The Daily Orange sat down with Hendricks Chapel’s assistant pagan chaplains, Kurt Hohmann and Timothy Nortz, to discuss the relationship between the Pagan holiday Samhain and Halloween.
The Daily Orange: What does Samhain celebrate? What is its meaning within paganism?
Kurt Hohmann: Samhain is the celebration of our ancestors. It is an opportunity for us to honor those who have — as we would consider within the pagan path — crossed over the veil, those who have died who are no longer with us in this realm. We went from honoring all of our ancestors to — within the Christian church —honoring the hallowed saints. Thus, All Hallows’ Eve is where the word Halloween came from.
The D.O.: What Halloween traditions have pagan roots?
Timothy Nortz: Pretty much all of them but candy. Really, jack-o’-lanterns were originally carved to scare things that you didn’t want showing up at your house away. Costumes — it was the trick-or-treating costume thing came from people needing to go out in their villages in medieval times after dark. And on Samhain the veil between the world is at the thinnest, so things that are there can cross over very easily — good, bad or different.
The D.O.: How is Samhain historically related to Halloween?
K.H.: We already have a festival that is in an agrarian society set up to be the very last of the harvests. We’re going to go out and sacrifice the cows and the sheep and the chickens that just otherwise are not going to make it through the winter. Because of that, I think that idea of this transition from life to death became a lot more prevalent, and the rest of it kind of flows together from there.
The D.O.: How has contemporary Halloween affected the celebration of Samhain as it grew in popularity?
T.N.: I don’t really think it has. I mean, for most people who celebrate contemporary Halloween but don’t know anything about paganism or pagan paths, they don’t even know about it — they don’t even think about. I mean it’s been so commercialized that you don’t even think about how it ties in, where it came from. Whereas for us, we’re still over here doing our thing the same way or similar to the ways it’s been done for centuries. I mean we’re not sacrificing the animals anymore, but we are still honoring our ancestors.
The D.O.: What is the pagan community like at Syracuse University?
T.N.: It’s really diverse. I mean, you’re talking students from not only around the country, but students are here from Latin America, South America, Asia, so you have people with very broad spectrums of traditions and experiences who come here, and they look for a group of like-minded people that they can get together and practice with and learn from. It’s not just us teaching them. Because of the varied places and traditions, they get to teach us, too.
Published on October 23, 2014 at 2:25 am
Contact Alex: aerdekia@syr.edu
