
This blog is to celebrate the Year. I will post, hopefully, once a day so we can follow the seasons, as they happen naturally, and as people in Britain and Ireland have responded to the changes in the year.
I start today because Samhain (pronouced Sow-in) was the beginning of the year for the Gaelic world. It may mean Summer’s End. In Wales it is Calan Gaeaf (first day of winter) and Kala Goafiv (beginning of November in Brittany.
When Venus and Adonis meet the world flourishes and is bright and warm. Adonis is injured hurting a wild boar, against his lover’s advice, and descends to the underworld, and nature withers and dies until he comes back again on May Day. There is a similar story in Babylon of Ishtah and Tammuz.
Julius Caesar says the Gauls venerated the Dis Pater God on this day – the Roman one was an aspect of Pluto the God of the Underworld, ruler of the Dead. There was a Roman Festival on calends of November dedicated to Pomona, the goddess of the fruit of trees. This may influence the use of Apples which are prominent on Halloween festivals.