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To: Duke C.

No, it started centuries before Samhain did.

Samhain was a harvest festival that occurred on different dates... it was rarely if ever associated with October 31. We only know about it because some Christian writer mentioned it in another context.

All Hollows Eve before All Saints Day was a thing elsewhere in Europe long before the Irish ever gave it a thought. Obviously Samhain wasn’t celebrated in non Celtic Europe even though All Hollows Eve and All Saints Day was.

Only after Wicca got rolling in the 1980s did Samhain get associated with All Hollows Eve.


63 posted on 10/27/2024 8:18:44 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: piasa

When I was in Germany in 1961, Halloween was unknown, but All Saints Day was a big deal.

In 1965, we celebrated Halloween by visiting the ruins of Burg Frankenstein—aka “Frankenstein’s castle”—an abandoned medieval castle near Pfungstadt. During our visit, we were the only ones there. However, the Americans at the nearby base in Darmstadt soon discovered it and started holding Halloween parties there. Germans began to attend and eventually took over the event after the American armed forces left the region.

Burg Frankenstein is currently being renovated, so parties are no longer held there. They have been moved to a new site, Königstein Castle, near Frankfurt.


82 posted on 10/27/2024 8:35:57 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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