How the Catholic church pirated Halloween from Ireland
One way the Christian faith overcame Paganism in Ireland was to adopt the idea, ‘if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em.’ Halloween is a perfect example. In the Catholic faith, Halloween has been transformed into All Saint’s Day. Not a bad conversion. Still honoring the dead. Not burning people at the stake as in the time of the Spanish inquisition. No boiling a priest’s feet in oil like poor Durmot O’Hurley in the sixteenth century. That one was during the unforgivable reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Halloween or All Hallows Eve is not a Christian holiday at all. It is a Pagan festival time and referred to as Samhain.
Church window at St Patrick’s Cathedral in County Armagh, N. Ireland
Here is a list of more Pagan Irish beliefs changed to Christian holy days or Customs.
The Blessings of water from Holy Wells……………….Christian Baptism
In Paganism, the number 3 was sacred ……………….In Catholicism, a monotheistic religion, the one true god is thought to be a trinity: the father, son and holy ghost all rolled into one.
The ring around the Celtic Cross can be found to have a specific meaning, depending on who one talks to. One version is that the ring refers to a Roman sun god, Sol Invictus . Is it a coincidence then that the sun was revered greatly by the Pagan Celts?
The Holy Wells in Ireland were created by Pagan Celts, not Christian Saints.
Many of the first Christian monks of Ireland were former Celtic druids
The whole notion of a hell below the earth is rooted in Celtic mythology. The first Celtic tribes of Ireland. the Firbolg and the Tuatha De Danann battled it out, (to put it simply) and the Firbolg were banished to underground. We also think of God and heaven, a kind of Christian land of everlasting happiness to be up in the sky. The Celts prayed to the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Decorating a Christmas tree can also be traced back to Pagan roots. The druids had great reverence for all trees but one one practice is very closely correlated to the Christmas tree, the Clootie tree. Usually growing by a sacred well or spring in Scotland or Ireland, small rags were tied to the branches as offerings to a goddess or natural spirit of the well. Today people leave rosaries, religious crosses or medallions of saints.
Do you know of any other pagan or Christian beliefs tied together?