Oh, Hallows No

Samhain. No, it's not pronounced 'Sam hayn.' It's pronounced closer to 'sa-oo-hwen'. That is the major pagan celebration, from what I understand, that gave birth to the eventual holiday of Halloween. What, then, was it a celebration of? First, disregard that I ended that last sentence with a preposition. It's time to let go of that rule (at). Secondly, it was a feast to celebrate the end of the harvest and the survival of those who made it through the year, up to that point. Pagans would gather all of their family and friends, light a huge bonfire, and bring a bunch of food they'd harvested, and eat, drink, and be merry. This was an especially important time for them to do this, because what was coming was the 'dark half' of the year, when nothing grows and it's deadly cold. The dark half is where women would lose their babies, when children and the elderly would get sick, and when there was no guarantee all would have foo...