it's just a alternative belief system, and Christians will always, inaccurately, unfairly judge other people, including the Native Americans, Witches or anyone that was Psychic, a Seer, Mystic, Oracle etc..
This historical hatred, intolerance, unjustified fear or misunderstanding of particular tribes/clans of people has lead to the modern hatred of Christianity and it's the main reason a minority of people are either not religious at all, or they believe in alternative Gods/Goddesses & thy are a witch.
Christianity is and always will be a problematic religion, is is misogynistic, narcissistic and toxic towards women, intolerant of woman historically unless they are literally a slave and in the modern world.
The intolerance, hate, fearmongering in a attempt to convert people to believe in a God that they didn't believe in disgusts me.
Cultural & ethnic genocide or forcing tribes/clans of "heathens" "savages" to convert & believe in the God you believe just because you believe in them is disgusting, people had freewill historically, and people have freewill now to decide what resonates with them spiritually.
They have the right and freewill to decide what resonates with them spiritually and which pantheon of Gods & Goddesses they want to believe in, that resonates with them and no can tell you otherwise that you are wrong for following your own path spiritually.
I really hate the Christian hatred, fearmongering, intolerance of anyone that is not a Christian that blindly follows the religion, blindly believes in God when Christianity is a man-made religion.
Fearmongering anyone that is either a atheist non-believer or not religious, or anyone that believes in alternatives Gods & Goddesses is not ever going to work, because people have freewill, you have no right to take that away from anyone, you have no right to take away anyone beliefs, spiritual practices, customs or to demonize them as a person, as a tribe/clan or just because you don't understand them & naturally hate & fear what you don't understand so you automatically reject it as being false or not trustworthy.
If you always trust you intuition you can't be wrong.
So be proud of your ancestry, family bloodline, heritage, your origins historically, spiritually, be proud to be Celtic, Pagan, Druid, heathen, witch, psychic, medium, empath, Shaman, Healer etc..

Not everything is American in it's origin, design, or creation, but Americans seem to like to take credit for anything that was created by other people, it's very arrogant, boastful & disrespectful.
Give credit where credit is due and respect other people traditions, cultures, our spiritual practices, beliefs or customs that are unique to various places in the world.
So far this book has been interesting to read despite not knowing how to pronounce the names of some of the Deities, places in Ireland or spiritual beliefs that the ancient Irish people believed in, I have to Google how to pronounce specific things from the book.
I'm British so we don't have as many traditional spiritual beliefs, customs & practices for Samhain, but I already knew what the Samhain festival, celebration is before reading this book.
Some customs, beliefs for Samhain still exist in England, but it depends what you believe, a lot of countries have their own version of celebrating Samhain, or a similar festival annually.
Now that I have read this book, I wish I could find a book about the ancient-modern European belief, customs or spiritual practices for Samhain or similar festivals like the Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the dead) 3 day celebrated festival in Mexico in honour & respect to their dead relatives, ancestors. Various cultures throughout different eras of time, respect & honour the dead or their ancestors.
Hopefully my review of this book will help people to understand what Samhain is, what it is about, why is is celebrated & should be respected, the Celtic, Pagan, or Druid origins of Samhain.… (altro)