Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Trick or Treat: A Celtic Lament
You may think that what I have to say about my Celtic forbears and Halloween is unduly critical. Ancestry.com DNA says I am over 80 percent Irish and 14 percent Scottish. I assume those missing percentage points (and some of what is now classified as Irish) are from miscellaneous invading Eurotrash, probably mostly Vikings and Normans. In any event, I believe my critical disposition to be a clearly heritable trait. My favorite T-shirt carries these inspirational words from W.B. Yeats:
Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.
Anyway, we’re off:
Celtic peoples had a near-exclusive lease on most of Europe for almost 2,000 years. They produced no major roads or cities or significant architecture. Rather than become an empire or nation-state, they remained a stubbornly tribal people. At a high-water mark 2,400 years ago, a Celtic people (Gauls) sacked Rome. However, over the following four centuries, Rome went on to become a powerful unified political entity while the Celts chose not to change. Beginning with Caesar and ending with the British, apparently it never occurred to the Celts that a tribal culture would invariably lose to nation-state invaders and that they should adapt and evolve accordingly.
Eighteen centuries after Caesar, one of my ancestors and his kin were among the highlanders in the left-wing of the Jacobite army that collapsed at Culloden. They were fighting as members of a clan/tribe against a professional army from a nation-state as if this time the whole tribal people versus nation-state thing would somehow work out.
A painful truth is that the political and cultural history of the Celtic world is more like that of the Lakota, Apache, or Australian aborigines than that of Persians or Greeks. The stubborn attachment to political structures, myths, and modes of life that don’t really work in the face of more modern forces have left a pervasive (even if largely unconscious) sense of loss and displacement that strangely lasted across generations.
Celtic languages persist only on the edges of western Europe and Celtic culture is mostly a matter for archaeologists and cultural historians to uncover; present traces are often so ephemeral. Little of that old Celtic world has survived into the modern world — except Halloween and it is oddly embarrassing that it has.
Halloween is based on the notion that the spirits of your dead kin and acquaintances will be even more obnoxious in death than they were in life and, therefore, must be appeased or they will maliciously interfere with ordinary affairs and outcomes. So, on (at least) one day of the year in the pagan Celtic world, the dead get to possess the living, to be heard and appeased (particularly the recently departed). Screaming, demonic noises, unfortunate sartorial choices, and generally scary behavior were the norms. (Pity the unsuspecting tourist just up from Ephesus or Capua.)
Ironically, this pagan idiocy was largely preserved by Christian authorities as part of the too-clever-by-half conversion strategy of coopting pagan festivals and symbols. Examples of this approach include assigning saints to intercessional roles formerly occupied by various Roman gods. A major tactical decision was to celebrate Christmas around the time of the winter solstice. The Christmas tree, for example, is from Celtic and pre-Celtic myth about the dying son-lover of the earth mother goddess bleeding into the roots of an evergreen in the dead of winter which then suddenly sprouts colorful fruits of all kinds to symbolize the rebirth to come in the spring.
It was a marketing tour de force to somehow incorporate that bizarre colorful pagan tree into Christian life as a symbol of the season of celebration of Christ’s birth. (Don Draper could not hold a candle to the Church’s earliest missionaries.)
In that same vein, the newly growing Church also made a tactical decision that those stubborn Celts could keep their beloved but patently stupid autumn ancestor ghost festival if (a) it was renamed All Souls Day, (b) toned down, and (c) followed by a holy day of mandatory attendance at Holy Mass— All Saints Day. So, All Hallows Eve, with its attachment to scary, spooky, ghostly stuff was incorporated into the liturgical calendar and thus, ultimately, into the wider Christian world.
The older and crankier I get, the more mixed feelings I have about Halloween. On the one hand, it seems like the equivalent of a minstrel show or blackface musical number in which the worst of Celtic pagan culture is preserved as an insulting caricature which vaguely mocks rather than appeases the ancestors. On the other hand, my grandkids like it and no one in my family has the slightest interest in my pontifications about pagan Celtic cultural arcana, so I make no serious attempt to spoil it for them. Also, I am the sire of a highly gifted pumpkin carver who is beginning an artistic family Halloween tradition with his own sons.
So have fun this Halloween. Let your ancestors scream and be appeased because they will likely again have much to dislike about how the world that they left you will change in the coming year.
Published in Group Writing
Hey! I resemble that remark.
Excellent!
Oh, and my Viking and Norman Ancestors ruled yours, so there.
Oh my goodness that’s wonderful
I’m fascinated by this topic. Thanks for writing about it!
My last name is a Gaelicized Norman name. He got some land and it would appear, rather promptly went native. I think that for roughly 200 years any woman within walking distance of a major river or shoreline was a potential Viking rape victim so there are quite a few Vikings in the Irish ancestral woodpile so to speak.
When Brian Boru defeated the last major Viking turf-holders in 1014 at Clontarf, it was not only the end of Viking rule in Ireland but so devastating that it began the rapid Norse decline into the sad socialist weenies we see today.
It is commonly believed that the Church chose holiday (holy day) dates to compete with pagan festivals, but it isn’t true. Here’s a brief rundown of the gradual emergence and repositioning of All Souls and All Saints days.
Since Christianity is a faith offered to all peoples of the world and encourages seeing “the face of Christ” (goodness) in every person, there have been efforts to accept as much as possible that can be harmonized with Christian theology. Here is another article at that apologetics site discussing the origins of American Christmas symbols. Note that the Christmas tree reflects an association (evergreen = enduring life) common to many peoples.
I’m an American mutt, but probably more Irish and German than anything else. It wasn’t pagan history or tribal fecklessness but modern Irish socialism that dampened my appreciation for the Eire. Beautiful country, though. I’d love to visit again.
My forefathers were from County Mayo by God.
Most probably Native American: Which makes you a distant relative of Pocahontas.
I use it on most any sandwich but a PBJ.
There is a scholar of Old Norse who creates videos on Youtube speaking of the various sagas, poems, and other extant writings. Sometimes he’ll be translating a bit of a saga on the fly. One time, I had to go back three or four times because he was translating the name of what is now an Irish city, but was originally a Viking settlement. Rather than using the modern name, he translated the name from Old Norse into Modern English. The Modern English words are homophonic with my last name. (Same origins, really, but mine started in Old English and the Irish city in Old Norse.) The modern Irish spelling has lost a few more letters than my name has, so it is pronounced differently.
Heh, some of my cousins are related to her as direct descendants.
Sorry: Wonder if Pocahontas Warren knows of the relationship.
I think every major city in Ireland (except Galway) was built by Vikings. An Irish scholar of my acquaintance once told me that every word in modern Irish Gaelic related to sailing or oceans is of Norse origin. The Vikings were quite amazing. Their sudden virtual disappearance from the stage always seemed rather baffling.
Which is interesting since the Gaels supposedly settled Iceland before the Norse did.
Hey!!! Love the post. My DNA ancestor report also shows almost exclusively Scotch, Norwegian, and English with a trace of Ashkenazi Jewish blood (must have been a marriage with one of those beautiful dark-eyed, raven haired ladies who also haunt my dreams!) With our immediate ancestral names being Schofield, Stewart, Dale, and Forsyth it didn’t really come as much of a surprise to me though.
I have often used that Yeats quote to describe myself over the years! LOL I don’t have the same grumpiness with Halloween but would rather it have less super hero costumes and MORE ghosts and goblins! The other-worldly aspect always made it seem more interesting to me.
Actually the reason I am replying though is that I love the fact that I am not the only person to make a comparison of the Celts and the tribes of the Americas! Thanks for being another mind that shows me perhaps my conceptions are not so disjointed as I might believe!
“The Vikings were quite amazing. Their sudden virtual disappearance from the stage always seemed rather baffling.”
–Old Bathos
Bathos… it was really a function of population. There was an explosion of population in the Scandinavian countries and with a lack of arable land and being skilled at seamanship, especially of the swift coastal variety, the situation lent itself to the Vikings becoming a major force on the European world stage (heck they even got as far as Constantinople!). Likewise, as the population explosion ended, and there were fewer young man to go raiding, the raiding started to decline. On top of this there were now places for these new generations to go without raiding… northern France, Ireland, England, Russia(named for a Viking tribe, the Rus), and others. Still, what a legacy for such a short time period! Truly impressive!
Howdy, Cuz!
The engineering that went into the longboats, the political and mercantile sophistication and the sheer energy of those people is remarkable. I waded through a book about the military tech of the era and it is pretty clear that the Vikings’ target countries caught up pretty quickly in that category which may have dulled expansion.
I have heard climate change explanations for the Norse surge but I do not know how much credence to give them.
It would be very Gaelic to get to Iceland, make up stories about the adventure, but then forget entirely whether or how they actually did it. They raided Roman Britain from the sea but then seem to go off the air nautically.
Cool! My mother’s maiden name was Forsyth!
Hmm. Wasn’t that a relative cooling period? I’m pretty sure the rise of Rome and the Renaissance were supposedly during warming periods.
Bathos, Love your “pontifications about pagan Celtic cultural arcana“, particularly as I am mostly part Irish and Scot and yes with some Viking/Norman thrown in- my last name is a Norman knight name I think . Maybe with your grandkids could really get into your pontifications if you spice up the stuff about :
“Halloween is based on the notion that the spirits of your dead kin and acquaintances will be even more obnoxious in death than they were in life and, therefore, must be appeased or they will maliciously interfere with ordinary affairs and outcomes. So, on (at least) one day of the year in the pagan Celtic world, the dead get to possess the living, to be heard and appeased (particularly the recently departed). Screaming, demonic noises, unfortunate sartorial choices, and generally scary behavior were the norms.”
Never heard it that way but it makes sense.
‘
OldB,
I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Halloween is about candy acquisition. I can remember getting an early start just after sundown. I must have been about six. I had a large paper shopping bag. I got into the rhythm and I was really raking in the candy. The bag was getting full when around 8:30 it started to drizzle. I had a few more houses on my side of the street as I was looping back home when the bottom of the bag wet from the drizzling rain gave out. Candy all over the street! Thinking quickly I took off my yellow rain hat (you know with the snap at the bottom) and filled it with candy. I filled my pockets with candy. I lost maybe a 1/3 of my haul. Still, it wasn’t that bad. I hobbled home in the rain and was happy to get inside. I was a little woozy from the chocolate fumes but overall OK.
That’s what Halloween is all about. Braveheart had nothing to do with it.
Regards,
Jim
Yes, I believe it was the early part of a cooling period. The books I have read point to a major increase in population with a lack of opportunities. Lots of young men with energy and no place to make their way usually leads to trouble! ;-)
Greetings! As I have always enjoyed your posts I am happy to call you kin!! ;-)
LOL My mother’s maiden name was also Forsyth!! Out of Yonkers, New York. My grandfather’s family was first generation from England directly before that. My grandmother (Elsie Stewart) was herself first generation from Hull near York. Her family sent her over to America during World War I to keep her away from the war.
My father’s family, the Schofield’s had been here a while and my paternal grandmother (Margaret Dale) was born and raised in the Catskills (Hunter Mountain). My great-grandfather (Charles E. Schofield) retired to the Catskills after serving as the Captain of a Riot Battalion in the New York City police, and my grandfather met my grandmother after doing a short stint in the army. After that he became a police officer as well and was the pistol instructor at the Yonker’s Police Academy. The rest, as they say, is history!
Great post,thanks.
Back in the day my dad told me our heritage was “Scotch-Irish”, which has a specific lineage that is a little fuzzy in my mind. I guess it’s time to break down and cough up the money for an Ancestry.com test kit. I have been thinking about it for years but was too cheap to pay for it. Now my favorite saying is, ” well,I can’t take it with me”. So thanks for the inspiration.
Scotch-Irish usually means Ulstermen. Around 1600, the Tudors called for ethnic cleansing against Ulster after the rising of O’Neill and O’Donnell. Calvinist Scots, mistrustful of the papists highlanders to the north and the ever-duplicitous English to the south, accepted Lord Montgomery’s offer of land in Ireland.
They are the ancestors of the current Protestant population of Northern Ireland. They are also among the largest groups to emigrate to America, especially to the south. The idea of being God’s people, distrustful of elites and quite happy to displace indigenous people shaped much of the American character.
Wrong island.