tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/pagan-13264/articles
Pagan – The Conversation
2023-12-07T14:24:36Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218779
2023-12-07T14:24:36Z
2023-12-07T14:24:36Z
Yule – a celebration of the return of light and warmth
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564046/original/file-20231206-23-nd15am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=104%2C26%2C5701%2C3838&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People gather for Pagan sunrise celebrations in Ireland, on the morning of the winter solstice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-gather-for-sunrise-at-newgrange-co-meath-on-the-news-photo/1245764534?adppopup=true">Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Yule will be celebrated by Wiccans and many other Pagans in the Northern Hemisphere on Dec. 21, the day of the winter solstice. For Pagans, the shortest day of the year marks the <a href="https://uscpress.com/Search?q=A+community+of+Witches">end of the descent into darkness</a> and the beginning of the return of the light as the days begin to get longer after the solstice. Like many other religious holidays, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/12/festivals-of-light/510518/">Yule is a celebration of light</a>.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.helenaliceberger.com/">sociologist who has been studying contemporary Pagans</a> for more than 30 years, I know that Yule is also a time of reflection. The cold dark period of the year, many Wiccans feel, encourages us to not only spend more time at home, but also to become more reflective about our lives – and often about spirituality. </p>
<h2>Marking the beginning of winter</h2>
<p>Wicca is a minority religion that is part of the larger contemporary Pagan movement. Pagans normally define their religion as earth-based. By this they mean <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-wicca-an-expert-on-modern-witchcraft-explains-165939">they see divinity in nature</a> and connect their rituals to the changing seasons. All forms of contemporary Paganism look to pre-Christian European religions to inform their religious practice. </p>
<p>Wiccans regularly call themselves Witches, although not all Witches are Wiccans. The religion puts more emphasis on participating in rituals and having spiritual experiences than on particular beliefs.</p>
<p>Yule is one of the eight major holidays or “sabbats” that divide the year into the beginning and peak of each season. Yule denotes the beginning of winter. There is a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/wicca-9781845197544?cc=us&lang=en&">ritual for each holiday</a> that focuses on what is occurring in nature and correspondingly in people’s lives. At this time of year, people are experiencing both the height of darkness and the knowledge and hope that the light and warmth will return. </p>
<p>When I began my research about this religion in 1986, the norm for contemporary Pagans was to form into small groups, which Wiccans call covens. These spiritual congregations meet regularly for holidays, learning and discussions. While covens still exist, the primary way of practicing is as “solitaires.” These solitary practitioners may join others for one or more of these sabbats, or they may do their own ritual. </p>
<h2>Yule rituals</h2>
<p>I have always found the group rituals I have attended for Yule, as part of my research, to be joyous occasions. </p>
<p>As with all Wiccan rituals, participants gather in a circle. Those leading the ritual sanctify the space by walking around the circle chanting and sprinkling salt and water. This is followed by representations of the four elements – water, fire, air and earth. Often, a candle is lit to denote fire, a shell to represent water, a feather for air, and a crystal for earth. </p>
<p>Divinities or spirits are called into the circle to help with the ritual. There is always a reading or meditation <a href="https://uscpress.com/Search?q=A+community+of+Witches">related to the holiday and the changes that are occurring</a> in the natural world at that season. </p>
<p>At Yule there is always a fire or lights to symbolize the returning sun. In one outdoor ritual I attended, a bonfire was built in a clearing in the woods. The night was cold and dark, and there was snow on the ground. The circle was formed around the fire. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large number of people gathered around a big bonfire in the woods." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Bonfires can be built at Yule in the clearing of the woods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/people-celebration-around-big-huge-traditional-fire-royalty-free-image/922771128?phrase=winter+solstice+fire&adppopup=true">Drepicter/iStock via Getty images plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, most of the rituals I have attended, particularly for Yule, are indoors, and fires are made in cauldrons, or by lighting candles. However, at one large ritual I attended, <a href="https://uscpress.com/Search?q=A+community+of+Witches">there was a large, bright, yellow-and-orange paper mache image of the sun</a> on a long stick. </p>
<p>All of the attendees were asked to wear shiny clothing. Some people had glitter in their hair and on their face; some wore golden or silver clothing; the room and the people glowed with light and sparkles. At other rituals I have attended, people were asked to bring a small candle or light. In all instances the participants are symbolically part of the returning light, either by carrying a light or, in this one ritual, reflecting the room light. </p>
<p>The reading or meditation at Yule rituals normally includes reference to the darkness of winter that people experience around this time of year. </p>
<h2>Light during darkest time</h2>
<p>The rituals normally end with dancing and chanting. At the ritual in which there was a large representation of the sun, all the participants danced joyously behind the person carrying the sun, chanting about the sun returning. </p>
<p>The ritual I attended in the forest ended with everyone dancing around the fire before making sure it was completely put out. We then turned on our flashlights and found our way in the dark out of the woods. </p>
<p>The juxtaposition of the celebration of the returning sun and having the time and inclination for reflection during a dark and cold time makes this an interesting holiday.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218779/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen A. Berger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Yule, celebrated by Wiccans and many other Pagans in the Northern Hemisphere on Dec. 21, the day of the winter solstice, is a time for reflection.
Helen A. Berger, Affliated Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209677
2023-07-26T12:19:25Z
2023-07-26T12:19:25Z
As witchcraft becomes a multibillion-dollar business, practitioners’ connection to the natural world is changing
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538082/original/file-20230718-29-lxkeyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C21%2C3556%2C2265&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The natural world is an important part of Pagan practice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-new-sorcerers-apprentices-in-france-in-2001-robin-news-photo/114000314?adppopup=true">Louise OLIGNY/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Witches, Wiccans and other contemporary Pagans see divinity in trees, streams, plants and animals. Most Pagans <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780759102026/Her-Hidden-Children-The-Rise-of-Wicca-and-Paganism-in-America">view the Earth as the Goddess</a>, with a body that humans must care for, and from which they gain emotional, spiritual and physical sustenance. </p>
<p>Paganism is an umbrella term that includes religions that view their practices as returning to those of pre-Christian societies, in which they believe the <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/listening-people-speaking-earth/">Goddess was worshipped along with the gods</a> and the land was seen as sacred. Wicca focuses specifically on the practice of the British Isles. </p>
<p>Witchcraft has also <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-witchcraft-became-a-multi-billion-dollar-industry-148101">become a multibillion-dollar business</a>. As a <a href="http://www.helenaliceberger.com/">sociologist who has been researching</a> this religion for more than 30 years, I have witnessed this growing commercialization: <a href="https://www.thegazette.com/opinion/the-issue-with-commodifying-witchcraft/">Witch kits are sold by large companies</a> and in stores – something unheard of when I began my research in 1986. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/paganism-witchcraft-are-making-comeback-rcna54444">surge in popularity</a> has changed these communities in some subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Groups called covens were the norm when I began my research, but as my own research shows, <a href="https://uscpress.com/Solitary-Pagans">most Pagans now are solitary practitioners</a>. Even while the Goddess continues to be revered, the practitioners’ connection to the natural world, at least for many, is also changing. </p>
<h2>Spiritual objects</h2>
<p>When I first began my research, I would join Pagans when they went to forests, the seaside or other natural areas to attend a retreat or to participate in a <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">ritual out in nature</a>. I would often see them pick up a rock, a pine cone, a shell or another natural object as they walked along.</p>
<p>Typically, I observed that they chose each object with care, and they didn’t keep every object they found. I once walked beside a man who collected shells; he put most of them back after admiring them until he found one with a perfectly formed naturally occurring hole. He kept that one, as it held a spiritual spark for him. </p>
<p>The objects were seen as connecting the person to both the natural world and to the spiritual realm. Some of these objects were then further imbued with spiritual significance by being placed on an altar during a ritual. Most often these rituals, <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">a part of Wiccan spiritual practice</a>, celebrated <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-wicca-an-expert-on-modern-witchcraft-explains-165939">the cycle of the seasons in eight holidays called sabbats</a>. But the ritual could also be for a special purpose, such as to provide healing for someone who was ill. </p>
<p>Pagans believe the object from nature was possibly left there for them by the divine, and the ritual <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674663244">further imbued the object with magical energy</a>. </p>
<p>The cherished objects can be passed on as gifts to others who may need them. At a ritual I attended I witnessed one woman, who had recovered from her own illness, give an object to another who was ill. It was clear that she felt the object would be an important tool of healing, and the person receiving the object also viewed it as such. </p>
<h2>Process of commercialization</h2>
<p>Commercialization started in the 1980s with the sale of how-to books on Wicca. At first, things changed slowly, and only for a minority of participants. By the 1990s, however, commercialization was occurring more quickly – and having an impact on the majority of practitioners, particularly new entrants. </p>
<p>Indeed, even in the early, less commercial days of witchcraft there were always objects that were bought at a shop, such as candles, incense, fabric to make ritual robes or covers for the altars. Some of the objects that were cherished, particularly colored stones and crystals, were bought at occult bookstores or shops. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538091/original/file-20230718-23-lld5oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of young men and women seated on the floor around a table that has objects on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538091/original/file-20230718-23-lld5oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538091/original/file-20230718-23-lld5oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538091/original/file-20230718-23-lld5oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538091/original/file-20230718-23-lld5oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538091/original/file-20230718-23-lld5oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538091/original/file-20230718-23-lld5oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538091/original/file-20230718-23-lld5oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A group of Witches or Wiccans meet for a ceremony in the U.K. in July 1971.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/group-of-witches-or-wiccans-meet-for-a-ceremony-uk-july-news-photo/1288634406?adppopup=true">Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Many of these objects <a href="https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/ARSR/article/view/8944/0">were inexpensive</a>. As one of the witches who was a member of the first coven I studied in the 1980s proudly told me, one of the things that drew her to the religion was that it required that she spend almost no money, as <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">many ritual items were made by the participants</a> and one could learn about the religion free of charge in covens. </p>
<p>But today most objects can be bought online, and fewer are handmade or handpicked. Additionally, a larger proportion of Pagans are solitary practitioners, who are trained outside of the coven system. </p>
<p>More recently, companies such as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2022.25.3.87">cosmetic purveyor Sephora</a> and celebrities such as the <a href="https://www.out.com/popnography/2018/3/07/first-look-olsen-twins-release-line-wiccan-supplies-accessories">Olsen twins</a> have started directly marketing starter witchcraft kits online. </p>
<h2>Nature online</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.utas.edu.au/rural-health/graduate-research/people/douglas-ezzy">Sociologist Douglas Ezzy</a> was one of the first scholars of contemporary Paganism to write about this <a href="https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/ARSR/article/view/8944/0">growing commercialization</a>. His articles in the early 2000s describe how knowledge – once shared at no cost in covens – became something to be bought in the form of a book. With this change in practice, the social bonds and obligations that came with the exchange of knowledge also came to an end. Although it made it easier for many to learn about the religion, Ezzy argues, it also shifted the focus from self-growth to individual fulfillment.</p>
<p>Ezzy and another religion scholar, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/chris-miller-1217563">Chris Miller</a>, note that <a href="https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/ARSR/article/view/8944/0">many of the Witches trained in covens free of charge</a> believe that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2022.25.3.87">marketing of starter kits</a> and sacred items has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13537900500381609">reduced them to the mundane</a>. There is no longer a need to enter into a forest or go to the shore to find an object that connects practitioners to Mother Nature. Instead, the object can be sent right to individuals’ homes.</p>
<p>Nature is still seen as sacred and celebrated in rituals, but more and more practitioners are finding the objects for their altars on websites. There is less reason to actually go into the natural world and experience it, but it does make it make it accessible to more people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen A. Berger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Practitioners of Pagan religions no longer need to go into a forest to find an object for their altars. Commercialization means that sacred objects are available online.
Helen A. Berger, Affliated Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205943
2023-06-06T20:14:32Z
2023-06-06T20:14:32Z
Nature religions are growing in Australia – though witchcraft was illegal in some territories just 10 years ago
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528982/original/file-20230530-39165-6p9ey3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C14%2C4920%2C3238&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mallory Johndrow/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nature religions, commonly described as Paganism (or neo-Paganism), are growing in Australia. In <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/census/guide-census-data/census-dictionary/2021/variables-topic/cultural-diversity/religious-affiliation-relp">the last Census</a>, 33,148 people claimed affiliation with a nature religion: including <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/animism">Animism</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/britannia-druids-and-the-surprisingly-modern-origins-of-myths-89979">Druidism</a>, and the many traditions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/wiccan-celebration-of-summer-solstice-is-a-reminder-that-change-as-expressed-in-nature-is-inevitable-184814">Wicca</a>, the most practised Pagan pathway. </p>
<p>Thirty years <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neopaganism_in_Australia#:%7E:text=In%20the%201991%20census%20by,religion%20as%20Wicca%20or%20Witchcraft">earlier</a>, just 4,353 Australians put down Paganism as their religion. Affiliation with Christianity has <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/religious-affiliation-australia#:%7E:text=The%20number%20of%20people%20affiliated,(18%2D25%20years).">decreased</a> over that 30-year period.</p>
<p>Australian laws against practising witchcraft have only been repealed as recently as this century in some states and territories. In the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-17/northern-territory-to-ditch-their-witchcraft-law/4894086">Northern Territory</a>, it was just 10 years ago: 2013. The laws were repealed in 2005 in Victoria, 2000 in Queensland and 1991 in South Australia. New South Wales was the first state to repeal them, in 1969.</p>
<p>The British Witchcraft Act of 1735, which Australia’s laws stemmed from, was repealed in 1951; the <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Hellish_Nell/ehh-AAAAMAAJ?hl=en">last conviction</a> of a witch was in 1944. </p>
<p>There’s never been a recorded conviction for witchcraft in Australia. But many Pagans <a href="https://journal.equinoxpub.com/POM/article/view/3020">remain cautious</a> about practising their faith openly, due to perceptions of believers as Satan worshippers. So, Australia’s Pagan population may be much higher than the figures show: declaring a religion on the Census is optional. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Delinquent_Elementals/OB6vygEACAAJ?hl=en">Satanic panics</a> of the 1980s in the UK and America didn’t help. Nor does the appropriation of Pagan symbols by <a href="https://oxfordre.com/religion/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-681;jsessionid=D9B3C24DFE6CB5A3C53E18CA53905950?rskey=Fjmi7N&result=448">far-right movements</a>, which has a particularly dark history in Germanic and Scandinavian countries.</p>
<p>But Paganism grew rapidly during the 1990s, with the popularity of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40405642?seq=1">Pagan-friendly</a> movies and television like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115963/">The Craft</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/sabrina-the-teenage-witch-is-back-with-a-darker-look-for-our-times-103915">Sabrina The Teenage Witch</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-would-have-had-her-work-cut-out-in-2017-73311">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158552/">Charmed</a>. And in the early 2000s, the wild success of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/rethinking-harry-potter-twenty-years-on-86761">Harry Potter</a> franchise normalised magic for an entire generation.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W8HMxRf6ng4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Buffy’s practising witch Willow helped popularise Paganism in the 1990s.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Paganism’s emphasis on nature worship resonates in our increasingly climate conscious society. It also offers an alternative to traditional patriarchal church hierarchies, with its predominately female support base: 66% of Pagans in the 2021 Census identified as women. Significantly, Paganism is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/27/dawn-of-the-new-pagans-everybodys-welcome-as-long-as-you-keep-your-clothes-on">inclusive</a> of people from any background or sexual orientation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hello-magic-and-witchcraft-goodbye-enlightenment-105720">Hello magic and witchcraft, goodbye Enlightenment</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<h2>What is Paganism?</h2>
<p>Paganism is an umbrella term for people who follow any number of nature-based spiritual pathways. Pagans share a reverence for, and spiritual connection with, the natural world. But they don’t share one single set of beliefs, practices or sacred texts. </p>
<p>The Latin root word “paganus” <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Paganism_A_Very_Short_Introduction/pjP8Cr28GCIC?hl=en">was used by the Romans</a> to denote civilians (non-soldiers), outsiders and country-dwellers. Later, the term was applied to any non-Christian and inferred the worship of false gods.</p>
<p>But Christian civilisation has continually been fascinated by the art and literature of the ancient Pagan world, especially Greece and Rome. This kept the old deities imaginatively alive, preserving a different set of attitudes to the natural world and the divine.</p>
<p>Paganism draws its traditions <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/_/mi6zzQEACAAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiy5_z0t_P-AhUCcmwGHeiyDu0Qre8FegQIAxAZ">from</a> the ceremonial magic of the ancient world, the group organisation of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Freemasonry">Freemasonry</a> and earlier Pagan cultures. Many Pagans believe individuals persecuted for witchcraft throughout European history were adherents of a surviving Pagan religion.</p>
<p>The modern Pagan movement began in Britain during the 1940s. Influenced by <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-romanticism-rebelled-against-cold-hearted-rationality-100242">Romanticism</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/31/why-did-so-many-victorians-try-to-speak-with-the-dead">Victorian-era spiritualism</a>, these early practitioners perceived contemporary society as a corrupting influence and recognised nature as a repository of ancient wisdom.</p>
<p>They found receptive audiences in the US and Scandinavia – which, in turn, introduced the faith to other countries.</p>
<h2>What do Pagans do and believe?</h2>
<p>The type of Paganism practised today is a <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Handbook_of_Contemporary_Paganism/rwzttsI9-NwC?hl=en">revival or reformation</a> of European and northern African traditions. </p>
<p>Some Australian Pagans also incorporate the practices of First Nations peoples. Each culture has its own conception of Paganism. Northern Europe’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Heathenry">Heathenry</a> is inspired by the pre-Christian religions of Germanic language nations. <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Profane_Egyptologists/M6NMtAEACAAJ?hl=en">Kemetism</a> is a revival of ancient Egyptian religion.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Kemetic private altar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:RileyXeon">Riley Williams/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many Pagans are <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Solitary_Pagans/7uujDwAAQBAJ?hl=en">solitary practitioners</a>, though others join covens or similar groupings. Female Pagans tend to gravitate more towards <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Practising_the_Witch_s_Craft/Uc8WwwMFGq8C?hl=en&gbpv=1">group worship</a> than men.</p>
<p>There’s also a thriving online community of Pagans: the hashtag <a href="https://theconversation.com/witchtok-the-rise-of-the-occult-on-social-media-has-eerie-parallels-with-the-16th-century-168322">#WitchTok</a> has exploded in popularity over the last few years. The top <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-63403467">Witch TikTokkers</a> stream rituals and spell tutorials to an audience of millions.</p>
<p>Pagans generally worship multiple gods, or identify god with the universe. Ritual magic is central. Celestial events like <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-moon-bright-is-easter-a-full-moon-how-long-does-a-full-moon-last-your-moon-questions-answered-by-an-astronomer-158061">full moons</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-winter-solstice-matters-around-the-world-4-essential-reads-196344">solstices</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-makes-the-spring-equinox-31962">equinoxes</a> are times of celebration.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Francisco de Goya’s 1798 painting, Witches Sabbath.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A horned nature god, such as Pan, is central across Pagan traditions. “With his goat legs, pointed ears, and lascivious face, Pan most likely inspired early Christian images of Satan,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-rosaleen-norton-the-witch-of-kings-cross-was-a-groundbreaking-bohemian-154184">observes classics professor Marguerite Johnson</a>, noting the resemblance.</p>
<p>Diana, a Roman goddess of the hunt, fertility, chastity and the moon, is another primary figure of worship. So is Hecate: a Greek goddess of sorcery now associated with witchcraft and Wicca.</p>
<p>Most Wiccan pathways place equal reverence on a goddess and god pairing, though some place particular emphasis on the former. Some Wiccans exclusively follow the feminine divine.</p>
<p>Shamanism, a religious phenomenon centred on <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/shamanism">the shaman</a>, “a person believed to achieve various powers through trance or ecstatic religious experience”, is also undergoing a revival. <a href="https://theconversation.com/shamanism-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-fastest-growing-religion-in-england-and-wales-196438">Shamanism</a> is not yet listed as a separate category in the Census.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-modern-witches-are-enchanting-tiktok-174576">How modern witches are enchanting TikTok</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Australian pagans</h2>
<p>Queensland recorded the largest number of Pagans in the last two Census, followed by New South Wales and Victoria. But the biggest population of Pagans <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-30/tasmania-has-one-of-the-biggest-pagan-populations/11224838">per capita</a> is in Tasmania.</p>
<p>Paganism in Australia was preceded by a significant <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Witchcraft_and_Paganism_in_Australia/-OrWAAAAMAAJ?hl=en">occult and esoteric subculture</a>, the first of which – the Freemasons – <a href="https://www.freemasonsvic.net.au/history-and-heritage/">arrived with</a> colonisation. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Ancient_Order_of_Druids#Australia_and_New_Zealand">United Ancient Order of the Druids</a> established its first lodge in 1851, and the first Australian branch of the <a href="https://theosophicalsociety.org.au/">Theosophical Society</a> opened in 1895. </p>
<p>In the 20th century, the mystical <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rosicrucians">Rosicrucians</a> established their first study group in Australia (1930). They were followed by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordo_Templi_Orientis">Ordo Templi Orientis</a>, originally modelled on Freemasonry, then made infamous through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley">Aleister Crowley</a>. Under Crowley’s leadership, initiates were no longer Masons, but Magicians.</p>
<p>And then there were the Pagans.</p>
<p>Early adopters like <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-rosaleen-norton-the-witch-of-kings-cross-was-a-groundbreaking-bohemian-154184">Rosaleen Norton</a>, known as the “Witch of Kings Cross” or “Thorn”, were influential in introducing Pagan beliefs to a wider audience. </p>
<p>Norton, a self-proclaimed witch, practised trance magic and, later, sex magic in various flats and squats across inner-city Sydney. She was often accused of being a Satanist: she wasn’t, but was famously photographed with an altar beneath a portrait of Pan resembling Satan.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dWwN9PGGqMo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Rosaleen Norton, worshipping Pan.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since 1997, Australia’s <a href="https://www.paganawareness.net.au/">Pagan Awareness Network</a> has worked to correct misinformation and educate others about the faith. They have lobbied government to grant religious exemptions, such as the use of ceremonial knives in rituals.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-rosaleen-norton-the-witch-of-kings-cross-was-a-groundbreaking-bohemian-154184">Friday essay: why Rosaleen Norton, 'the witch of Kings Cross', was a groundbreaking bohemian</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The <a href="https://www.pagandash.org.au/">PAGANdash campaign</a> was started in 2006, to identify fellow Pagan practitioners. It ran in the lead-ups to the 2011 and 2016 Census. The campaign encouraged believers to write Pagan as their prefix on their Census forms, followed by their individual belief (for example, Pagan-Druid). An immediate success, it was soon adopted by UK groups.</p>
<p>The first Census conducted <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/d3310114.nsf/Home/Assuring+Census+Data+Quality">primarily online</a>, in 2016, recorded a substantial decrease in Pagans: 27,194, down from 32,083 in 2011. This may have been due to privacy concerns – though of course, numbers were up again, to 33,148, in 2021.</p>
<p>As recognition of Paganism as a genuine faith continues to grow, more practitioners are expected to begin worshipping openly. In this era of rapid technological advancement, increasingly urbanisation, and declining social cohesion, many people are returning to the “old ways”.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>NOTE: The data in this article has been compiled using the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data">Census data tools</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan C. Walsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In the last Census, 33,148 Australians identified with a nature religion, or Paganism. Who are the Pagans – and what do they do and believe?
Brendan C. Walsh, Sessional Academic, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198470
2023-02-23T13:15:46Z
2023-02-23T13:15:46Z
Sage, sacred to Native Americans, is being used in purification rituals, raising issues of cultural appropriation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511784/original/file-20230222-22-nhg75m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5630%2C3728&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">White sage is being commonly used for purification rituals.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/midsection-of-sage-holding-feather-with-smudge-royalty-free-image/1207222673?phrase=sage%20smudging&adppopup=true">Stevica Mrdja / EyeEm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>White sage, which is sacred to a number of Native American tribes in the southwest United States, has been adopted by both some contemporary Pagans and New Age practitioners <a href="https://religionnews.com/2023/01/12/witches-urge-alternatives-to-sage-amid-concern-about-appropriation-overharvesting/">for purification rites</a>. As Emily McFarlan Miller reported in a recent Religion News Service article, this is resulting in overharvesting and shortages of the plant, making it harder for Native Americans to find enough for their sacred ceremonies. </p>
<p>In her groundbreaking book “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Purity-and-Danger-An-Analysis-of-Concepts-of-Pollution-and-Taboo/Douglas/p/book/9780415289955">Purity and Danger</a>,” anthropologist <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0075.xml">Mary Douglas</a> illustrates how purity and its maintenance are central to religion. It is a way to keep danger at bay as well as provide a way to separate the sacred from the mundane.</p>
<p>As a <a href="http://www.helenaliceberger.com/">sociologist of religion</a> who has studied contemporary Paganism for more than 30 years, I am aware of how important both contact with the spirit world and purification are in this religion. Contemporary Paganism is a set of religions that base their practice on what is known about pre-Christian religions in Europe, mixed with literature, science fiction and personal inspiration.</p>
<p>Within these religions <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">nature is viewed as sacred</a>, to be celebrated and protected. The celebration of nature takes several forms, the most common being a series of rituals that commemorate the changing seasons. Cleansing is a way to provide a safe place to interact with the spirit world, which is always part of Pagan rituals. </p>
<p>Purification can be done using a number of substances, including salt, rosemary and sometimes white sage. When purification includes the use of sage, it raises the issue of appropriation, as it has traditionally been used by Native Americans in their rituals. </p>
<h2>Protection and cleansing</h2>
<p>Pagan rituals take place outdoors, when possible, or sometimes in people’s homes or in occult bookstores. There is no set liturgy that everyone follows, and it is possible for people to create their own rituals. </p>
<p>Because there is no dedicated sanctified place, cleansing and protection become <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Community_of_Witches.html?id=H7p1mwEACAAJ">particularly important within Paganism</a>. More mainstream religions have buildings, such as churches or synagogues, where they maintain sanctuaries for religious purposes only. </p>
<p>Pagans, to the contrary, have ritual areas that must be transformed from mundane to sacred use. Possibly more importantly, rituals are meant to open up the individual to the spiritual or other world. Magic, the process of changing reality to your will through incantations, is done in this realm. </p>
<p>As I learned <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Community_of_Witches.html?id=H7p1mwEACAAJ">when I was doing my research</a>, most Pagans believe entering this realm holds both great possibilities and dangers. The cleansing and purification of the place and the participants are meant to protect them by keeping out unsavory spirits. </p>
<p>Purification can be done in several ways. When I began my research in 1986, it was most commonly done using salt and water. At Pagan ceremonies that I attended as a researcher, those leading the ritual would “cut” a sacred circle. This entailed walking around the circle carrying a ritual knife known as an athame while chanting an incantation that marked the area as a safe place that only the spirits called would enter. They then used salt and water to purify the circle.</p>
<p>In some of the rituals participants were already standing in the circle when this part of the ritual was done; in others they entered afterward. The participants were also purified, with salt, water, smoke from a candle, incense or rosemary and a crystal or rock, symbolizing Mother Earth. </p>
<h2>White sage and cultural appropriation</h2>
<p>Sometimes white sage was used for purification in a ritual. It was used because it was associated with Native American practice. As religious studies scholar <a href="https://www.csuchico.edu/corh/people/faculty/sarah-pike.shtml">Sarah Pike</a> found among contemporary Pagans, cultural borrowing from Native Americans was seen as <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520220867/earthly-bodies-magical-selves">connecting the participants to the spirits</a> that lived in the land around them. </p>
<p>Participants believed they were honoring the first people on the continent by incorporating elements of their spiritual practice. Some of the Pagan practitioners had received training from a Native American teacher. For many contemporary Pagans, Native American spirituality was a practice they wanted to emulate because of its connection to the land, to a spirit world, and because it predates Christianity and is native to the region. As contemporary Pagans often piece together different elements to create their spirituality, for many it seemed natural to include Native American practices. </p>
<p>As Pike notes, in the early 1990s Native Americans from several tribes began to express their rage at what they saw as “cultural strip mining,” the stealing and watering down of their culture and their spirituality, which they described as an extension of colonization that had stripped them of their original lands. The use of sage was not the only cultural artifact that these Native American spokespeople objected to being used by nonnatives. Traditional dress and eagles’ feathers were two other examples of <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520220867/earthly-bodies-magical-selves">commonly appropriated items</a>. </p>
<p>As Pagans pride themselves on being sensitive to practices of diverse cultures, most quickly gave up the use of sage; the use of other Native American artifacts in Pagan practices became less common as well. Those who had been using sage returned to using either salt and water or rosemary for purification. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5542%2C3692&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a sun hat and white t-shirt sitting in a field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5542%2C3692&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510709/original/file-20230216-18-5za3y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman harvesting sage in a field.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/june-2020-saxony-freital-cindy-richter-field-worker-news-photo/1216875633?phrase=sage%20&adppopup=true">Sebastian Kahnert/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The use of sage by non-Native Americans is again becoming more prevalent. I noticed while doing my research in 1986 that white sage was sold at stores catering to the occult. It is now being more widely marketed by stores such as Walmart and Anthropologie. </p>
<p>The market has become larger as aspects of Pagan or New Age practices have seeped into more general practice and the <a href="https://bigthink.com/the-present/modern-paganism/?fbclid=IwAR220aeQVXJjYP3r8eP0xfYsvbWERyb-ZkWt5ZxyIa17co4y9guUdPYuEKg">number of Pagans has increased</a>. It has become common, for example, for younger Americans to <a href="https://religionnews.com/2023/01/12/witches-urge-alternatives-to-sage-amid-concern-about-appropriation-overharvesting/">cleanse their homes of bad spirits</a> with white sage even if they do not identify as Pagans. Added to this, those who are new to Paganism are often unaware of the history of appropriation and are repeating the errors of an earlier generation of Pagans and <a href="https://bigthink.com/the-present/modern-paganism/?fbclid=IwAR220aeQVXJjYP3r8eP0xfYsvbWERyb-ZkWt5ZxyIa17co4y9guUdPYuEKg**">using sage in their rituals</a></p>
<p>Native Americans who normally pick the herb as they need it are complaining that they are unable to find enough for their spiritual needs. Fears have also been raised that overharvesting could result in the plant’s becoming extinct, <a href="https://medium.com/the-reynolds-media-lab/the-current-popularity-of-white-sage-is-causing-its-extinction-on-the-border-of-mexico-and-the-63f9527a8d3a">resulting in the extinction of the animals</a> that are dependent on it as well. </p>
<p>It would be both ironic and sad if in celebrating Mother Earth, Pagans helped to make a sacred herb extinct.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198470/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen A. Berger receives funding from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Association for the Sociology of Religion, and West Chester University.</span></em></p>
Native Americans are struggling to find sage for their spiritual practices as the plant is being overharvested for sale to the wider public.
Helen A. Berger, Affliated Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192379
2022-10-27T13:43:44Z
2022-10-27T13:43:44Z
How was Halloween invented? Once a Celtic pagan tradition, the holiday has evolved to let kids and adults try on new identities
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490951/original/file-20221020-25-mv2tjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=82%2C0%2C5443%2C4200&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kindergarten students in 1952 race out of school in Los Angeles, eager to celebrate Halloween.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/halloween-costumes-at-schools-31-october-1952-stephen-gough-news-photo/1048299626?phrase=halloween%20corbis&adppopup=true">Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>How was Halloween invented? – Tillman, age 9, Asheville, North Carolina</strong> </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>“It’s alive!” Dr. Frankenstein cried as his creation stirred to life. But the creature had a life of its own, eventually escaping its creator’s control. </p>
<p>Much like Frankenstein’s monster, traditions are also alive, which means they can change over time or get reinvented. Built from a hodgepodge of diverse parts, Halloween is one such tradition that has been continually reinvented since its ancient origins as <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/T/bo46408548.html">a Celtic pagan ceremony</a>. Yet beneath the superhero costumes and bags of candy still beats the heart of the original.</p>
<p>The Celts lived in what’s now Ireland as far back as 500 B.C. They celebrated New Year’s Day on Nov. 1, which they called <a href="https://www.loc.gov/folklife/halloween-santino.html">Samhain</a>. They believed that leading up to the transition to the new year, the door between the worlds of the living and the dead swung open. The souls of the recently dead, previously trapped on Earth, could now pass to the underworld. Since they thought spirits came out after dark, this supernatural activity reached its peak the night before, on Oct. 31.</p>
<p>The Celts invented rituals to protect themselves during this turbulent time. They put on costumes and disguises to fool the spirits. They lit bonfires and stuck candles inside carved turnips – the first jack-o’-lanterns – to scare away any spirits looking for mischief. If all else failed, they carried a pocketful of treats to pay off wayward spirits and send them back <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/halloween-9780195168969?cc=us&lang=en&">on their way to the underworld</a>.</p>
<p>Sound familiar?</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/halloweens-celebration-of-mingling-with-the-dead-has-roots-in-ancient-celtic-celebrations-of-samhain-191300">Although focused on the dead</a>, Samhain was ultimately <a href="https://utpress.org/title/halloween-other-festivals/">for the living</a>, who needed plenty of help of their own when transitioning to the new year. Winter was cold and dark. Food was scarce. Everyone came together for one last bash to break bread, share stories and stand tall against the dead, strengthening community ties at the time they were needed most.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a collection of lit jack-o-lanterns" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490955/original/file-20221020-25-vqzi51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490955/original/file-20221020-25-vqzi51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490955/original/file-20221020-25-vqzi51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490955/original/file-20221020-25-vqzi51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490955/original/file-20221020-25-vqzi51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490955/original/file-20221020-25-vqzi51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490955/original/file-20221020-25-vqzi51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ghouls, goblins and glowing jack-o’-lanterns have been synonymous with Halloween for a long time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pumpkin-festival-news-photo/583647396?phrase=halloween%20corbis&adppopup=true">Erik Freeland/Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Catholics arrived in Ireland around A.D. 300, they opened another door between worlds, unleashing considerable conflict. They sought to convert the Celts by changing their pagan rituals into Christian holidays. They rechristened Nov. 1 “All Saints Day,” which today remains a celebration of Catholic saints.</p>
<p>But the locals held on to their old beliefs. They believed the dead still wandered the Earth. So the living still dressed in costumes. This activity still took place the night before. It just had a new name to fit the Catholic calendar: “All Hallows Eve,” which is <a href="https://www.loc.gov/folklife/halloween-santino.html">where we got the name Halloween</a>.</p>
<p>Irish immigrants <a href="https://www.irishpost.com/heritage/how-irish-great-famine-brought-halloween-to-america-161376">brought Halloween to America in the 1800s</a> while escaping the Great Potato Famine. At first, Irish Halloween celebrations were an oddity, viewed suspiciously by other Americans. As such, Halloween wasn’t celebrated much in America at the time.</p>
<p>As the Irish integrated into American society, Halloween was reinvented again, this time as an all-American celebration. It became a holiday primarily for kids. Its religious overtones faded, with supernatural saints and sinners being replaced by generic ghosts and goblins. Carved turnips gave way to the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-history-of-jack-o-lantern">pumpkins</a> now emblematic of the holiday. Though trick-or-treating resembles ancient traditions like guising, where costumed children went door to door for gifts, <a href="https://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/jack-santino-five-myths-about-halloween/article_6fe79e19-d106-52cc-a895-4a3a72d09c93.html">it’s actually an American invention</a>, created to entice kids away from rowdy holiday pranks toward more wholesome activities. </p>
<p>Halloween has become a tradition many new immigrants adopt along their journey toward American-ness and is increasingly <a href="https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-4438-0153-9">being exported around the world</a>, with locals reinventing it in new ways to adapt it to their own culture.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="postcard of a witch and black cat riding a broomstick" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490960/original/file-20221020-11-kabqww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490960/original/file-20221020-11-kabqww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490960/original/file-20221020-11-kabqww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490960/original/file-20221020-11-kabqww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490960/original/file-20221020-11-kabqww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490960/original/file-20221020-11-kabqww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490960/original/file-20221020-11-kabqww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Halloween postcard circa 1910.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/postcard-from-circa-1910-news-photo/595267210?phrase=halloween%20corbis&adppopup=true">Trolley Dodger/Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s so special about Halloween is that it turns the world upside down. The dead walk the Earth. Rules are meant to be broken. And kids exercise a lot of power. They decide what costume to wear. They make demands on others by asking for candy. “Trick or treat” is their battle cry. They do things they’d never get away with any other time, but on Halloween, they get to act like adults, trying it on to see how it fits.</p>
<p>Because Halloween allows kids more independence, it’s possible to mark significant life stages through holiday firsts. First Halloween. First Halloween without a parent. First Halloween that’s no longer cool. First Halloween as a parent. </p>
<p>Growing up used to mean growing out of Halloween. But today, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/10/24/halloween-adults-costumes-elvira-mistress-of-the-dark/1593177/">young adults</a> seem even more committed to Halloween than kids. </p>
<p>What changed: adults or Halloween? Both. </p>
<p>Caught between childhood and adulthood, today’s young adults find Halloween a perfect match to their struggles to find themselves and make their way in the world. Their participation has reinvented Halloween again, now bigger, more elaborate and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/halloween-prices-cost-more-expensive-pumpkin-candy-costumes-1754635">more expensive</a>. Yet in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-has-halloween-become-so-popular-among-adults-104896">becoming an adult celebration</a>, it comes full circle to return to its roots as a holiday celebrated mainly by adults. </p>
<p>Halloween is a living tradition. You wear a costume every year, but you’d never wear the same one. You’ve changed since last year, and your costume reflects that. Halloween is no different. Each year, it’s the same celebration, but it’s also something totally new. In what ways are you already reinventing the Halloween of the future today?</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192379/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linus Owens does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From its origins as a Celtic pagan ceremony to its celebration of all things gruesome and ghoulish today, Halloween has been reinvented over the centuries.
Linus Owens, Associate Professor of Sociology, Middlebury
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184814
2022-06-17T14:00:28Z
2022-06-17T14:00:28Z
Wiccan celebration of summer solstice is a reminder that change, as expressed in nature, is inevitable
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469289/original/file-20220616-23-iljeu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C20%2C4500%2C2970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For Wiccans, celebration of summer solstice is a spiritual practice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participants-during-kupala-night-celebrations-the-slavic-news-photo/1221587700?adppopup=true">Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Summer solstice, a time when the northern hemisphere will <a href="https://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-summer-summer-solstice">experience the maximum hours of sunlight</a>, takes place on June 21 – and will be celebrated by followers of Wicca, a form of contemporary Paganism, with a holiday known as Litha. </p>
<p>On this day the North Pole is at its greatest tilt toward the sun, creating the longest day and the official beginning of summer. As a <a href="http://www.helenaliceberger.com/">sociologist of religion</a> whose research has focused on contemporary Paganism, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=S1kXj-gAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I</a> know that for Wiccans, it is a day of celebration and joy at the light’s full return. </p>
<h2>The fertile Goddess of midsummer</h2>
<p>Wiccans observe eight sabbats, or holidays, throughout the year. The year begins with Samhain, which is considered the Wiccan New Year, followed by Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasadh and Mabon. These form what is called the “Wheel of the Year.” Each sabbat celebrates what is happening at that moment in nature. Midsummer, the pinnacle of light, is the time for <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">celebrating nature’s growing fertility</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A chart listing the eight Pagan festivals known as sabbats." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wheel of the year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://pendragon343.com/sabbats-ext.html">The Pagan Sabbats</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As part of the ritual that marks each sabbat, <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">the earth and the divinities are venerated</a>. A central “myth” of every sabbat is the changing relationship between the God and the Goddess, who may have different aspects or be represented in several forms. For example, Diana may represent the Goddess in youth, Demeter the motherly aspect of the Goddess, and Hecate the crone. </p>
<p>Each sabbat celebrates a different aspect of the relationship between the Goddess and God. For most Wiccans this myth is viewed as symbolic of the ongoing cycle of life and in nature. The growth from youth, to adulthood, to old age, to death and then to the continuing cycle of new birth or rebirth. </p>
<p>The Goddess is viewed as eternal, but her form changes throughout the year: from a young woman, to a mother, and eventually a crone in fall; then back to a young woman the following spring. The God dies and is reborn, moving from child to lover to dying again each fall, which Wiccans believe ensures the growth of crops. Some Wiccans view the deities <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297251/drawing-down-the-moon-by-margot-adler/">as archetypes or symbols</a> while others see them as actual spiritual beings.</p>
<p>At Litha the Goddess is described as full with child and the God is seen as at his most virile. The image celebrates fertility, strength and growth in nature and in the participants’ lives. The fertility in people’s lives <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/wicca-history-belief-and-community-in-modern-pagan-witchcraft/oclc/1290055418">can take several forms</a>, such as the focus on what they have realized in the past year or what is still developing that they hope will come to fruition by the fall harvest. </p>
<h2>Creating sacred space during rituals</h2>
<p>All sabbats begin by creating sacred space, mostly outdoors when the weather permits. This is done by those leading the ritual walking around an area, chanting as a form of prayer and sprinkling the area with water and salt, which are believed to be spiritually cleansing. </p>
<p>Representatives of the elements – earth, air, fire, water – respectively associated with the four directions – north, east, south and west – are carried around the circle as well. For example, a crystal, a feather, a lit candle and a shell might be carried around the circle. All participants are asked to imagine a sphere of light over the circle and <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">spirits or divinities associated with each of the directions are invited into it</a>. There is then a reading or poetry about the season and what it means in nature and in people’s lives.</p>
<p>In midsummer celebrations a bonfire is lit and people jump over it, <a href="https://www.learnreligions.com/litha-rites-and-rituals-2561483">holding a wish for the summer</a> in their minds. These can be personal wishes for the participant’s own growth or health or that of someone dear to them, or it can be for the protection of Mother Nature, such as wishing for rain if there were a drought or the end of flooding if there were floods. </p>
<p>These rituals can be performed alone or with others. Even those who normally practice alone <a href="https://uscpress.com/Solitary-Pagans">often join with others for the sabbats</a>. </p>
<h2>Change and nature</h2>
<p>At Yule, the sabbat that celebrates the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter, one is always reminded that from this day forth the light will be growing. Similarly at Litha, participants are reminded that from this time forward there will be a decrease in the light. </p>
<p>The focus is not only on the holiday and what it means immediately in nature and for the participants, but understanding it within the turning wheel of the year. It is a reminder that change is inevitable and normal even if it is sometimes enjoyable and at other times less so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen A. Berger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
For Wiccans, midsummer, with the maximum hours of sunlight, is the time for celebrating new life.
Helen A. Berger, Affliate Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/180484
2022-04-13T21:51:22Z
2022-04-13T21:51:22Z
Sacred hares, banished winter witches and pagan worship – the roots of Easter Bunny traditions are ancient
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458017/original/file-20220413-15-x0e57b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=222%2C49%2C7959%2C5425&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children celebrating Easter, with their Easter Bunnies and Easter eggs.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/two-young-boys-wearing-easter-bunny-ears-royalty-free-image/1388063471?adppopup=true">Sanja Radin/Collection E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Easter Bunny is a much celebrated character in American Easter celebrations. On Easter Sunday, children look for hidden special treats, often chocolate Easter eggs, that the Easter Bunny might have left behind.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=prZyKrMAAAAJ&hl=en">folklorist</a>, I’m aware of the origins of the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346357286_The_Shifting_Baselines_of_the_British_Hare_Goddess">long and interesting journey</a> this mythical figure has taken from European prehistory to today. </p>
<h2>Religious role of the hare</h2>
<p>Easter is a celebration of spring and new life. Eggs and flowers are rather obvious symbols of female fertility, but in European traditions, the bunny, with its amazing reproduction potential, is not far behind.</p>
<p>In European traditions, the Easter Bunny is known as the Easter Hare. The symbolism of the hare has had many tantalizing ritual and religious roles down through the years.</p>
<p>Hares were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102672">given ritual burials</a> alongside humans during the Neolithic age in Europe. Archaeologists have interpreted this as a religious ritual, with hares representing <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/research/title_787590_en.html">rebirth</a>. </p>
<p>Over a thousand years later, during the Iron Age, ritual burials for hares were common, and in 51 B.C., Julius Caesar mentions that in Britain, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346357286_The_Shifting_Baselines_of_the_British_Hare_Goddess">hares were not eaten</a>, due to their religious significance.</p>
<p>Caesar would likely have known that in the Classical Greek tradition, <a href="https://www.theoi.com/Text/PhilostratusElder1A.html">hares were sacred to Aphrodite</a>, the goddess of love. Meanwhile, Aphrodite’s son Eros was often depicted carrying a hare, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110308815.311">as a symbol of unquenchable desire</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting depicting a young woman handing baby Jesus to Virgin Mary, who puts one hand around him, while holding a hare with the other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Madonna of the Rabbit,’ a painting from 1530, depicting the Virgin Mary with a hare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Tizian_018.jpg">A painting by artist Titian (1490-1576), Louvre Museum, Paris.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From the Greek world through the Renaissance, hares often appear as symbols of sexuality in literature and art. For example, the Virgin Mary is often <a href="http://musee.louvre.fr/oal/viergeaulapinTitien/viergeaulapinTitien_acc_en.html">shown with a white hare or rabbit</a>, symbolizing that she overcame sexual temptation.</p>
<h2>Hare meat and witches’ mischief</h2>
<p>But it is in the folk traditions of England and Germany that the figure of the hare is specifically connected to Easter. Accounts from the 1600s in Germany describe children hunting for Easter eggs hidden by the Easter Hare, much as in the contemporary United States today. </p>
<p>Written accounts from England around the same time also mention the Easter Hare, particularly in terms of traditional Easter hare hunts, and the eating of hare meat at Easter. </p>
<p>One tradition, known as the “Hare Pie Scramble,” was held at Hallaton, a village in Leicestershire, England, which involved eating a pie made with hare meat and people “scrambling” for a slice. In 1790, the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1253567">local parson tried to stop the custom</a> due to its pagan associations, but he was unsuccessful, and the custom continues in that village until this day. </p>
<p>The eating of the hare may have been associated with various longstanding folk traditions of scaring away witches at Easter. Throughout Northern Europe, folk traditions record a strong belief that witches would often <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1260796">take the form of the hare</a>, usually for causing mischief such as stealing milk from neighbors’ cows. Witches in medieval Europe were often believed to be able to suck out the life energy of others, making them ill, and suffer.</p>
<p>The idea that the witches of winter should be <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24862791">banished at Easter</a> is a common European folk motif, appearing in several festivities and rituals. The spring equinox, with its promise of new life, was held symbolically in opposition to the life-draining activities of witches and winter.</p>
<p>This idea provides the underlying rationale behind various festivities and rituals, such as the “Osterfeuer,” or the Easter Fire, a celebration in Germany involving large outdoor bonfires <a href="https://www.twosmallpotatoes.com/osterfeuer-embracing-easter-traditions-in-germany/">meant to scare away witches</a>. In Sweden, the popular folklore states that at Easter, the witches all fly away on their broomsticks <a href="http://realscandinavia.com/in-sweden-easter-is-a-time-for-witches/">to feast and dance with the Devil</a> on the legendary island of Blåkulla, in the Baltic Sea. </p>
<h2>Pagan origins</h2>
<p>In 1835, the folklorist <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Jacob_Grimm">Jacob Grimm</a>, one of the famous team of the fairy tale “Brothers Grimm,” argued that the Easter Hare <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2018.1515655">was connected with a goddess</a>, whom he imagined would have been called “Ostara” in ancient German. He derived this name from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, that <a href="https://exploringcelticciv.web.unc.edu/bede-the-history-of-the-english-church/">Bede</a>, an Anglo-Saxon monk considered to be the father of English history, mentioned in 731. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The goddess Ēostre/*Ostara flies through the heavens surrounded by winged angels, beams of light and animals." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Ostara’ by Johannes Gehrts, created in 1884. The goddess Ēostre flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putti, beams of light, and animals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre#/media/File:Ostara_by_Johannes_Gehrts.jpg">Felix Dahn, Therese Dahn, Therese (von Droste-Hülshoff) Dahn, Frau, Therese von Droste-Hülshoff Dahn (1901) via Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bede noted that in eighth-century England the month of April was called Eosturmonath, or Eostre Month, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1253567">named after the goddess Eostre</a>. He wrote that a pagan festival of spring in the name of the goddess had become assimilated into the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Christ.</p>
<p>It’s interesting that while most European languages refer to the Christian holiday with names that come from the Jewish holiday of Passover, such as Pâques in French, or Påsk in Swedish, German and English languages retain this older, non-biblical word, Easter.</p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346357286_The_Shifting_Baselines_of_the_British_Hare_Goddess">archaeological research</a> appears to <a href="https://doi.org/10.2752/175169708X329372">confirm the worship of Eostre</a> in parts of England and in Germany, with the hare as her main symbol. The Easter Bunny therefore seems to recall these <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2018.1515655">pre-Christian celebrations of spring</a>, heralded by the vernal equinox and personified by the Goddess Eostre.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>After a long, cold, northern winter, it seems natural enough for people to celebrate themes of resurrection and rebirth. The flowers are blooming, birds are laying eggs, and baby bunnies are hopping about. </p>
<p>As new life emerges in spring, the Easter Bunny hops back once again, providing a longstanding cultural symbol to remind us of the cycles and stages of our own lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tok Thompson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A folklorist explains the prehistoric origins of the mythical Easter Bunny and why this longstanding cultural symbol keeps returning each spring.
Tok Thompson, Professor of Anthropology and Communication, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/174576
2022-01-19T17:13:22Z
2022-01-19T17:13:22Z
How modern witches are enchanting TikTok
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440518/original/file-20220112-21-eh9bx8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1920%2C1077&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">WitchTok is the subculture of pagans who use TikTok to share spells, learn about mythology and connect with co-religionists. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(northeasternherb, showthe8thhouse, greenwitchmystics/TikTok)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even before religious gatherings were forced to go virtual, one community in particular, contemporary pagans, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Cyberhenge-Modern-Pagans-on-the-Internet/Cowan/p/book/9780415969116">were online</a> — performing <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1465622">virtual rituals</a> or discussing theology on <a href="https://doi.org/10.13154/er.11.2020.8574">chat forums</a>. </p>
<p>Continuing this lineage is <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/search/video?q=%23witchtok&t=1641826523108">WitchTok</a>, the subculture of pagans who use TikTok to share spells, learn about mythology and connect with co-religionists. </p>
<p>Contemporary paganism is an <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780759108189/Introduction-to-Pagan-Studies">umbrella term</a> encompassing many traditions, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-wicca-an-expert-on-modern-witchcraft-explains-165939">Wicca</a>, <a href="https://inform.ac/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Paganism-Druidry-and-Heathenry-2020.pdf">heathenry</a> and <a href="https://inform.ac/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Paganism-Druidry-and-Heathenry-2020.pdf">Druidry</a>. Generally speaking however, pagans are united by a reverence for nature and belief in one’s ability to interact — through ritual practices — with deities and energies throughout the universe. </p>
<p>As young people search for religion, or simply spirituality, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/witchcraft-juliet-diaz/605518/">many are turning to witchcraft</a>. This might be because teens are inspired by <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alannabennett/sabrina-charmed-tv-witches-girl-power">TV shows</a>, because <a href="https://www.muse-magazine.com/what-even-is-cottagecore/">witchcraft’s cottage-core esthetic</a> reflects <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/what-exactly-is-cottagecore">design trends</a>, or perhaps, because a religion that values nature seems appropriate amid <a href="https://blueandgreentomorrow.com/environment/pagans-become-unlikely-allies-to-skeptic-climate-activists/">ecological crises</a>. </p>
<p>Regardless of precisely <em>why</em> people belong, WitchTok connects people to this community and its practices. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tiktok-is-a-unique-blend-of-social-media-platforms-heres-why-kids-love-it-144541">TikTok is a unique blend of social media platforms – here's why kids love it</a>
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<p>Since “joining” is as simple as clicking the hashtag, WitchTok is quite <a href="https://blogqsr.wordpress.com/2021/12/13/witchtok-and-contemporary-spirituality-in-the-information-age/#_edn5">fluid and diverse</a>. Some posts come from Wiccans who have been practising for decades, others from teens who may not even call themselves a witch (yet). </p>
<p>WitchTok includes people from different backgrounds educating and inspiring each other, but debates over what makes an “authentic” witch also crop up and have become quite contentious.</p>
<p>So what exactly are witches doing online? Broadly speaking, videos on WitchTok can be split into four main categories: entertainment, spells, promoting businesses and rants.</p>
<h2>Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling</h2>
<p>For many, WitchTok largely exists for entertainment. Popular videos display witchy décor throughout one’s home, or act out skits about living with a witch.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6930364702782508293?lang=en-US" style="border:0;width:100%;min-height:825px;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Entertaining posts are hardly frivolous. Creating content allows one to publicly proclaim their religious identity. Joining a trend, through comments or follow-up videos, connects witches with their broader community. Especially for witches “<a href="https://www.moodymoons.com/2018/02/07/so-you-decided-to-come-out-of-the-broom-closet/">in the broom closet</a>,” who do not publicly self-identify, simply seeing videos in one’s feed can offer validation. </p>
<h2>Just follow these simple steps …</h2>
<p>WitchTok is also a place to learn. Many videos share detailed steps for performing spells. One popular form of magic on WitchTok is spell jars. These can serve myriad purposes, with different ingredients offering protection, love or wealth. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7003666556819410177?lang=en-US" style="border:0;width:100%;min-height:825px;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Those who merely stumbled into WitchTok, perhaps through the hashtags #SelfCare or #Spirituality, discover the existence of magical practices. Novices who are actively exploring witchcraft can expand their knowledge. One might learn, for example, the magical properties of cinnamon. </p>
<p>Witches also troubleshoot for others, suggest alternative ingredients, or advise how to avoid magical malpractice. Fire safety, for instance, is a popular topic of conversation.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7030482268430929157?lang=en-US" style="border:0;width:100%;min-height:825px;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>With many diverse perspectives online, WitchTok is also a space of collaboration. Users debate the difference between fresh or packaged herbs, or whether it is appropriate to perform certain types of magic. </p>
<h2>The ‘witchy’ marketplace</h2>
<p>One cannot ignore the commercial aspects of WitchTok. Take spell jars, for example. Each spell requires a well-stocked pantry. Even if someone grows their own herbs, many spells require glass vials. Other accoutrements for magic — incense for “cleansing,” candles for “sealing” — must also be bought. Through videos and comments, WitchTok advises where to purchase items. </p>
<p>Among the many businesses promoted on WitchTok, most popular are small-scale independent retailers, who sell crystals, tools and even assembled kits with everything one needs to perform magic. </p>
<p>Also popular are larger metaphysical stores, which cater to a broader “spiritual” clientele, but generally sell herbs, incense and other materials required for witchcraft. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7003369771311942918?lang=en-US" style="border:0;width:100%;min-height:825px;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>From videos spotlighting products to sharing interactions with customers, WitchTok offers businesses a platform to connect with potential customers. </p>
<h2>‘Sharing my two cents’</h2>
<p>Everyone needs to vent, and this seems especially true online. Many videos involve ranting, as witches voice their opinions on various issues, such as which traditions are <a href="https://mashable.com/article/witchtok-problematic-witch-cultural-appropriation">open or closed for borrowing</a>. </p>
<p>Topics obviously shift over time; the creator <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/12/30/20879720/what-is-cancel-culture-explained-history-debate">who was cancelled</a> in November might be forgotten by January. However, posts allow the broader community to construct outlooks on important issues. How does magic work? What sort of training is required?</p>
<iframe src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7038701981698936069?lang=en-US" style="border:0;width:100%;min-height:825px;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Posting a video lets someone articulate where they stand on, say, performing hexes on another person. By commenting, others rebut or affirm that opinion. Even the passive act of liking a post can reinforce that outlook. </p>
<p>On a technological level, the more someone interacts with certain topics, the deeper <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/how-tiktok-recommends-videos-for-you">TikTok’s algorithms</a> draw you into <a href="https://uhighmidway.com/12822/features/split-tok-algorithm-boxes-students-in-sides-of-tiktok/">specific discourses</a>. Upon liking a video about hexes for instance, someone’s feed will soon be filled with instructional videos. </p>
<h2>Finding connections in a modern world</h2>
<p>Regardless of the type of content someone shares, WitchTok is an important outlet, allowing witches to express themselves as individuals and as a community. </p>
<p>WitchTok first helps Witches connect. Many witches, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v18i1.27917">for various reasons</a>, feel uncomfortable declaring their affiliation. Others live in areas without an offline community. WitchTok lets such people make <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120928514">important, affirming connections</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://journals.equinoxpub.com/OLDPOM/article/view/40063">place to learn</a>, social media is important for both novices and experienced practitioners. From advice on performing spells to discussing interactions with deities, WitchTok helps people deepen their knowledge of magic and witchcraft. </p>
<p>Finally, while the witchy esthetic is hardly unique to TikTok — <a href="https://www.salon.com/2016/08/23/mysticore-is-the-new-norm-inside-the-trend-thats-casting-its-spell-over-the-culture/">many have noted its mainstream growth in recent years</a> — exposure to products required for spells or popular décor help <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2020.1761632">cement a certain style</a>. As businesses promote themselves, WitchTok also drives traffic towards particular retailers and goods. </p>
<p>Whether someone is scrolling mindlessly or actively conducting research, WitchTok connects witches to their practices and community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Whether someone is scrolling mindlessly or actively conducting research, WitchTok connects witches to their practices and community.
Chris Miller, PhD Candidate, Religious Studies, University of Waterloo
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/172479
2021-12-06T14:42:44Z
2021-12-06T14:42:44Z
How Christmas became an American holiday tradition, with a Santa Claus, gifts and a tree
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435160/original/file-20211201-25-puq00f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C25%2C5566%2C3688&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The pagan tradition of celebrating the winter solstice with bonfires on Dec. 21 inspired the early Christian celebrations of Christmas.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/portrait-of-santa-claus-sitting-in-chair-with-sack-royalty-free-image/936171074?adppopup=true">Gpointstudio/ Image Source via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each season, the celebration of Christmas has religious leaders and conservatives publicly complaining about the <a href="https://lanthorn.com/86583/laker_life/consumerism-vs-religion-christmas-in-the-united-states/">commercialization of the holiday</a> and the growing lack of Christian sentiment. Many people seem to believe that there was once a way to celebrate the birth of Christ in <a href="https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2018/12/putting-christ-back-in-christmas/">a more spiritual way</a>.</p>
<p>Such perceptions about Christmas celebrations have, however, little basis in history. As a scholar of <a href="http://tadamtransnationalhistory.com/Welcome.html">transnational and global history</a>, I have studied the emergence of Christmas celebrations in German towns around 1800 and the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/approaches-to-the-study-of-intercultural-transfer/F0365B7B349530570C17D21A9EAB286B">global spread of this holiday ritual</a>.</p>
<p>While Europeans participated in church services and religious ceremonies to celebrate the birth of Jesus for centuries, they did not commemorate it as we do today. Christmas trees and gift-giving on Dec. 24 in Germany did not spread to other European Christian cultures until the end of the 18th century and did not come to North America until the 1830s. </p>
<p>Charles Haswell, an engineer and chronicler of everyday life in New York City, wrote in his “<a href="https://www.biblio.com/book/reminiscences-new-york-octogenarian-charles-haswell/d/1253314486">Reminiscences of an Octoganarian</a>” that in the 1830s German families living in Brooklyn dressed up Christmas trees with lights and ornaments. Haswell was so curious about this novel custom that he went to Brooklyn in a very stormy and wet night just to see these Christmas trees through the windows of private homes.</p>
<h2>The first Christmas trees in Germany</h2>
<p>Only in the late 1790s did the new custom of putting up a Christmas tree decorated with wax candles and ornaments and exchanging gifts emerge in Germany. This new holiday practice was completely outside and independent of Christian religious practices. </p>
<p>The idea of putting wax candles on an evergreen was inspired by the pagan tradition of celebrating the winter solstice with bonfires on Dec. 21. These bonfires on the darkest day of the year were intended to <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees">recall the sun and show her the way home</a>. The lit Christmas tree was essentially a domesticated version of these bonfires. </p>
<p>The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge gave the very first description of a decorated Christmas tree in a German household when he reported in 1799 about having seen such a tree in a <a href="http://www.knoxvilletennessee.com/christmas/stories/ch_tree.html">private home in Ratzeburg in northwestern Germany</a>. In 1816 German poet E.T.A. Hoffmann published his famous story “<a href="https://books.openedition.org/obp/612?lang=en">Nutcracker and Mouse King</a>.” This story contains the very first literary record of a Christmas tree decorated with apples, sweets and lights.</p>
<p>From the onset, all family members, including children, were expected to participate in the gift-giving. Gifts were not brought by a mystical figure, but openly exchanged among family members – <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469622132/christmas-in-germany/">symbolizing the new middle-class culture of egalitarianism</a>.</p>
<h2>From German roots to American soil</h2>
<p>American visitors to Germany in the first half of the 19th century realized the potential of this celebration for nation building. In 1835 Harvard professor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Ticknor">George Ticknor</a> was the first American to observe and participate in this type of Christmas celebration and to <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739129128/Two-Boston-Brahmins-in-Goethes-Germany-The-Travel-Journals-of-Anna-and-George-Ticknor">praise its usefulness for creating a national culture</a>. That year, Ticknor and his 12-year-old daughter Anna joined the family of Count von Ungern-Sternberg in Dresden for a memorable Christmas celebration.</p>
<p>Other American visitors to Germany – such as Charles Loring Brace, who witnessed a Christmas celebration in Berlin nearly 20 years later – considered it a <a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/dcmsiabooks.homelifeingerman00brac/?st=gallery">specific German festival with the potential to pull people together</a>. </p>
<p>For both Ticknor and Brace, this holiday tradition provided the emotional glue that could bring families and members of a nation together. In 1843 Ticknor invited several prominent friends to join him in a Christmas celebration with a Christmas tree and gift-giving in his Boston home. </p>
<p>Ticknor’s holiday party was not the first Christmas celebration in the United States that featured a Christmas tree. <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/christmas-in-america-9780195109801?cc=us&lang=en&">German-American families had brought the custom with them and put up Christmas trees before</a>. However, it was Ticknor’s social influence that secured the spread and social acceptance of the alien custom to put up a Christmas tree and to exchange gifts in American society.</p>
<h2>The introduction of Santa Claus</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435173/original/file-20211201-19-cna3qo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Santa Claus visiting the Union Army on Christmas night as shown in a Harper's Weekly cartoon." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435173/original/file-20211201-19-cna3qo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435173/original/file-20211201-19-cna3qo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435173/original/file-20211201-19-cna3qo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435173/original/file-20211201-19-cna3qo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435173/original/file-20211201-19-cna3qo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435173/original/file-20211201-19-cna3qo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435173/original/file-20211201-19-cna3qo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Santa Claus in Camp,’ from Harper’s Weekly, by artist Thomas Nast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/429261">Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1929</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For most of the 19th century, the celebration of Christmas with Christmas trees and gift-giving <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/approaches-to-the-study-of-intercultural-transfer/F0365B7B349530570C17D21A9EAB286B">remained a marginal phenomenon in American society</a>. Most Americans remained skeptical about this new custom. Some felt that they had to choose between older English customs such as hanging stockings for presents on the fireplace and the Christmas tree as proper space for the placing of gifts. It was also hard to find the necessary ingredients for this German custom. Christmas tree farms had first to be created. And ornaments needed to be produced.</p>
<p>The most significant steps toward integrating Christmas into popular American culture came in the context of the American Civil War. In January 1863 Harper’s Weekly <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/429261">published on its front page the image of Santa Claus visiting the Union Army in 1862</a>. This image, which was produced by the German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast, represents the very first image of Santa Claus. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435163/original/file-20211201-13-qns4xh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cartoon showing Santa Claus as the jolly old man with a big belly and a long white beard." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435163/original/file-20211201-13-qns4xh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435163/original/file-20211201-13-qns4xh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435163/original/file-20211201-13-qns4xh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435163/original/file-20211201-13-qns4xh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435163/original/file-20211201-13-qns4xh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435163/original/file-20211201-13-qns4xh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435163/original/file-20211201-13-qns4xh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Santa Claus and His Works,’ from Harper’s Weekly, Dec. 25, 1866.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Month=December&Date=25">Artist Thomas Nast, HarpWeek</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the following years, Nast developed the image of Santa Claus into the jolly old man with a big belly and long white beard as we know it today. In 1866 Nast produced “<a href="https://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Month=December&Date=25">Santa Claus and His Works</a>,” an elaborate drawing of Santa Claus’ tasks, from making gifts to recording children’s behavior. This sketch also introduced the idea that Santa Claus traveled by a sledge drawn by reindeer.</p>
<p>Declaring Christmas a federal holiday and putting up the first Christmas tree in the White House marked the final steps in making Christmas an American holiday. <a href="http://congressionalresearch.com/98-301/document.php?study=Federal+Holidays+Evolution+and+Application">On June 28, 1870, Congress passed the law</a> that turned Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving Day into holidays for federal employees.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>And in December 1889 President Benjamin Harrison <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/coolidge-lights-first-national-christmas-tree">began the tradition</a> of setting up a Christmas tree at the White House. </p>
<p>Christmas had finally become an American holiday tradition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172479/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Adam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Christmas was popularized in the United States during the American Civil War, when Harper’s Weekly featured the image of Santa Claus visiting the Union Army on its front page.
Thomas Adam, Associate Professor of International and Global Studies, University of Arkansas
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160002
2021-05-20T15:07:53Z
2021-05-20T15:07:53Z
Why young Nigerians are returning to masquerade rituals, even in a Christian community
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401649/original/file-20210519-15-1ra3dgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A masquerade during the celebration of an Igbo ritual. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jorge Fernández/LightRocket/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For generations, the tradition of Omabe masquerades has been part of the cultural landscape of the Nsukka area of Enugu State in Nigeria. Masquerades are cultural or religious events that often feature masked dancers embodying various spirits. Omabe masquerades are believed to be representatives of the ancestors of Nsukka. </p>
<p>The region honours these ancestors with annual traditional festivals. Some of these festivals include Onwa Asa (seventh moon), Onwa Eto (third moon) and Onunu. Celebrations occur all through the year, with some timing variations among Nsukka communities.</p>
<p>During these festivals, the venerated ancestors are believed to join in the celebrations, by re-emerging from ant holes as different forms of Omabe masquerades. For varying durations, these masquerades, particularly Oriokpa (the traditional police of Omabe), tarry among the living in Nsukka. They are believed to keep watch over the affairs of the people.</p>
<p>But the Nsukka cultural zone is also the home of <a href="https://www.igboguide.org">Igbo</a> Christians. Christianity is a dominant religion in the area, and has always condemned masquerade practices as fetish and pagan in nature.</p>
<p>Over the past 15 years or so, though, there has been a strong revival of young people – mostly Christians – participating in masquerades. I became interested in conducting a study to understand why many young people in Nsukka are engaging in masquerade practices, despite their conflicting Christian affiliations.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00020184.2021.1886049?casa_token=0O24NSp1syIAAAAA:aFhKUI4VjoG6wLQ97PH2tkoyJFBvSvSfbKVrmmjsYXQ7g4C7-Exa1BSTs-eIVqqtQLOpEyH7aV3lUXs">research</a> found that regardless of their faith, these young people fully identified with the masquerade celebration. They believed the festivals to be cultural revival exercises, whether Christianity approved or not.</p>
<p>However, this has certain implications for Christians and the community. Church members publicly indulging in masquerade rituals casts Christianity in a negative light. Also, some aspects of masquerade celebrations are still rooted in barbarism. A great example is the indiscriminate flogging of passersby during masquerade processions. This casual violence has no place in today’s modern world. </p>
<h2>Masquerade celebration as cultural revivalism</h2>
<p>Over the past four years, I have conducted field work on youth participation in masquerades in Enugu state. My focus research areas include Nsukka main town, Umundu and Obollo communities, all in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Nsukka">Nsukka</a> zone. I conducted interviews with young people from these villages about the resurgence of masquerade practices, and the revival of interest in these cultural traditions.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kSsDZQaoTGs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>I also observed many masquerade celebrations in these towns, noting a strong youth participation. These young people say they are purely driven by cultural revival, as masquerades represent an important element of their local culture.</p>
<p>They aren’t wrong. In the 19th century, Christian Western <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009182961204000403">missionaries</a> arriving in Nigeria held very little regard for aspects of Igbo culture. Especially the parts involving spiritualism and ancestor worship. The missionaries were averse to it, condemning the people’s cultural practices and replacing some of them with imported dogma. This was the case in Nsukka.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, local masquerade practices suffered another setback with the emergence of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487445">Pentecostalism</a> in Nigeria and the Nsukka area in particular. Pentecostal teaching emphasises the work of the Holy Spirit and the direct experience of the presence of God by believers. It was in direct conflict with masquerade practices. Traditional culture was therefore branded as ‘paganism’ and strongly discouraged.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, African theologians began to question the Western forms of Christianity in Africa. These leading theologians and scholars began to adapt local Christian practices to fit into existing <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1581285?seq=1">culture</a>. Worship began to take on some of the features of its local context. A good example is the manner in which worship was conducted in church services and mass celebrations. Igbo vernacular, local drums and homegrown melodies gave Christianity an “African touch”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-sacred-sites-act-as-living-archives-in-a-ugandan-community-140571">How sacred sites act as living archives in a Ugandan community</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This process is called <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ijah/article/view/103082">inculturation</a> and it has also helped the masquerade revival. During my fieldwork, I found this to be part of the reason for young Nigerians’ reversion to masquerade practices, particularly within the Roman Catholic context. Some of the youth see a relationship between inculturation and their quest to revive masquerades in Nsukka since both are forms of cultural revival. </p>
<h2>Cultural resilience</h2>
<p>This shows Nsukka’s cultural resilience. Young people are taking on the responsibility of preserving their traditions, despite lacking governmental or organised institutional support. </p>
<p>Christianity, for all its dominance, hasn’t completely succeeded in deterring members interested in local masquerade celebrations. Despite the long history of churches and religious opposition in the area, the religion still can’t topple culture.</p>
<p>From my findings, Nsukka’s young people believe Christianity has denigrated their cultural practices for a long time. That’s why as a cultural space, they are working to revive and uphold these practices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kingsley Ikechukwu Uwaegbute does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Over the past 15 years there’s been a revival of young people - mostly Christians - participating in traditional masquerades, despite these being branded as pagan.
Kingsley Ikechukwu Uwaegbute, Lecturer, University of Nigeria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150324
2020-11-20T13:50:17Z
2020-11-20T13:50:17Z
How medieval Christian ideology changed the Polish environment forever – new study
<p>Few would seriously dispute that human activities are causing <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/climate-change-27">climate change</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/ecosystem-collapse-24931">destroying ecosystems</a>. It’s less understood why people do these things despite knowing the consequences, and why we seem unable to stop. </p>
<p>Human disruption of natural systems is nothing new, and nor are the ideologies and political and economic systems that drive it. A new study <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75692-4">published in Nature</a> captured a moment in history when a small society of people transitioned from one way of living to another, transforming the world around them as a result.</p>
<p>Researchers discovered the rapid destruction of pristine forest to make room for cereal agriculture in 14th-century Poland by looking at information stored in peat bogs. Deforestation accelerated sharply when management of the land was taken over by the Order of St John – knights who had taken religious vows, fought in the crusades and helped <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9R0fmcWVJAgC&q=poland#v=onepage&q=the%20polish%20cases%20are%3A%20the%20grant%20of%20land&f=false">colonise central</a> and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_m-FAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=hoffmann+environmental+history&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjO8Ijklo_tAhVNURUIHbZxCxAQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=in%20western%20polish%20lands&f=false">eastern Europe</a>. </p>
<p>Also known as the Joannites, their concern was maximising profits from their new estates, believing it a moral duty to “clear” landscapes and make them “productive”. They set peasants to work uprooting trees, turning the bare soil with heavy plows and iron harrows, and planting cereal crops.</p>
<h2>Deforestation and serfdom</h2>
<p>The research was carried out near Łagów, in western Poland, in an area of peatland that has been a nature reserve since 1970. <a href="https://theconversation.com/bogs-are-unique-records-of-history-heres-why-100627">Peat bogs</a> are damp, acidic and low-oxygen environments that are hostile to <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/archaeology/peat-bogs-are-freakishly-good-at-preserving-human-remains.htm">bacteria and fungi</a>. As a result, plant matter can accumulate here for centuries without decomposing. Researchers took peat core samples and used radiocarbon dating to establish a chronology of events. They analysed pollen, spores, charcoal particles, plant remains, and the single-celled organisms that inhabit the soil, which provided detailed evidence of environmental change. With surviving medieval written records and archaeological remains from the period, as well as evidence from documentary archives, the researchers charted the distribution, density and character of human settlements at the time.</p>
<p>With great clarity, the results showed how the onset of rapid deforestation affected the surrounding wetlands. From 500 AD onwards, the evidence alluded to a mixed broadleaf forest of hornbeam, oak, birch, beech, pine and alder, surrounding a wet alkaline fen. The numbers of each tree species and the density of the forest appeared largely stable until the arrival of the Order in 1350. At that point, sharp changes were discernible. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sunlit bog with tree saplings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369839/original/file-20201117-17-10r8ci0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Pawski Ług peatland, now dominated by Sphagnum moss since the loss of pristine forest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75692-4">Mariusz Lamentowicz</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The green algae that thrived in the fen disappeared totally by about 1400, to be replaced by peat moss. Evidence for hornbeam, previously the most prevalent tree, together with birch, beech and alder, drastically fell over the same period. The only tree that prospered was pine, which dominated in the record as the other trees disappeared. Cereals were present from the beginning of the record, but their quantity suddenly increased from 1350. Coprophilous fungi, which grows on animal dung, wasn’t discernible before then, but makes its appearance around 1400, coinciding with the rise of animal husbandry. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the destruction of the old broadleaf forests and the resulting soil erosion caused the fen wetlands to acidify, and eventually transform into peat bogs. The destruction of one habitat irrevocably altered another.</p>
<p>When the Order arrived in 1350, they enlarged the castle, built houses for servants and artisans, and created a commercial hub for the surrounding villages. Written records show how the land was parcelled among the peasant farmers who worked it for their feudal landlords, the Joannites. The peasants had to finance local churches and priests. Large farms were established with new farming practices such as three-field crop rotation. This all generated enough money to support the aristocratic knights, together with the priests, their church building, and perhaps more besides.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A small castle with a single turret sits amid trees at dusk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369840/original/file-20201117-13-l25u20.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The castle in Łagów, 2 kilometres from the peatland, which served as the Joannite headquarters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75692-4">Ryszard Orzechowski</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lost connections</h2>
<p>The study traced the ecology of the region of Łagów from 500 AD, but evidence of permanent human settlements goes back as far as 1300 BC. For more than two millennia, humans managed to live in the region without deforesting it. What changed? Above all else, human ideologies.</p>
<p>Prior to being enveloped in the Christian kingdom of Poland from the late 10th century, and no doubt for some time afterwards, the Slavic communities who lived in the area were “pagan” – a pejorative label used by Christian authorities. Whatever worldviews or practices it might once have described were so thoroughly and violently erased that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2007.00214.x">we cannot recover them</a> with any confidence. </p>
<p>We do know that, in Christian eyes, pagans were too close to the natural world, too deferential to trees, springs, rivers and rocks. The archetypal image of the conversion of pagans east of the Rhine is that of the evangelising monk, St Boniface, hacking down an ancient and revered oak tree. In this story, the local population is so dismayed and awed as the tree crashes down that they immediately convert to Christianity. Boniface uses the wood of the tree to make a chapel. The alliance of warriors and missionaries intent on integrating the region and its natural resources into the Frankish Empire achieves another propaganda coup.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An engraving depicting a bearded man swinging an axe at an oak tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370439/original/file-20201119-21-are0al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bonifatius Donareiche fells Donar’s Oak in an engraving from 1781.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Boniface#/media/File:Bonifatius_Donareiche.jpg">Bernhard Rode/Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the past, our understanding of “Christianisation” depended on such celebratory stories. They formed the foundation myths of modern Europe: a continent unified through conversion to a shared religion and a culture that harked back to imperial Rome. These ideologies underwrote later European colonialism, connecting notions of “progress” and “enlightenment” with rendering landscapes profitable to humans. Their potency has made us blind to reality. </p>
<p>This study shows vividly and poignantly that such ideas are, and always have been, inseparable from their environmental consequences. Through its findings, we can see the precise ecological effects of the replacement of an old, sustainable, “pagan” way of living in the forests and wetlands of the Łagów region. What we thought was profit turns out to be mostly loss.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Power does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Historians and scientists discovered how colonisation in eastern Europe changed ecosystems – and the societies embedded in them.
Amanda Power, Associate Professor of Medieval History, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/129864
2020-01-30T19:09:18Z
2020-01-30T19:09:18Z
Why we knock on wood for luck
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312668/original/file-20200129-92959-s1eqbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C3%2C2628%2C1821&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Knocking on wood may be a holdover from the pagan days of Europe, when tree spirits were believed to bring luck. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/hand-knock-knocking-on-door-room-390896041">saiful bahri 46/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ever said something like, “I’ve never gotten a speeding ticket” – and then quickly, for luck, rapped your knuckles on a wooden table or doorframe?</p>
<p>Americans accompany this action by saying, “Knock on wood.” In Great Britain, it’s “Touch wood.” They knock on wood <a href="https://www.history.com/news/why-do-people-knock-on-wood-for-luck">in Turkey</a>, too. </p>
<p>As a teacher of <a href="https://rosemaryhathaway.faculty.wvu.edu">folklore</a> – the study of “the expressive culture of everyday life,” as my <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/45437506">favorite short definition puts it</a> – I’m often asked why people knock on wood.</p>
<h2>The answer is complicated</h2>
<p>The common explanation for knocking on wood claims the ritual is a holdover from Europe’s pagan days, an appeal to tree-dwelling spirits to ward off bad luck or an expression of <a href="https://www.history.com/news/why-do-people-knock-on-wood-for-luck">gratitude for good fortune</a>.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199990009.001.0001/acref-9780199990009">Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable</a>, “traditionally, certain trees, such as the oak, ash, hazel, hawthorn and willow, had a sacred significance and thus protective powers.”</p>
<p>Furthermore, the theory goes, Christian reformers in Europe may have deliberately transformed this heathenish belief into a more acceptable Christian one by introducing the idea that the “wood” in “knock on wood” referred to the wood of the cross of Jesus’ crucifixion. </p>
<p>However, no tangible evidence supports these origin stories. </p>
<p>The Oxford English Dictionary <a href="https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/203877">traces the phrase</a> “touch wood” only back to the early 19th century, locating its origins in a British children’s tag game called Tiggy-touch-wood, in which children could make themselves “exempt…from capture [by] touching wood.”</p>
<p>Of course, much folklore is learned informally, by word of mouth or customary behavior. So it’s possible – even likely – that the phrase and the ritual predate its first appearance in print. </p>
<h2>So why do we still knock on wood?</h2>
<p>I’d wager few, if any, people today think – after saying something that might bring bad luck – “I’d better ask the tree spirits for help!” </p>
<p>Still they knock, to avoid negative consequences. </p>
<p>That puts knocking on wood in a category with other “conversion rituals” like <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/541285">throwing salt over one’s shoulder</a>: actions people perform, almost automatically, to “undo” any bad luck just created.</p>
<p>The anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski has a theory about such actions, called the “<a href="https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A1870C">anxiety-ritual theory</a>.” It states that the anxiety created by uncertainty leads people to turn to magic and ritual to gain a sense of control. </p>
<p>Knocking on wood may seem trivial, but it is one small way people quell their fears in a life full of anxieties.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129864/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosemary V. Hathaway does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The curious history of a ritual meant to ward off bad luck.
Rosemary V. Hathaway, Associate Professor of English, West Virginia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/115645
2019-04-18T13:34:41Z
2019-04-18T13:34:41Z
Easter: eggs, hares, lamb and the return of warmth and sunshine – a Christian festival that feels pagan
<p>There’s a lot of confusion about Easter – not least because this most important of all Christian festivals moves around so much from year to year, decided by a complex set of calculations based on the vernal equinox and the phase of the moon. Easter symbols – eggs, bunnies, lambs and the rest – give the festivities an air of pre-Christian paganism. </p>
<p>So where do the origins of Easter and the rituals observed by so many – whether Christian or not – really lie?</p>
<p>The first mention of Eostre is in the eighth century, in The Venerable Bede’s frustratingly cryptic account of the native Anglo-Saxon calendar in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/De-temporum-ratione">De Temporum Ratione</a> (On the Reckoning of Time). The Anglo-Saxon equivalent of April called Eostremonath is named for the goddess Eostre – but we only know about Eostre via Bede’s writings and the only thing he tells us about her is that “feasts were celebrated” in her honour. So, if modern Easter is frequently a festival of overeating, this has tradition on its side. </p>
<p>But Eostre was evidently significant enough for the Anglo-Saxons to later transfer her name to the Christian festival of the resurrection rather than adopting the Latin name “Pascha”.</p>
<p>Similarly, Easter is “Ostern” in German – which implies she must have been known outside England. Confusingly, the great 19th-century folklorist and philologist, Jacob Grimm, <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/category/jacob-grimm/">invented a German goddess called Ostara</a> – “the divinity of the radiant dawn, upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing” – on purely etymological grounds: the name is derived from a proto-Indo-European root meaning “to shine”. But Grimm didn’t present a shred of supporting evidence that such a deity had ever been worshipped in Germany, leaving us with just Bede to go on.</p>
<p>Easter roughly coincides with the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47631820">spring equinox</a> – so there is a good deal of lore attached to the season which is not actually Christian. Easter is preceded by Lent – a period of fasting in memory of Christ’s 40 days in the wilderness. But it is also a season when, in pre-modern Europe, food would have been running low. Winter supplies would have been coming to an end and there was not enough sun and spring growth yet for hens to start laying and cows to give milk. In a sense, therefore, Easter is a natural feast – to celebrate passing out of that hardship.</p>
<h2>Easter and Passover</h2>
<p>The association of lamb with Easter is something we have borrowed from Jewish tradition and Passover – which was also the festival that Jesus and his disciples celebrated with their Last Supper. </p>
<p>At least as far back as the 15th century, Easter was also marked in England by eating “tansies” – a kind of <a href="http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/tansy,ortansypudding.htm">custardy pudding</a> made with the bitter (and poisonous) herb tansy and sometimes with other bitter greens such as nettles. The 17th-century antiquarian <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Aubrey">John Aubrey</a> adds a further detail: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our tansies at Easter have reference to the bitter Herbs [eaten at Passover by Jews] though at the same time ’twas always the Fashion for a man to have a gammon of Bacon, to shew himself to be no Jew.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Eggs are an ancient and natural symbol of returning life in many parts of Europe, but the Easter egg may also derive from Passover – which includes, among various symbolic foods, a roasted egg: <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/roasted-egg-beitzah/">the beitzah</a>. Until at least the mid-20th century, more people marked Easter with decorated, hard-boiled hen’s eggs than chocolate ones. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2017/04/a-hunt-for-medieval-easter-eggs.html">earliest documented mention</a> in England of decorated eggs comes in 1290, from the household accounts of King Edward I for 1290, which records the purchase and decoration of 450 eggs , some gilded, some dyed. These eggs were presented to the royal household at Easter, and cost 18 pence. </p>
<p>In many parts of Britain the custom was for people, children especially, to play with their “<a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Pace-Egging/">pace-eggs</a>” by rolling them down a chosen slope before eating them. In Iona and Peter Opie’s <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/media/doc/2010/02/16/lore-language-introduction.pdf">1959 study</a> The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, a child reports that: “In Cumberland we take more notice of the pace eggs than chocolate eggs.” Easter eggs as also rolled on the lawn of the US White House, a custom going back to 1878.</p>
<h2>Bunny business</h2>
<p>The association of hares with Easter also considerably predates foil-wrapped chocolate bunnies. As early as 1682, Georg Franck von Franckenau’s essay <a href="https://blogs.royalsociety.org/history-of-science/2017/04/12/bunny-eggs/">De ovis paschalibus</a> (About Easter Eggs) speaks of a German tradition of an Easter hare bringing coloured Easter eggs for the children. </p>
<p>In southern Germany, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/11/archives/an-egg-at-easter-a-folklore-study-by-venetia-newall-illustrated-423.html">children used to be told</a> that a hare laid the pace-eggs and they would make a nest for the creature to lay them in. The Easter hare was also known in parts of the British Isles and was particularly associated with having to hunt out eggs hidden in the garden, where the hare was supposed to have put them.</p>
<p>A curious entry in the <a href="https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/domestic/jas1/1619-23">Calendar of State Papers</a> for April 2 1620, suggests that hares were also often eaten at Easter: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Thos. Fulnety solicits the permission of Lord Zouch, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, to kill a hare on Good Friday, as huntsmen say that those who have not a hare against Easter must eat a red herring. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hares were also ritually hunted at Easter in England – there is a note in the <a href="https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N13934437">Chamberlains’ Accounts</a> for the year 1574 that twelvepence was “given to the hare-finders at Whetston Court”. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269960/original/file-20190418-28103-o981vc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269960/original/file-20190418-28103-o981vc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269960/original/file-20190418-28103-o981vc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269960/original/file-20190418-28103-o981vc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269960/original/file-20190418-28103-o981vc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269960/original/file-20190418-28103-o981vc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269960/original/file-20190418-28103-o981vc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269960/original/file-20190418-28103-o981vc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cornish pagan Easter hare made from papier-mâché.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Malcolm Lidbury via Wikiemedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An Easter hare hunt survived as part of Leicester’s ritual year as <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Folk-Lore/Volume_3/The_Easter_Hare">late as the 18th century</a>, though by then a dead cat was substituted for an actual hare. Jacob Grimm, looking at this evidence for an association of ritual activity involving hares with the Easter season, conjectured that the hare was sacred to the goddess Ostara, piling one conjecture on top of another. </p>
<p>So the truth is that Easter rituals as we know them today represent an untidy collection of customs connected with celebrating spring growth and the end of austerity – a time for new clothes and rich food. Any connection with pre-Christian paganism is entirely coincidental.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115645/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Stevenson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Easter is actually a mish-mash of different traditions celebrating the coming of spring.
Jane Stevenson, Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/107932
2018-12-17T11:42:12Z
2018-12-17T11:42:12Z
Exorcisms have been part of Christianity for centuries
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250720/original/file-20181214-185268-dv5mox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A painting showing Saint Francis Borgia, a 16th century saint,, performing an exorcism.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Francis_Borgia_Helping_a_Dying_Impenitent_by_Goya.jpg">Francisco Goya </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“<a href="https://www.filmsite.org/exor.html">The Exorcist</a>,” a horror film released 45 years ago, is a terrifying depiction of supernatural evil. The film tells the story of a young American girl who is possessed by a demon and eventually exorcised by a Catholic priest. </p>
<p>Many viewers were drawn in by the film’s portrayal of exorcism in Christianity. As a scholar of Christian theology, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/32863568/God_Sexuality_and_the_Demonic_An_Essay_on_the_Trinity_Combative_Prayer_and_Sarah_Coakley">my own research</a> into the history of Christian exorcisms reveals how the notion of engaging in battle against demons has been an important way that Christians have understood their faith and the world. </p>
<h2>Early and medieval Christianity</h2>
<p>The Bible’s account of the life of Jesus features several exorcism stories. The Gospels, reflecting views <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/how-the-serpent-became-satan/">common in Judaism</a> in the first century A.D., portray demons as spirits opposed to God that haunt, possess or tempt people to evil. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exorcism by St. Exupere, Bishop of Toulouse, France, at the beginning of fifth century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cathedral_of_Bayeux_(France),_exorcism_by_Saint_Exupere.jpg">Philippe Alès</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Possessed individuals are depicted as displaying bizarre and erratic behaviors. In the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+9%3A37-43&version=NIV">Gospel of Luke</a>, for example, a boy is possessed by a demon that makes him foam at the mouth and experience violent spasms. Jesus is shown to have a unique power to cast out demons and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+10%3A5-8&version=NIV">promises</a> that his followers can do the same. </p>
<p>In the centuries that followed, accounts of using Jesus’ name for casting out demons are common. Origen, an early Christian theologian, <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04161.htm">writing</a> in the second century, explains how the name of Jesus is used by Christians to expel “evil spirits from … souls and bodies.” </p>
<p>Over the years exorcism came to be associated more widely with the Christian faith. Several Christian writers mention exorcisms taking place publicly as a way to convince people to become Christians. They <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2802.htm">argued</a> that people should convert because the exorcisms Christians performed were more effective than those of “pagans.” </p>
<p>Early Christian texts mention <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7kbotwEACAAJ&dq=new+catholic+encyclopedia&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=exorcism">various</a> exorcism methods that Christians used, including making the sign of the cross over possessed persons or even breathing on them. </p>
<h2>Minor exorcism</h2>
<p>Beginning some time in the early Middle Ages, specific priests were uniquely trained and sanctioned for exorcism. This remains the case today in Roman Catholicism, while <a href="https://www.goarch.org/-/exorcism-in-the-orthodox-church">Eastern Orthodox traditions</a> allow all priests to perform exorcisms. </p>
<p>Early Christians also <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7kbotwEACAAJ&dq=new+catholic+encyclopedia&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=baptism">practiced</a> what is sometimes called a “minor exorcism.” This type of exorcism is not for those considered to be acutely possessed.</p>
<p>This took place before or during the ritual of baptism, a ceremony whereby someone officially joins the Church. The practice emerges from the assumption that all people are generally susceptible to evil spiritual forces. For this reason some sort of prayer or statement against the power of the devil would often be recited during catechesis, a period of preparation prior to baptism, baptism, or both. </p>
<h2>Demons and Protestants</h2>
<p>Between the 15th to 17th centuries, there was an increased concern about demons in Western Europe. Not only are there <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VnSEsi8Q510C&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+devil+within&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiP5vrX-prfAhXkmuAKHTfWDLAQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=the%20devil%20within&f=false">abundant accounts</a> of priests exorcising individuals from this time period, but also of animals, inanimate objects and even land. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woodcut from 1598 shows an exorcism performed on a woman by a priest and his assistant, with a demon emerging from her mouth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woodcut-1598-witch-trial.jpg">Pierre Boaistuau, et al., Histoires prodigieuses et memorables, extraictes de plusieurs fameux autheurs, Grecs, & Latins, sacrez & prophanes (Paris, 1598), vol. 1.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The narratives are also much more detailed. When someone possessed by a demon was confronted by an exorcist priest, it <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VnSEsi8Q510C&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+devil+within&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiP5vrX-prfAhXkmuAKHTfWDLAQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=the%20devil%20within&f=false">was believed</a> that the demon would be aggravated and cause the individual to engage in more intense and violent behavior. There are reports of physical altercations, floating around the room, and speaking or screaming loudly and angrily during the exorcism process. </p>
<p>Protestants, who were skeptical of many Catholic rituals, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VnSEsi8Q510C&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+devil+within&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiP5vrX-prfAhXkmuAKHTfWDLAQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=the%20devil%20within&f=false">combated demonic possession with more informal practices</a> such as impromptu prayer for the afflicted individual. </p>
<p>During the Enlightenment, between 17th to 19th centuries, Europeans began to cast doubt on so-called “superstitious” elements of religion. Many intellectuals and even church leaders argued that people’s experiences of demons could be explained away by psychology and other sciences. Exorcism began to be viewed by many as unnecessary or even dangerous. </p>
<h2>Exorcism today</h2>
<p>Many Christian denominations still practice some form of minor exorcism. Before people are baptized in the Episcopal Church, for example, they <a href="https://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/bcp_04-28-2017.compressed_0.pdf">are asked</a>: “Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exorcism is practiced by Christians across the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/1014910600?src=sJy4tonxTQZIlSV4zWnxYw-3-62&size=medium_jpg">Lutsenko_Oleksandr/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Catholic Church <a href="http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments-and-sacramentals/sacramentals-blessings/exorcism.cfm">still has</a> an active ministry devoted to performing exorcisms of possessed individuals. The current practice includes safeguards that require, among others, persons suspected of being possessed to undergo medical and psychiatric evaluation before an exorcism takes place. </p>
<p>Exorcism is particularly <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2014/11/13/chapter-4-pentecostalism/">common</a> in Pentecostalism, a form of Christianity that has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/pentecostal_1.shtml">grown rapidly</a> in recent decades. This branch of Christianity emphasizes spiritual experience in everyday life. Pentecostals practice something akin to exorcism but which is typically called “deliverance.” Pentecostals maintain that possessed persons can be delivered through prayer by other Christians or recognized spiritual leader. Pentecostalism is an international Christian tradition and specific deliverance <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=o6RMDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=spirit-filled+world&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwie8Znp-ZvfAhXoYN8KHVTKDv0Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=spirit-filled%20world&f=false">practices can vary widely</a> around the world. </p>
<p>In the United States belief in demons remains high. Over half of all Americans <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/philosophy/articles-reports/2013/09/17/poll-results-exorcism">believe</a> that demons can possess individuals. </p>
<p>So, despite modern-day skepticism, exorcism remains a common practice of Christians around the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Kyle Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Forty-five years ago, ‘The Exorcist’ terrified viewers with its portrayal of a practice that goes back several centuries and continues today in Christianity.
S. Kyle Johnson, Doctoral Student in Systematic Theology, Boston College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/92023
2018-02-20T19:10:53Z
2018-02-20T19:10:53Z
Mythbusting Ancient Rome: did Christians ban the ancient Olympics?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206873/original/file-20180219-75974-1norarm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Greek amphora showing athletes, 4th century B.C. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> ©Trustees of the British Museum. (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every two years, when the Winter or Summer Olympics comes around, we hear about how the games staged at Olympia in Greece since 776 B.C. came to a sudden end in the late fourth century A.D. The finger is pointed at the Christian Roman emperor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodosius-I">Theodosius I</a> (A.D. 379-395), who is <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/google-doodle-120th-anniversary-of-first-modern-olympics-games-a6970476.html">said to have</a> banned the Olympics in the 390s <a href="https://www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/olympic-games-are-abolished-with-paganism/">as part of a wider political program</a> directed against pagan religion, its rituals, and its festivals.</p>
<p>The idea that the athletic contests – held in honour of the Greek god Zeus for over a thousand years – were shut down by a puritanical Christian emperor makes for a good story. But is it actually true?</p>
<h2>Imperial intervention?</h2>
<p>Theodosius I did issue a series of edicts against pagan sacrifice in the years A.D. 391-392. These have been preserved in a collection of laws known as <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Theodosian_Code_and_Novels_and_the_S.html?id=-ROBb7SIvYgC&redir_esc=y">the Theodosian Code</a>, which was compiled in the fifth century A.D. by the emperor’s grandson. An excerpt from one of these edicts states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No person at all … shall sacrifice an innocent victim to senseless images in any place at all or in any city. He shall not, by more secret wickedness, venerate his lar with fire, his genius with wine, his penates with fragrant odours; he shall not burn lights to them, place incense before them, or suspend wreaths for them.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206892/original/file-20180219-75979-5uxz1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206892/original/file-20180219-75979-5uxz1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206892/original/file-20180219-75979-5uxz1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206892/original/file-20180219-75979-5uxz1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206892/original/file-20180219-75979-5uxz1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206892/original/file-20180219-75979-5uxz1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206892/original/file-20180219-75979-5uxz1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marble fragment depicting animal sacrifice, Rome, 2nd century AD. Now in the Louvre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Neither this passage, nor any of the other edicts in the Theodosian Code, actually mentions the abolition of the Olympic Games, as <a href="https://www.bisp-surf.de/Record/PU200607001795">the historian Ingomar Weiler has pointed out</a>. Sacrifices and libations to the gods had long been a part of the ancient Olympics, as with other Greek festivals. But the evidence suggests that sacrifices had largely ceased to take place at these events by the mid-fourth century as a result of changes in religious practices.</p>
<p>The games at Olympia <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/classical-studies/ancient-history/end-greek-athletics-late-antiquity?format=HB#xhBf5yOo1tlV53GI.97">remained popular throughout the Roman period</a>, with athletes competing both for their personal fame and for glory for their home city. A recently discovered inscription listing victorious athletes demonstrates that the games were still going strong through to Theodosius I’s reign. The court poet <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claudian">Claudian</a> then refers to the Olympics in A.D. 399, after the emperor’s death.</p>
<p>The most conclusive evidence of the games’ survival after Theodosius I issued his ban on sacrifice can be found in the work of an anonymous literary commentator. He states that the Olympics ceased to be held in the fifth century A.D., during the reign of Theodosius I’s grandson, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodosius-II">Theodosius II</a> (A.D. 408-450):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since the Temple of Olympian Zeus had caught fire, both the Elean festival and the Olympic Games came to an end.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Olympic festivals (named after the original games at Olympia) continued to take place elsewhere in the Roman empire as well. The Olympics at Ephesus are attested until A.D. 420, and they continued at Antioch in Syria until the early sixth century A.D. Even though public entertainments were often criticised by Christian clerics, a prominent Christian senator, Leontios, intended to stage his own Olympics in Chalcedon in the mid-fifth century A.D. He would not have dared to do this if the imperial administration had banned such festivals.</p>
<h2>Economic stringencies</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206875/original/file-20180219-76003-1k73wit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206875/original/file-20180219-76003-1k73wit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206875/original/file-20180219-76003-1k73wit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206875/original/file-20180219-76003-1k73wit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206875/original/file-20180219-76003-1k73wit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206875/original/file-20180219-76003-1k73wit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206875/original/file-20180219-76003-1k73wit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206875/original/file-20180219-76003-1k73wit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coin of Theodosius I.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What did cause the games at Olympia to end in the fifth century A.D.? Archaeological evidence shows that the site and the infrastructure for the contests (such as the buildings used to house athletes) fell into disuse. The statue of Zeus, one of the seven wonders of the world, was removed from the temple and <a href="http://www.academia.edu/21863001/No_8_What_Happened_to_the_Zeus_of_Olympia_AHB_2007">taken to Constantinople</a>. The workshop of Phidias, who built the statue, <a href="http://www.academia.edu/1053014/Hellenic_Heritage_and_Christian_Challenge_Conflict_over_Panhellenic_Sanctuaries_in_Late_Antiquity">was converted into a church</a>. This evidence suggests a gradual decline and re-appropriation of the space at Olympia.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-hellenic-studies/article/the-end-of-the-ancient-olympics-and-other-contests-why-the-agonistic-circuit-collapsed-in-late-antiquity/CB0A74BBB381A7C9537AE62FE85CD65B#">historian Sofie Remijsen has argued</a> that the end of the games was not the result of an imperial edict against paganism, but a change in economic circumstances. Long-term developments in the administration of the empire during the fourth century A.D. meant that rich elites increasingly had to sponsor contests out of their own pockets, and the civic funds set up to support the games were used for other purposes. The contests at Olympia ended because no one could afford it. Such a fate may eventually befall the modern games, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jul/27/biggest-threat-future-olympic-games-rio-2016-ioc-thomas-bach-hosts">as spiralling costs make hosting the Olympics an unattractive proposition</a>.</p>
<h2>Let the games continue</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206876/original/file-20180219-75994-a442k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206876/original/file-20180219-75994-a442k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206876/original/file-20180219-75994-a442k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206876/original/file-20180219-75994-a442k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206876/original/file-20180219-75994-a442k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206876/original/file-20180219-75994-a442k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206876/original/file-20180219-75994-a442k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206876/original/file-20180219-75994-a442k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Statue at Le Parc Olympique, Lausanne of the founder of the Modern Olympic Games, Baron de Coubertin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notion that Theodosius I banned the Olympics has quite a history. Back in the 11th century, the Byzantine author Georgius Cedrenus cited the now familiar story of the ban, but it came back into the popular imagination with the advent of the modern Olympic Games under the auspices of Pierre de Coubertin in the late 19th century.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-baron-de-Coubertin">De Coubertin</a>, a French aristocrat, had an inherent belief in the “character-building” capacity of sport. Alongside English educator <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/Olympic-Games#ref858081">William Penny Brookes</a>, he formed a committee with a mission to restore the Olympic Games to their former glory, minus tripods, incense, and sacrifices. Athens was the place and 1896 was the year. Following the games, de Coubertin reflected upon his achievement in Century Illustrated Magazine:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was a thrilling moment. Fifteen hundred and two years before, the Emperor Theodosius had suppressed the Olympic games, thinking, no doubt, that in abolishing this hated survival of paganism he was furthering the cause of progress; and here [opening the games] was a Christian monarch, amid the applause of an assemblage composed almost exclusively of Christians, announcing the formal annulment of the imperial decree; while a few feet away stood the archbishop of Athens, and Père Didon, the celebrated Dominican preacher, who, in his Easter sermon in the Catholic cathedral the day before, had paid an eloquent tribute to pagan Greece.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>De Coubertin highlights a problem: for centuries newspapers, periodicals, and literature had propagated the belief that pagan practices, including the Olympics, had rightly been stamped out by the rise and spread of Christianity. Yet the modern Olympic founder was taking pleasure not only in the fact that the games had been revived but also that a Dominican preacher (who was, incidentally, also the inventor of the Olympic motto) had paid tribute to pagan Greece.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206877/original/file-20180219-75994-meakwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206877/original/file-20180219-75994-meakwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206877/original/file-20180219-75994-meakwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206877/original/file-20180219-75994-meakwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206877/original/file-20180219-75994-meakwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206877/original/file-20180219-75994-meakwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206877/original/file-20180219-75994-meakwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206877/original/file-20180219-75994-meakwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cover of the official report of 1896 Athens Summer Olympics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The answer to this apparent contradiction lies in de Coubertin’s wider modern Olympic message, which itself was based on an idealised version of Classical Greece. However critically Greek and Roman paganism were viewed, the status of Classical Greece as the home of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle had always confirmed its place at the centre of European education. For physical educationalists such as de Coubertin, nothing topped the pinnacle of the Olympic Games, Greece’s oldest and most popular sporting event.</p>
<p>The key was to adapt the games to “the needs and taste of the age”. This meant no more trappings of religious cult. Thus, when Père Didon praised “pagan Greece”, it was as the home of “beauty, grace, and strength all in one” (de Coubertin’s words); the perfect, philosophical place to educate the energetic youth of any era.</p>
<h2>Ending with a whimper not a bang</h2>
<p>Ultimately, the blame for ending the Olympic Games was laid at the feet of Theodosius I because it was difficult for people to believe that the festival – a defining cultural symbol of antiquity – simply fizzled out after more than a thousand years. The conflict between paganism and Christianity in the later Roman empire became an easy way of explaining the end of this great athletic contest.</p>
<p>By the time de Coubertin came to revive the Olympics in the 19th century, this story was set in stone. In restaging the games in a modern world, he drew inspiration from the athleticism of the Classical Greeks, but left the pagan rituals of the ancient world far behind.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92023/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caillan Davenport receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shushma Malik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The idea that the athletic contests – held in honour of the Greek god Zeus for over a thousand years – were shut down by a puritanical Christian emperor makes for a good story. But is it true?
Caillan Davenport, Senior Lecturer in Roman History, Macquarie University
Shushma Malik, Lecturer in Classics, University of Roehampton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/76811
2017-04-27T17:08:30Z
2017-04-27T17:08:30Z
Did Europe’s leading fire festival do a deal with the Devil to stay alight?
<p>In the heart of Edinburgh on the eve of May Day every year is an ancient Gaelic fire festival called Beltane. Set on the imposing <a href="http://www.edinburghguide.com/parks/caltonhill">Calton Hill</a>, opposite the headquarters of the Scottish government, this year marks 30 years since the ancient tradition was revived by a group of alternative artists. </p>
<p>It is now one of the most celebrated spectacles in the city’s events calendar, and the biggest of its kind in Europe. It is sometimes attended by more than 10,000 revellers – and it also happens to be 20 years since I first took part as one of the drummers. </p>
<p>Beltane has certainly paid a price for its current status, having professionalised and to some extent sanitised along the way. So was the journey worth it, and can alternative festivals go mainstream and still matter?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newgrange.com/beltane.htm">Beltane</a> was originally one of four ancient Gaelic festivals that took place throughout Europe to celebrate the passage of the seasons (along with <a href="https://www.digitalmedievalist.com/opinionated-celtic-faqs/samain/">Samhuinn</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/imbolc.shtml">Imbolc</a> and <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/296380946/Lughnasadh-Research-PDF">Lughnasadh</a>). Its <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-golden-bough-9780199538829?q=The%20golden%20bough&lang=en&cc=gb">origins</a> lie in the celebration of spring and the fertility of land, livestock and people. </p>
<p>The name is thought to originate from a Gaelic-Celtic word meaning “<a href="https://beltane.org/about/about-beltane/">bright/sacred fire</a>”, and a common element of these festivals was the “Neid-Fire”, lit by a spiritual figurehead. From this source, communal bonfires were lit and individual home fires were re-lit as a purifying rite – with “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-golden-bough-9780199538829?q=The%20golden%20bough&lang=en&cc=gb">plenty of beer and whisky</a>” swallowed along the way. </p>
<p>These festivals were discouraged in later, God-fearing centuries and were mostly discontinued in the prim Victorian era. In Scotland, only Edinburgh’s Beltane survived into the early 20th century until its beacon was extinguished, too. </p>
<h2>A new flame</h2>
<p>Then came a group in the late 1980s led by <a href="http://nva.org.uk/about/">Angus Farquhar</a>, then of industrial band <a href="http://testdept.org.uk">Test Dept</a>. Others included the poet <a href="http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poetry/poets/hamish-henderson">Hamish Henderson</a> and the folklorist <a href="https://www.margaretbennett.co.uk">Margaret Bennett</a>, then of Edinburgh University’s <a href="http://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/celtic-scottish-studies/archives">School of Scottish Studies</a>, and choreographers <a href="http://lindsayjohn.weebly.com/index.html">Lindsay John</a> and <a href="http://www.elizabethranken.com">Elizabeth Ranken</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167060/original/file-20170427-15105-p7f22y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167060/original/file-20170427-15105-p7f22y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167060/original/file-20170427-15105-p7f22y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167060/original/file-20170427-15105-p7f22y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167060/original/file-20170427-15105-p7f22y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167060/original/file-20170427-15105-p7f22y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167060/original/file-20170427-15105-p7f22y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167060/original/file-20170427-15105-p7f22y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Calton Hill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calton_Hill_from_a_kite.jpg#/media/File:Calton_Hill_from_a_kite.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the old Beltane had taken place on <a href="https://www.scottishsport.co.uk/walking/arthurseat.htm">Arthur’s Seat</a>, the hills that overlook the city, these organisers chose nearby Calton Hill because permission was easier. It is the site of Edinburgh’s unfinished acropolis the <a href="http://www.edinburghguide.com/parks/caltonhill">National Monument</a>, which at the time had a negative reputation as a no-go part of the city come dusk. The hill also acts as the symbolic seat of power for the Scottish government, which added to the sense of playful subversion they had in mind. </p>
<p>The original free all-night festival was attended by just a couple of hundred people. It was about protest as celebration, against the black and white politics of 1980s Britain. It overlapped with the wider British <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01438300600625408">free festival scene</a> that had led to the era of Stonehenge as <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-battle-of-the-beanfield-the-violent-new-age-traveller-clash-with-police-at-stonehenge-remembered-10287028.html">contested site</a>, later culminating in acid house raves, road protests and the controversial <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/part/V/crossheading/powers-in-relation-to-raves">Criminal Justice Act 1994</a>. </p>
<p>The core has always been a procession of the <a href="https://beltane.org/2017/04/14/whos-who-on-the-hill/">May Queen</a>, the death and rebirth of the <a href="https://beltane.org/2016/12/27/calling-our-next-green-man-for-beltane-2017/">Green Man</a>, and the lighting of a bonfire, all set to the beating of drums, fire and acrobatics. Among the additional characters are <a href="https://beltane.org/category/reds/">the Reds</a>, who embody the carnivalesque, the fools who become kings for a night, and the need in all of us to let loose and go wild. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167090/original/file-20170427-15102-c8rc2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167090/original/file-20170427-15102-c8rc2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167090/original/file-20170427-15102-c8rc2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167090/original/file-20170427-15102-c8rc2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167090/original/file-20170427-15102-c8rc2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167090/original/file-20170427-15102-c8rc2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167090/original/file-20170427-15102-c8rc2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/patrickdown/17141150920/in/photolist-s7GSYQ-27RCY-27RFV-4KWjHj-4HLhs-4HLhA-D6CpG-6jNnCL-Jp6Zu-6kGAAa-EBDVz-6juUxW-Jp6ZJ-6jqJtR-9fBRmh-6jqJJ2-6jqJDH-6juUvC-6jqJqr-6juULs-6juUrE-6jqJxx-6juUzm-6juUHb-sqhXNR-6jqJyk-6juUF7-6jqJrM-6jqJog-6jqJAn-numX8T-aaWBb-JoZWz-Joo42-6jqJM8-6jqJBZ-dbf2K-7XKZ8W-JoZWx-dbf2N-JpCdY-6juUPS-6jNjoJ-EBDTF-dbgoR-JpBNN-dbgoS-6juUNA-6jJ6xt-sqad5J">Patrick Down</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I joined as one of the Beastie Drummers, who accompany the Reds, having been recruited through a djembe drumming class at Edinburgh University. It was a liberating experience, both primal and modern, all dancing and chanting to the beat of the drums. It would fragment into smaller hillside gatherings until dawn, as boundaries blurred with the audience and we all celebrated a sense of belonging to something forgotten</p>
<h2>Changing times</h2>
<p>The festival has overcome numerous hurdles over the years – the first when Angus Farquhar stepped down in 1992 and the <a href="https://beltane.org/about/">Beltane Fire Society</a> was formed. The new board still had to contend with a darker undercurrent linked to the location and the free nature of the festival, relying on year-round fundraising and bucket donations on the night.</p>
<p>“There were a lot of rougher people when it was free,” says one organiser. “[There was a] violent undertone which never manifested too often but it was there.” The police presence steadily grew and negotiations with the city council became increasingly fraught amid perceived fears about drug dealing, fights and health and safety regulations. </p>
<p>In 2002, I took part in what was to be my final Beltane drumming performance before leaving Edinburgh to work abroad for a time. It also turned out to be the end of the first era since the revival. The festival was <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/one-capital-event-we-must-reignite-1-873108">forced to cancel</a> in 2003, reduced to a low-key private ritual elsewhere. In the post-9/11 world, health and safety costs had gone through the roof and bucket donations were no longer adequate. </p>
<p>It returned the following year with low-cost ticketing and a 1am curfew. This removed the minority undercurrent but also “that sense of controlled anarchic freedom”, according to a former organiser. Some more activist supporters felt the spirit had gone, though the performance certainly retained that sense of temporary freedom, transgression from convention and wild abandon. </p>
<p>There was another milestone in 2008 when the Beltane Fire Society was granted charitable status. It now has a mutually respectful relationship with the council and works hard to encourage audience/performer engagement through workshops and additional groups and characters. </p>
<h2>A rite of passage</h2>
<p>The modern Beltane has always been a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/6960759/Tinsley_R._and_Matheson_C._M._2014._Layers_of_passage_The_ritual_performance_and_liminal_bleed_of_the_Beltane_Fire_Festival_Edinburgh">rite of passage</a>. It relies heavily on students and young people from around the world, and the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517714000247">audience</a> too is nearly 80% first-time attenders with most resident but not born in Scotland. This has always meant that new performers and organisers have been able to rejuvenate the society’s vision along the way. </p>
<p>Since my Beltane days, I have been through a fair few subsequent rites of passage of my own, one of which will accompany me to my first family-friendly Beltane community open day this weekend. I’ve also secured tickets to attend the main event this year with the school friend I originally signed up with 20 years ago. </p>
<p>The broader political climate too has come full circle for this 30th Beltane, with the Tories dominant and even threatening a comeback in Scotland. The festival might have had to compromise to be embraced by the Edinburgh establishment, but you can expect this year’s celebration to include nods to recent global events and the society’s activist roots. In an era that has forgotten so much of its ancient traditions, better a May Day cup that’s mostly full than nothing left at all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76811/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Tinsley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Edinburgh will this year host the 30th Beltane.
Ross Tinsley, Lecturer, Tourism, Edinburgh Napier University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/43102
2015-07-13T10:22:25Z
2015-07-13T10:22:25Z
A new weapon of Islamist extremists is…poetry?
<p>Militant Islamist groups have a number of strategies for recruiting vulnerable young men to their cause. They <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/alqaeda-video-shows-public-execution-of-woman-accused-of-adultery--and-has-disgusted-even-isis-supporters-9980813.html">produce videos</a>, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-isis-propaganda-20140831-story.html">tap into social media</a> and <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-using-pamphlets-graffiti-influence-indias-pakistans-youngsters-1464393">write fiery pamphlets</a> with overblown rhetoric.</p>
<p>But they’re also <a href="http://www.academia.edu/10175119/Yemens_al-Qaida_and_Poetry_as_a_Weapon_of_Jihad">increasingly turning to poetry</a>: with its rich vocabulary, the Arabic language lends itself easily to rhyme and rhythm, which can have a mesmerizing effect. </p>
<p>Poetry is also deeply ingrained in pre-Islamic and Islamic Arab culture, and it’s this literary tradition that contemporary militants hope to mine as they attempt to lure new members into their ranks.</p>
<h2>Pre-Islamic tribes engaged in wars of words</h2>
<p>The tone and tenor of militant poetry mirrors verses from the period known as the <em>Jahiliyya</em>, in Arabic, which refers to the era before the rise of Islam in the seventh century. </p>
<p>Pre-Islamic tribes often had their own special poet – a <em>sha‘ir</em>, in Arabic – who was believed to be endowed with magical verbal powers, and whose poetic virtuosity could be used to defend tribal honor. Their poems sought to vilify the enemy, while praising and lifting the spirits of their own tribes. Often, these pagan Arab poets and poetesses would recite warmongering verses before crowds to rouse the passions of their own warriors. </p>
<p>Despite the Islamic terminology contemporary composers carefully deploy, today’s militant poetry often draws upon the same pre-Islamic vocabulary and themes, which included the glorification of violence to defend tribal or masculine honor. </p>
<p>Here are some fire-breathing verses penned by a poet connected with al-Qaeda who goes by the name of al-Shaykh al-Jaburi:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Bid them farewell – with bullets, just as you received them<br>
Bid them farewell with rockets, just as you received them…<br>
Strike them and curse them and curse those who ally with them…<br>
Destroy the palatial mansions and destroy them<br>
Flog every wrong-doer, flog them –<br>
Bid them farewell and scatter rose petals on the ground where you fought them </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Compare al-Jaburi’s verses to those of Shanfara, a pre-Islamic poet from the sixth century. Shanfara lived on the margins of society; he similarly exalted violence as a way of life, while boasting about his ability to impart fear:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>O how many a night of ill luck when the hunter burns his bow<br>
For fuel, and his arrow wood,<br>
Have I trodden through darkness and drizzle, on fire with hunger,
Grinding inside, shivering, filled with dread<br>
Then have I widowed women and orphaned children<br>
Returning as I began, the night a blacker black</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(<a href="https://books.google.co%20m/books?id=z-I_Rws68bgC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=michael+sells+%22for+fuel,+and+his+arrow+wood%22&source=bl&ots=CYQgwzmWc0&sig=QW48d48oLTjUa_epDDvdcQ1C5zI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0hucVav_M8yMNsmFgMgG&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false">translation</a> by Michael Sells)</p>
<p>Both poems are imbued with grandiose expressions of brutal power and destruction. Ironically, because the <em>Jahiliyya</em> was a period characterized by ignorance of Islam and tribal blood feuds, militant Islamists today often invoke this era as the very <em>opposite</em> of the pristine Islamic values for which they supposedly stand.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87684/original/image-20150707-1306-1o7cit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87684/original/image-20150707-1306-1o7cit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87684/original/image-20150707-1306-1o7cit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87684/original/image-20150707-1306-1o7cit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87684/original/image-20150707-1306-1o7cit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87684/original/image-20150707-1306-1o7cit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87684/original/image-20150707-1306-1o7cit4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 19th-century tattooing pattern depicts pre-Islamic Arab poet Antarah ibn Shaddad (left) and his lover Abla (middle) riding horses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Antarah_ibn_Shaddad_%26_Abla.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Poetic vitriol</h2>
<p>Stinging satire – <em>hija’</em> – directed against the enemy was another hallmark of pre-Islamic poetry, and poetic denigration of the opponent was meant to contribute to the demoralization of the enemy. Some pre-modern peoples in other parts of the world had such poet laureates. The Irish <em>filid</em>, for example, served a similar role for the Gaelic ruling elite and were feared particularly for their wounding satire.</p>
<p>The prophet Muhammad disapproved of the character defamation that the pre-Islamic poets indulged in, although he’s known to have allowed poetry that defended Islam against its critics. </p>
<p>The Qur'an also denounces tribal poets who used their linguistic talents for ignoble purposes. For this reason, satirical poetry was frowned upon and experienced a decline in popularity during the very early Islamic period.</p>
<p>But it began to make a gradual comeback during the Umayyad period (656–750 CE), when the worldly Umayyad rulers began celebrating some aspects of pre-Islamic Arab culture that were otherwise at odds with Islamic values. This included a revival of political, vitriolic poetry that delighted in lampooning one’s rival and openly proclaiming his faults. The famed Umayyad poets al-Farazdaq and Jarir traded poetic insults with considerable malevolent eloquence at the courts of the Umayyad rulers, even as the pious clucked their tongues in disapproval. </p>
<p>Despite the Islamicizing rhetoric of today’s militant versifiers, they also employ the satirical aspects of pre-Islamic poetry. The aforementioned al-Jaburi lampoons his perceived enemies, the Muslim majority:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Most of the people are miserable wretches<br>
They are those who sleep in the pockets of the rulers and sing their praises night and day…<br>
Most of the people are miserable wretches,<br>
They befriend the oppressor who takes food from the mouths of the poor…
Even though they see the umma [Muslim community] grieving and lying prone…<br>
Most of the people are miserable wretches, whether learned or ignorant</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s interesting that the <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/01/islamic-state-kjarijites-continuation.html#">Kharijites</a>, a violence-prone, extremist minority in early Islamic history, were also fond of pillorying the majority of Muslims, whom they denounced as sinners for not joining their ranks. </p>
<p>If our 21st-century militants sound a lot like them, it’s because they’re very similar in this regard. Al-Qaeda members have been known to use Khariji poetry as part of their linguistic arsenal, while strenuously denying any genealogical connection between their ideology and that of the seventh-century Kharijites, who are regarded as a deviant, intolerant sect by the majority of Muslims. </p>
<h2>The hypocrisy of militant poetry</h2>
<p>Poetry – the lyrical, romantic kind, the type that extols the mystical life and that speaks to universal human concerns – remains very important within Arab-Islamic culture. Schoolchildren in Arab societies typically memorize extensive selections of the classics of pre-modern Arabic poetry. Recitation of the Qur'an is poetic in effect because of its rhyming prose. </p>
<p>Militants are therefore tapping into entrenched literary tastes among Arab populations and appropriating them for their own inglorious ends. </p>
<p>Like many of the pre-Islamic poets, they consider poetry a weapon, one used to actively promote their own ideological goals and simultaneously destroy their enemies. Contemporary extremist groups accuse mainstream Muslims of having lapsed into pre-Islamic paganism for not recognizing the “truth” of their bloody cause. At the same time, these groups cynically adopt and exploit certain practices that clearly hearken back to the pre-Islamic period. </p>
<p>Such irony would be amusing if it were not for the tragic consequences of such self-serving eclecticism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43102/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asma Afsaruddin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Militants are tapping into centuries-old literary tastes, appropriating them for their own nefarious ends.
Asma Afsaruddin, Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Indiana University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/39562
2015-04-01T19:13:39Z
2015-04-01T19:13:39Z
Easter scuppers the certainties of modern fundamentalists
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76520/original/image-20150331-1266-1n6rlxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The proposition that Easter is a 100% Christian affair is manifestly unsustainable.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hartwig HKD</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Teaching any sort of academic program with religious content can be a tricky undertaking. Religious passions, whether pro or con, can be volatile; religion is a matter about which people can become upset. </p>
<p>My doctoral studies were in the relatively safe arena of Greek philosophy – no-one really cares what you say about Socrates and his mates these days – but I taught Religious Studies for many years and it was, by comparison, a minefield of sensitivities. In all those years, however, I managed to only really upset somebody once. </p>
<p>The student in question was a mature French lady, and she took great exception to my matter-of-fact announcement in one lecture that Easter had many pre-Christian associations and had its roots in ancient pagan festivals.</p>
<p>She went blue in the face, spat out several French expletives, stormed out of the lecture hall and never returned.</p>
<p>I was surprised by this because I regarded the pagan roots of Easter to be an uncontroversial matter. For a start, the word itself, “Easter”, is usually regarded as being derived from Anglo-Saxon forms such as “Estara” or “Ostara” (and cognates) associated with a dawn goddess and common spring festivals celebrated in the British Isles and Northern Europe long before Christianity. According to some, those associations extend back to the Babylonian deity Astarte. </p>
<p>More obviously, the ubiquitous egg given as a gift (or munched as a chocolate indulgence) at Easter is a widely employed fertility symbol that signals the rebirth of vegetation and the end of animal hibernation after the northern hemisphere’s winter. (If you tend backyard chickens, as I do, you’d understand.) </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76513/original/image-20150331-1277-rvsr6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76513/original/image-20150331-1277-rvsr6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76513/original/image-20150331-1277-rvsr6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76513/original/image-20150331-1277-rvsr6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76513/original/image-20150331-1277-rvsr6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76513/original/image-20150331-1277-rvsr6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76513/original/image-20150331-1277-rvsr6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76513/original/image-20150331-1277-rvsr6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">エン バルドマン</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is certainly nothing Christian about the Easter egg; it is pre-Christian and, more to the point, pagan in its history and its associations. That the Easter festival has pre-Christian, pagan layers of symbolism, therefore, I regard as an incontestable fact, but it seems that even such a “given” can be contested and can upset some people; such is the nature of religion, a field of cherished certainties. </p>
<p>The real source of the French woman’s peeve, I suppose, is the broader implication that there are pagan elements in Christianity. That is all I was suggesting, and again it seems to me a matter that should not rouse controversy. Nor does it detract from Christianity – on the contrary, it can and should be seen as a part of the accumulated richness of the Christian tradition.</p>
<p>When Christianity moved into pagan regions – especially in Europe – it would sometimes adopt the tactic of ruthlessly eradicating the existing religious culture. More often, though, it took the more pragmatic and compassionate approach of absorbing and adapting pagan rites, sites and institutions wherever they were not entirely inimical to the Christian spirit. </p>
<p>Rather than being manically hostile to all things pre-Christian, many of the wisest figures in Christian ideas – St Augustine is a conspicuous example – took the view that the pagan religions had, in their way, prepared the ground for Christ and that Christianity was not so much a replacement for paganism but a fulfilment of it. </p>
<p>In this way local pagan deities became Christian saints and Christian churches were built on pagan sacred sites. It was not so much a matter of invasion and eradication as a matter of adoption and conversion. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76524/original/image-20150331-1274-1set1kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76524/original/image-20150331-1274-1set1kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76524/original/image-20150331-1274-1set1kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76524/original/image-20150331-1274-1set1kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76524/original/image-20150331-1274-1set1kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76524/original/image-20150331-1274-1set1kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76524/original/image-20150331-1274-1set1kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76524/original/image-20150331-1274-1set1kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Saint Augustine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The same held true for festivals and holy days. Christmas and Easter are obvious instances. Both are cases where Christ has been assimilated to aspects of pre-Christian solar worship and the mythos of the dying and reborn sun that is a guiding reality in the life of any agricultural people. </p>
<p>Christmas was assimilated with Yule and related festivals at mid-winter and Easter was assimilated with festivals celebrating the rebirth of sun in the spring. In doing this Christianity showed itself to be not some new, freakish creed from the Middle-East, but rather the fulfilment of great spiritual traditions extending back to the dawn of history. </p>
<p>Christ, moreover, was not just an obscure Jewish carpenter from Palestine, but, as the New Testament insisted, the Prince of Creation, the Logos, who was from the very beginning and who was not unknown before the Incarnation. Appreciating the pagan assimilations of Christianity enriches the Christian tradition; denying them impoverishes it. </p>
<p>It is true that some people use the pagan assimilation of Christianity to supposedly “expose” and undermine the Christian faith. It is a sort of “gotcha” polemic used by anti-Christians and atheists. But that is a simplistic misconception and it need not be the case. </p>
<p>To show that Easter or some other aspect of the Christian tradition has pagan or pre-Christian roots only demonstrates the wealth of the tradition. Living traditions are always like that. They soak up what came before them. Buddhism did much the same in its spread through Asia. Even Islam, for all its official hostility to pagan idolatry, soaked up, absorbed and assimilated, much of pre-Islamic Arab customs. </p>
<p>The sacred month of Ramadan was celebrated long before Muhammad. We should not be surprised that this is the case. Religious traditions never enjoy a <em>tabula rasa</em>. They are at their most destructive and self-defeating when they deny all that came before them. Conversely, they are at their most creative and fertile when they transform all the best things that came before them. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76525/original/image-20150331-1274-1an3mu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76525/original/image-20150331-1274-1an3mu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76525/original/image-20150331-1274-1an3mu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76525/original/image-20150331-1274-1an3mu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76525/original/image-20150331-1274-1an3mu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76525/original/image-20150331-1274-1an3mu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76525/original/image-20150331-1274-1an3mu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76525/original/image-20150331-1274-1an3mu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Roffey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Easter is an example of this. Not only did Christianity transform and sublimate the meanings of the Jewish heritage upon which it was built – Easter is a transformation of Passover – but as it moved into pagan Europe and beyond Christianity absorbed and reshaped much of the pagan order that came before it and it is richer for doing so. </p>
<p>It is even arguable, paradoxical though it might seem, that it preserved and nurtured much of the ancient pagan order that had already fallen into decadence and decay from the degradations of the Roman Empire. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76526/original/image-20150331-1266-1ug9j9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76526/original/image-20150331-1266-1ug9j9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76526/original/image-20150331-1266-1ug9j9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76526/original/image-20150331-1266-1ug9j9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76526/original/image-20150331-1266-1ug9j9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76526/original/image-20150331-1266-1ug9j9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76526/original/image-20150331-1266-1ug9j9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76526/original/image-20150331-1266-1ug9j9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christina</span></span>
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<p>In any case, the proposition that Easter is a 100% purely Christian affair is manifestly unsustainable. You will find it presented as such by Christian apologists – especially of the literalist Protestant persuasion – but it shows an ignorance of history. Worse, it shows a failure to understand the way that religious traditions work and of the rich organic patterns of tradition that they weave, often at odds to their own rhetoric. </p>
<p>Religions are complex things. They have to be because human beings and life itself is complex. To fail to appreciate this fact is exactly the sin of the fundamentalist. Reality is seething and verigated; they want it to be sterile and monochrome. </p>
<p>The modern fundamentalist also fails to appreciate what is sometimes called “cosmic” religion. This failure is a symptom of modern, abstracted urban life. We are removed from such great cosmic facts as the turn of the seasons and the cycles of the sun. </p>
<p>For most Christians in the past Christ was much more a conquering solar deity who overcame the dark trough of winter and was reborn with the new grass at the spring equinox than he was an historical person. </p>
<p>This is what Easter is about, why it is celebrated at the first moon after the equinox and why it became assimilated to the same cycles and themes from pre-Christian times. </p>
<p><br>
<em>This article is part of The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/religion-mythology">Religion + Mythology</a> series</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39562/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rod Blackhurst does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The proposition that Easter is a 100% Christian affair is manifestly unsustainable. It shows an ignorance of history. Worse, it shows a failure to understand the way religious traditions work.
Rod Blackhurst, Honorary professor, College of Arts, Social Sciences, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/33661
2014-10-31T06:16:08Z
2014-10-31T06:16:08Z
From scary stories to scowling pumpkins, Halloween has pagan roots
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63344/original/5sms9s8m-1414688679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Modern vestiges of an ancient past.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8363028@N08/5124200341">8363028@N08</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Halloween these days calls pumpkins to mind, cackling witches, teenagers pulling pranks and scream masks. You probably know that all this derives from All Hallows’ Eve, the night before the Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day, the time when the dead are remembered.</p>
<p>But Christianity itself appropriated the tradition from pagan ancestors. And so the night which is, in the secular and commercial world, Halloween and in the Christian calendar, All Hallows’ Eve, has its roots in the pagan Wheel of the Year and the festival of Samhain. </p>
<p>Samhain, usually pronounced “Sowan”, is a central festival in the historical and neo-pagan calendars. Neo-paganism may appear to be a relatively recent faith, but it is founded upon a perception of – and research connected to – credible ancient belief. </p>
<h2>The Wheel of the Year</h2>
<p>One of the few beliefs enjoyed by almost all pagans, past and present, is the cycle of natural life. Perceiving how the earth’s plant-life moved with a seeming regularity from dormancy, through youthful growth to fruitfulness to the semblance of death, it is hardly surprising that these pre-literate ancestors mapped this organic pathway upon finite human existence. The cycle of nature was seen as intimate to human existence, and the pagans of old quite likely saw themselves as an integral and organic component of their concept of creation, rather than presiding over it in a divinely delegated lordship.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63346/original/9r6xwt46-1414689096.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63346/original/9r6xwt46-1414689096.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63346/original/9r6xwt46-1414689096.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63346/original/9r6xwt46-1414689096.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63346/original/9r6xwt46-1414689096.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63346/original/9r6xwt46-1414689096.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63346/original/9r6xwt46-1414689096.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Wheel of the Year.</span>
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<p>The cycle of nature is expressed through the eight sabbats or festivals of the Wheel of the Year. Consecutively, these are Samhain, the Festival of the Dead; Yule, the Winter Solstice; Imbolc, which heralds the earliest advent of springtime renewal; Ostara, the Spring Equinox; Beltane, which celebrates the coming of summer; Litha, the Summer Solstice; Lughnasadh, the harvest festival; and Mabon, the Autumn Equinox.</p>
<p>All of these events are marked by specific ritual practices – the burning of bonfires, the ceremonial parading of greenery, the eating of certain foods. Some, such as the festival of the harvest or the long night of Yule, have since been appropriated by other religions, only to be re-appropriated by modern-day pagans. </p>
<h2>Modern vestiges</h2>
<p>Samhain itself undoubtedly lends many of its practices to the modern consciousness of Halloween. As a festival of the dead, it is a night on which the veil between the afterlife and mortal consciousness is perceived as being very thin. The tradition of Halloween ghost stories is arguably a debased form of the tales once told of ancestors, in part to remind them that they are not forgotten, and welcome to join their living descendants upon this one night. </p>
<p>Traditionally, also, Samhain was a time for divination. Though the relatively modern but still evocative accoutrements of Tarot, crystal balls and tea leaves may spring to mind in this context, their divinatory forebears were almost certainly less sophisticated. Scrying, or staring into a dark mirror, was one such mode of foretelling the future. Gazing into the bonfire burned on such occasions was no doubt another. The residual memory of such things comes when, perhaps, we peel an apple and throw its skin over a shoulder in the hope that it will somehow spell out the initial of a future partner. Apple-bobbing has a similar ancestry in pagan practice. </p>
<p>And the black and orange currently plastered all over local supermarkets also has ancient roots. It survives as a reflection of the fruits of the year – pumpkins, squash, gourds, a late harvest, easily stored and quickly transformed into filling food – seen against the darkness of the sky and the seeming barrenness of the soil. </p>
<p>And so the modern pumpkin lantern, with its strange grimace, is not all that it might seem. Perversely, it may historically have been fashioned to welcome, rather than deter, the wandering dead on this festal night. </p>
<p>But Samhain also marks new beginnings, in its place within the Wheel of the Year. In paganism it is a chance to both welcome and say farewell to those who have died in the previous year, as well as to remember more distant or non-identifiable ancestors. </p>
<p>The darkest part of the year is still yet to come, and will be celebrated on the shortest night, Yule, just before the Christian festival of Christmas. The flickering lights and candles of Halloween, like those of Yule, are above all a reminder, and a reassurance, that light – daylight, longer days – will come again in the cycle of the year.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Hughes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Halloween these days calls pumpkins to mind, cackling witches, teenagers pulling pranks and scream masks. You probably know that all this derives from All Hallows’ Eve, the night before the Christian feast…
Bill Hughes, Professor of Gothic Studies, Bath Spa University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.