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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid.
It's morbid, and it's a bonus one with...
No ads. Ad free, motherfucker. We'll be right back.
Thank you. That's right. There will be no interruptions in this story because we just love you.
Well, don't say that because I interrupt a lot.
It's actually like my profession. Well, no ad interruptions.
But you know what? We just love you guys.
And we decided that this is a fun little subject. that I decided to research so we were feeling generous I feel more generous in spooky season than I do during like the holidays i know it's like it's it's just that kind of season it's the most wonderful time of the year.
But it's because it's spooky. It's true.
So I'm feeling very giving. So you're talking to us about what today?
Well, speaking of spooky season, we're going to talk about the origins of our Halloween season.
What? And how it began with Samhain. You mean Sam Hain?
Which looks like Sam Hain. And honestly, Sam Hain sounds spookier. for some weird reason.
Doesn't Samhain sound like a spooky celebration?
Samhain to me personally sounds super spooky, but I think Samhain sounds like spookier.
Samhain does sound spooky, but I don't know.
Samhain, I've heard it so much because people... often pronounce that that I think I've attributed it with spooky season so much that like it threw me off when I realized it wasn't pronounced that way I get that.
But it's pronounced Samhain, so that's something for everybody to know.
And let's just chat about it. We're just going to chat about some of like, you know, where it came from, some of the traditions, how it became what we know it today in America, especially.
Um, so this all kind of began, it's obviously a pagan holiday and it began with like the Druids.
Oh, the druids. The druids were kind of rad.
A lot of people are like, but didn't they sacrifice humans?
But, like, a lot of religions did. Yeah, I mean... And, you know...
There's a lot of like, I feel like there's a lot of misconceptions.
It was of the times. It certainly was of the times.
I will say that. I mean, they wouldn't do it today.
Yeah, no. That I know of. I don't think so.
I don't know. But what druids were, where they were like a mishmash of things, like they weren't just religious leaders.
They were scientists, scholars, I mean they were like community leaders, they were a mix of everything.
Like anything you can think of. They wore many hats.
Hairstylists. Exactly. Hairstylist, I'm sure.
But yeah, they wore many hats, many hairs, you know.
Wigs. Now, we're going to go back... 2,000 years ago.
We're back. We're going to take a little hop back.
That's all. So this is when Celtic people in Europe, and this was what we know to be Ireland, Scotland, the UK.
Some of the pieces of Northern Europe, that's what we're really talking about.
They celebrated the end of the harvest season. in the start of a new year with a festival called...
Samhain! And this translates literally to summer's end.
Oh, that's cool. Yeah. So this, their year was divided into four big holidays back then. and Samhain marked November 1st, which was the beginning of winter, And this is when shit got really rough and they had to bring livestock closer to home.
Some of their animals weren't gonna survive during the winter.
I mean, they you know they had to harvest those crops they had to get everything ready for it because it was kind of like the end of the world basically because I was going to say like some of them weren't gonna survive well you just yeah they didn't know what was gonna survive so this really was like a dark time and it's the end of the year in the beginning of a new one.
So it was a duality of death and rebirth.
Because... the deaths of the year and the death of the year into a rebirth of a new year, but also the death of harvest season in the beginning of a harsh cold winter.
Right. So it was all mixed duality of death and rebirth.
The Celtic year was divided into two parts.
There's the dark part of the year and the light part of the year.
Spooky part of the year. The deck. So the year. the Celtic year was also kind of like punctuated by four fire festivals.
They also had solstices and equinoxes, which were about the long days and short days.
So obviously, like we said, Samhain, Samhain, Samhain, sorry, I read it. phonetically, Samhain.
Samhain was when the dark half of the year began So it's spooky in and of itself.
It's like Samhain ushers in the dark part of the year.
Okay, the dark part of the year is my favorite.
And... I don't this is a potentially dumb question because like time zones didn't exist back then I don't think or like the way that we like turn the clocks back but it It does get a little darker, right?
Yeah. Earlier and stuff. Yeah. It's like how that goes.
Yeah. Because I mean. that part of the reason why it was the darker part of the year?
Yeah, and I think it was just like the darker part because winter is coming and winter tends to just be darker.
Yeah. yeah in and of itself like cloudy and gray and all that it's like out of summer which is the bright part of the year and the spring which is the bright part of the year the dark part is the best part.
It truly is. So in 43 A.D., was when the Romans conquered much of the Celtic lands and their traditions and autumn festivals started fusing with the druid festivals okay so all these they were going to keep some of them but they were going to fuse them with the roman stuff So now the Roman goddess Pomona was the goddess of fruit and trees, the Roman goddess.
And one such Roman festival that honored her was fused with some of the Samhain Druid festivals.
It was the fusing and observances that eventually led to Halloween that we know.
So this whole fusing of... you know, festivals was how we got our Halloween.
Yeah. It wasn't just the original style and it's like...
The mix. It's a little medley. A little bit of everything.
We took a little bit from here. We took a little bit from there.
And then we totally bastardized it. But, you know, it's okay.
We get what we get. And we don't get upset.
So it's worth noting that sometime in the late 19th century, is when they decided that Samhain, that's when they decided that Samhain was marking the beginning of the Celtic year.
They got this idea apparently because Julius Caesar said in book six of the Gallic Wars, Something about the Gauls, quote, "...they keep birthdays and beginning of months and years in such an order..." that day follows the night.
So this statement was interpreted to mean that Samhain was the Celtic beginning of the year because Samhain begins the dark half of the year.
Of course, this is just speculation because we can't just ask.
Julius what he meant by that. Why not? But another thing that adds intrigue to this idea of Samhain beginning the Celtic year is the discovery in 1897 of something called the Caligny calendar which is from Gaul culture and it's relevant because it has something marked in the month called Trinax Samo.
And researchers and archaeologists think that this is a nickname for the Trinuction Semineos, which is three night observance of Semineos. which is supposedly a three-day holiday that's pretty similar to Samhain. and it's observed in the middle of the first month.
So the whole New Year idea is a little questionable because of that.
Yeah, that kind of throws that off. Yeah, it's the whole, like, that it's celebrating the new year.
That does throw it off a little bit, but it's interesting nonetheless. it's always interesting to see like where they come up with this stuff and then like that they'll find something little that will kind of throw it off well shit and you're like do any of us know anything like it's just we're all just relying whoa You okay?
I went to like put my hands up to whisper into the microphone and I just punched the table.
I was just going to say. That's so Samhain of you.
Yeah. I was just going to say that it's all a simulation.
It is. It's all simulations. But you know what?
Archaeologists and anthropologists and stuff, I'm like, good on you, man.
That would be such a fun job. You guys are the one we rely on.
It is cool. But either way, that was just a little detour I wanted to take.
But either way, Samhain was huge. And it was also the time of the year when the wall, this was like how everybody knows it, The wall between the living and the dead seemed to fall away and that veil thins quite a bit.
I'm ready for it. So the veil between the world of the living and the spiritual realm is barely there.
This is when the souls of those who died during the year are traveling to that other realm.
So... So during the year, whoever died, this is when they were going to be making their way over to the spiritual realm. which means they're going to be passing through ours to get there.
So it kind of causes, you know, metaphysical chaos. everywhere and humans could just hang out and have coffee with your dead relative if you really wanted to And the spirits are known to, you know, they're fine, but they can be a little mischievous.
Oh yeah, when I'm a spirit, I'm about to mischief the fuck out of everything.
Yeah, I mean, you can really fuck some shit up when you're a spirit, so why not do it?
Because what are the consequences? What else are you going to do?
You're dead. shenanigans were celebrated but also kind of kept at bay because they wanted they were fine for shenanigans but they didn't want anything getting dangerous.
Of which could happen. So they were kept at bay by offering and sacrificing, you know, animals sometimes, also offering food like crops and veggies and fruits and anything that they were able to harvest during the year they would offer. it's not so bad that they did the animal thing because they thought that then those animals were just going to go to the afterlife.
They definitely did it with the intention that, you know.
A good intention. Yeah. I mean. It's not good.
I'm not down for it, but like. you know, this was a long time ago, so I can't really get mad at people.
But people also played tricks. Like, people... like physical people also played tricks and got into mischief because they were able to blame the spirits and other whimsical creatures.
Yeah. that were said to be roaming around.
So on this night, the calich, which is also known as the crone, and she's like the goddess of this time, comes to and she strips the leaves from the trees.
Okay. So that's why we lose all the leaves.
She's taking a long time this year. Now, she does this because she wants to... hasten the she wants to hasten the decay of the year okay okay so she's trying to really really get rid of all the life that has brewed throughout the summer and the spring and she's bringing us into that dark ass decaying time.
I like her. And what that is for at first you're like wow that's dark as fuck.
But her reason for this is that it's supposed to encourage new life. and rebirth yeah it's perfect because you strip everything down so that it can be rebuilt again so there is a nice little thing the goddess beautiful she's She's a scary bitch, but she's also like,
I love her. I'm here for her. She's very metal.
She's very metal. The metalist. The crone is metal.
That'd be a good band name, we call it. The Crone, that's an awesome one.
But you can also ask her during this whole festival in this time, you can ask the crone or the goddess or the calich. to take any of the unwanted things that happen to you during the year, like your personal grievances, she can take them away.
And she can transform them into something anew.
I love that. Isn't that nice? So you can be like, you know what?
I had a real shitty year. And, you know, like my finances were problems or like, you know, the crops were not great.
Yeah. And she'll take those worries from you and she will try to transform them into something good.
I love the idea of that. I think that's really cool.
It's a nice thought. Well, one cool thing that really, this was a giant part of Samhain.
No, Sam. Hey, fuck. No, no, Sam. Guys, I keep reading it phonetically on the page and it's...
It's tripping me up. At least you can read.
But I know it's Samhain. Sometimes I do listener tales and I'm like...
Well, you know, Samhain. You got it. You know, Samhain, Samhain, we all get it.
It's okay. But one cool thing about Salon was that there was tons of lighting of bonfires.
That was a really big part of it. And this whole thing was done because it was aiding and offering something to the sun god. because you wanted to beg his ass to come back next year.
Hell yeah, you do. You were like, I know you are on your way out and then we're going to lose everything now and everything's going to die.
But like, please come back, sun god. Yeah.
And they were like, please don't starve us all.
But mostly it was done to honor the dead and to light their way back to the spiritual realm.
So you lit these bonfires to be like, here you go.
This is just gorge. It's such nice thoughts.
So there's a lot of cool little things that you're like, that's nice.
This is honestly like whimsical in a, it's metal whimsy.
It is. Metal whimsy. It's like, it's mimsy.
Mimsy. Or weddle, if you will. I like mimsy.
Middle or whimsy. So these fires acted kind of as like a runway to guide the spirits to where they needed to go.
And it was also a way to deter them from taking detours to fuck with your shit.
Because they couldn't see that way. Yeah, because they were like, here, this is the way to go.
Like, don't take a detour over to my farm and fuck with my world.
Like, just go over here. They were distracted. just like, come on, vote.
And during this, people would sometimes dress in costumes.
And they did this to try to blend in with the spirits and blend in with the creatures that they said. would come about during this time of year.
And they thought that this would keep them safe from being harmed by them.
So if I dress as a ghost, I'm one of you.
They're gonna think I'm a ghost, so they're not gonna fuck with me.
If I dress as a fairy, they're gonna think I'm a fairy, so they're not gonna fuck with me.
So it makes sense. That's why I was a dead bride for three years in a row.
So a dead bride wouldn't fuck with you. No, exactly.
I was a mad scientist one year. So mad scientists wouldn't fuck with me.
Yeah. So some others would dress up like them and go to houses. to collect the offerings left at houses for the dead.
Because they were like, I'm hungry. Because people, and we'll get into in a minute, but people would leave offerings outside of their house for the spirits passing by.
So they were really into like appeasing these spirits and, and these fairies and leprechauns and all kinds of other creatures.
That they believed roamed the earth at this time.
They would leave stuff out there and be like, don't bother us.
Just take this chicken. It's fine. It's rotisserie.
So these real people. would dress up in these costumes to fuck with the living and go take the offerings left for the otherworldly creatures.
So you're taking the spirit's offerings.
I feel like that's not going to end real well for you.
It's really not. Now this was called mumming, the dressing up and like disguising yourself.
It was also called like guising. And it's likely the start of the tradition that we now think of as trick-or-treating.
Because we dress up, go housed out. They would also light torches and walk around the perimeters of their property to ward off... the spirits.
So it was a really busy time, too. A lot of fire.
You couldn't just hang out. You had to constantly be warding off these otherworldly creatures and spirits.
Now, like I said, honoring your ancestors and the dead was really paramount to this festival.
That was like really important to it. Many Irish and Scottish Celts would do something called a dumb supper.
And I believe a lot do this still today.
Oh, really? And it's nice. What is it? On the eve of Samhain they had a dinner and this was a silent dinner.
A very somber, very silent dinner in remembrance, in honor. and respect and the dinner would also have an extra place at the head of the table.
And this was for your ancestors who had passed away.
And it was a full place setting with food be served an entire dinner. everything that everybody else was eating.
But you had to serve this place setting without ever looking at the seat.
Oh shit, what happens if you look at the seat?
Because if you did, then it was really bad luck.
Because you're not supposed to look at the spirits.
And after this silent dumb dinner, the plate, and not dumb like I'm saying it's dumb, it's literally called dumb.
Yeah, yeah. After this silent dumb dinner.
After this dumbass dinner. no it's called dumb supper i promise i know the spirits are like dumb dinner motherfucker really They're like, I don't care if you didn't look at me.
You called this shit dumb. You called this shit dumb.
But after this dinner, the plate with the clearly untouched food Not clearly, Elena.
Well, it would always be full. And it would be this dinner would be taken out into the woods and left as an offering.
So there was many steps to this. You know how, like, when you're not supposed to do something, you just want to do it, like, so bad?
I have... such bad luck oh i would have so much yeah i'd constantly be trying not to look at that seat i'd be like who's over there are they eating their pork It would freak me out.
If not, can I have? I'd be like, holy shit, are you going to finish that asparagus?
I really want it. Of all the things you could eat, you picked pork and asparagus.
Do you want a buttered roll? Can I have your crescent roll?
So during this whole thing, people would also leave dog food and pet food outside to honor those beloved pets who had gone before.
And people still do this today. And it also is nice because it's like... other animals that are roaming around will eat that too.
So you're just kind of doing a nice thing. say you're setting yourself up to get a lot of strays you sure are but you know what it's lovely sweet So interestingly, it's not just ancestors that come through this thinned veil on Samhain, like we said.
According to the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, quote, "...on that day all manner of beings were abroad."
Ghosts, fairies, and demons. Diamonds! Diamonds!
They all part of the dark and dread. So it could be ancestors coming to be like, hello, thank you for that ham bone that you left me.
Or it could be A diamond. That's like, hello.
Hello. I'd like some extra crescent rolls, motherfucker.
And he holds up his three-fingered hand.
And you stick the crescent roll right on there.
And then you go... Here you go. And then he says, thank you.
Thanks. Thank you. And then he poofs into a plume of black smoke.
But only if you've cooked a crescent roll.
Oh, yeah. Perfectly. Only if it's a buttered one and only if you've cooked it correctly.
Because if he pulls that off his three-pronged hand...
And it's doughy. He's coming back. Oh, see, I like the doughy ones.
Oh no, daemons don't want stomachaches, so they don't want that undercooked shit.
My life is just a way. Exactly. And they don't want to live like that.
They're like, no. I'm a daemon. All daemons have IBS.
So they're all like... Does that mean I'm a demon?
So they are like... Give me a cooked food, thank you.
Let's not aggravate this. Yeah, I haven't got that down yet.
So, yeah, so especially in, you know, Ireland is very much like known for the legends of fairies and like the fey folk, which we've covered in a couple of episodes, like dark fairies.
So the Knight of Samhain was also the great Sabbat for witches.
Us. They would gather and celebrate. They would, you know... dance around and cast spells and they tell fortunes and were just rad oh they looked great they did they looked awesome So stories tell also that you could see on that night, you could see witches flying through the air on their broomsticks.
It me. You would see all kinds of all manner of like magical creatures and like black cats and ravens and all kinds of cool things.
Basically everything you want. The best.
I just think about it and I'm like, woo!
I am literally giddy. I'm so giddy. I'm like, oh my god, I can bring Lux.
I'm like, oh, what a great Sabbath. So, Saba.
I wish you'd just seen Elena's hand. Ooh, Saba.
I'm so excited. So there's also, you know, the queen of the witches for that night.
You. Was me. Me. It was either, some people think it was the Irish Morgan, which was also called the Morgan Le Fay.
Which, like, Morgan Le Fay? Okay. She's a popular girl in school that will not let you sit at her table.
Oh, yeah. Morgan Le Fay. Le Fay. fuck you up.
Has a burn book about you. She will create a chat room just to invite you in it so she can bully you with her friends.
I saw Morgan LeFle wearing army pants and flip-flops, so I got army pants and flip-flops.
That is Morgan LeFle. So yeah, it's either Morgan Le Fay, which I would like it not to be at this point, or it's, which this one's awesome, Or it could be the blue face tag of winter.
That's that really. cool artsy girl that got made fun of in high school, but now she's really rich because she paints great things. things.
See, I'm into the blue-faced hand of winter.
The Calich, which is also the goddess, the crone.
She's known for a lot of things. I dig her.
She's where it's at. Yeah, the crone is where it's at.
Now, fairies return for the winter, Legends say that if you lost a family member to a fairy during the year, because that was a thing.
I think we talked about it in the fairy episode that fairy rings were a thing and oftentimes people would go missing.
And they'd attribute it to fairies. That's the best.
Or somebody would change a lot and they'd think that they were replaced by a fae.
You never know. It's really cool. Okay. Yeah, a fae.
So if you lost your family member to a fairy or a fairy ring during the year, this was the night that you could win them back. ooh or so what do you gotta offer well you gotta offer a lot And you really got to be tricky and you got to try, you know, this is when people would dress up and try to get, you know, blend in and all that good stuff.
I think there's an episode about in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the new one, there's an episode where they trick a fairy to get Oh, really?
Yeah. I think so. It's all about tricking the fairies.
Yeah. You can't logic with a fairy. Yeah.
You can't just trade with a fairy. You've got to trick a fairy.
You've got to outsmart her. You've got to.
That's what it's all about. Write that down.
Outsmart that fairy. Write it down. So in Ireland, fairies were huge on Halloween or in Samhain or, you know, whatever. ended up turning into Hallow's Eve or their way of Halloween.
And there was an old folk ballad that was called Alison Gross, and it was a story. of a fairy queen who saved a man from a witch's spell on Samhain.
Wow, it doesn't get more whimsical than that.
The whimsy is just... flowing out of their ears here whimsy is abundant the whimsy and the spooky I like the spooky better.
So it goes like this. I'll give you a little taste of it.
In West Philadelphia. No, no. Very close.
Oh, Alison Gross that lives in Yon Tower, the ugliest witch in the North Country.
She's turned me into an ugly worm and guard me total around a tree.
But as it fell out last hallow even, when the Seelie, which was fairy, court was riding by the queen lighted down on a gowiny bank not far from the tree where i won't to lie She's changed me again to my own proper shape and I know more toddle about the tree.
So slam poetry. I love it. So she saved him.
She shared did. That's awesome. So there's a lot going on.
You might need a queen fairy to help you get your, you know, what, your husband or something, or like a man to or a woman from a witch's spell, or you might need a witch to help you get your man back from a fairy.
It's just... Who knows what crazy otherworldly creature is going to help your ass.
It's like Narnia. You just never know who you're going to... You don't know.
Like... come across yeah you could come across a witch and be like hey can you help me get him back from a fairy and she'd be like nah i'm gonna turn you into a toad and you're like well shit or she could be like, yeah, I'll help you out.
Yeah. But then you probably owe her something next year.
You definitely owe her something. So Samhain is just always you paying debts.
That's all. Yeah, sound is not sounding like so much fun after all.
It's fun, but it's tricky. Sounds like a lot of work.
It's tricky, tricky, tricky. Now, most farmers and people in like smaller towns and villages won't go outside that night still.
Because they're so scared to run into something like evil as fuck.
So is this October 31st? Yeah. Cool. Now Druids, which were again Celtic priests and also a ton of other shit at the time, They said that this time of year made it easier to tell the future when the veil was lifted.
So it was during the big bonfires at these festivals that people would tell fortunes And it would just be like this big, cool, like just awesome, whimsical, otherworldly event.
It's like Burning Man. And people, kind of, actually.
And actually, there was things where, which this isn't like...
You know, this is kind of one of those things people tell that like druids would burn people as human sacrifices in giant effigies. of men or like humans and they would like pack them all in there like the wicker man and just burn that shit.
So people held fortune telling parties too, and they still do.
That's like a thing. Can we go? Right? And one of the ways that they would tell fortunes, like this old way of doing it, was to poke a hole in an egg and then slowly drop out the contents into a glass of water. and they would read the shapes that swirled around in the glass of water, and they would tell your fortune.
And I have to wait until Halloween to do that is what you're telling me?
Yeah, of course you do. You have to wait for Samhain.
You want to do that with me? Yeah, I do.
Yay. Yay. Now, apples were also a huge thing.
They were the fruit, which, again... Apple pie.
Again, apple pie. Apple pie. Again, it translates into how we view apples during the harvest season.
Apple picking. Apple desserts. Apple pie.
Apple tarts. And... they, you know, they're a huge thing.
Well, they were considered a sacred fruit because if you cut it a certain way, there's a pentacle in the middle yeah uh you know and it's the symbol of the goddess pomona which is the roman goddess our girl It's all about fertility and life and rebirth and in Celtic tradition, they would bury the apples in the ground on Samhain so that the souls awaiting rebirth would have something to munch on.
That's so awesome. Which I think it's great.
We're really nice to the otherworldly souls.
Salmon is like really thoughtful. Yeah, we don't want them to go hungry.
We don't want them to get lost. No. We're just like, let me help you up.
Have a snack. Take a chicken wing. Yeah.
Have at it. And let's talk about bobbing for apples.
Oh, like we do now. I think I remember, but go ahead.
So during Samhain, it wasn't exactly... So we do this now, but it's actually for an interesting reason.
So the goddess... which we're talking about like the Roman goddess Pomona.
Yeah. Or no, I think this was actually Caelic, the crone. she was going to be hanging out and chilling for six weeks until Yule.
And that was in order to maintain... So you wanted to maintain her presence and goodwill, but she was going to be kind of dormant until Yule.
She was hibernating. Yeah, kind of. But you wanted her because she brings goodwill, if you ask her, and you just need her presence.
Yes. Okay. Now, in order to do that, you would capture an apple because it was a sacred fruit to the goddess.
And this kept her around. And again, this is the crone.
So you want her around sacred fruit to her. was the apple.
So bobbing for apples meant you captured the fruit.
You get to keep her goodwill. Okay. So she is going to still like chill out for a little while, but you get her goodwill.
Right. That's good. Love that for you. And now the reason you might be wondering, like, why was she chilling out until Yule?
Well, that's because her bro, the god, the Sun King, who just left us... Mm-hmm. is symbolically placed back into the earth until the winter solstice because he goes in there with the seeds.
Now, with him being out of commission for a bit, the goddess transforms from the goddess into the crone.
And she mourns the fuck out of him until he comes back.
Oh, she misses her boy. Yeah. She just misses her boy.
So when she's like mourning him, you kind of get her goodwill with the apples.
Yeah. So now there's this fusing of Roman and Celtic traditions and festivals until Christianity came around and was like, Like, no.
So in 601 AD, Pope Gregory I issued a well-known edict that basically was like, Like, OK, let's not strip down like let's not just strip these pagan traditions away and tell them they can't do it anymore.
Like, no, we're going to, if they worship something, that's cool.
We're just going to consecrate it to Christ and keep going.
So we're going to Christianize any of these pagan things.
We're going to let them keep doing it, but now they're doing it in the name of Christ.
Oh, which means they probably didn't want to do it anymore.
Yeah, it's basically just Christianizing everything, which, you know, whatever.
He made November 1st, and so now November 1st became All Saints Day.
Yeah, and it still is. And another word for saint or holy or sanctified is hallow.
All Hallows Day. So what is October 31st?
All Hallows Eve. There it is. It's like the beginning of Hocus Pocus.
Exactly, on All Hallows Eve. So the relabeling of pagan holidays as Christian days It's kind of also how Christmas came about on December 25th.
Ah. because if you wonder like how did they get that day, they just kind of assigned the date of December 25th, because it corresponded with the midwinter celebration of a lot of people.
Cool. That makes sense. Yeah. So that's just interesting.
And Druids were now, unfortunately, Christianity considered them devils. devil worshippers and that underworld that they worshipped and made offerings to was now relabeled as the Christian hell.
Hell. This is where the pagans became witches and spirits became demonic forces ready to fuck you up on Halloween.
Yeah, they made it a little too far. It got a little darker, actually, which is crazy.
So Irish immigrants brought over the holiday traditions to America and we turned it into the Halloween we know now.
It's so weird how it got just, like, so different.
Yeah, it's crazy. Now, the last thing I just want to mention, which is one of the biggest things on Halloween, is the jack a lantern.
Where did that come from? So, originally...
They weren't pumpkins because there weren't rolling pumpkin patches in Ireland.
They are not like an indigenous plant to Ireland. no so it's not like they had a ton of pumpkins lying around they used potatoes or turnips because they had a lot of those because they had a lot of those and they would light them as a way to ward off evil.
And the jack-o'-lantern name came from the legend of Stingy Jack.
Stingy Jack. So Stingy Jack was a dick, not King of the pumpkin patch.
No, and he was just, like, he just loved messing with everyone, just fucking around with everyone.
He was a prankster, but, like, in a mean way.
Mm-hmm. He was mean-spirited and cruel.
He would do it to his family, his friends, anyone he loved, he would just fuck with them.
He was a jackass. And one day he was down drinking at the pub, you know, with the devil.
As one does. And the devil was like, Hey, um, how about I buy you a drink?
And Jack was like, oh, cool. Thanks, bro.
Thanks. I'm pretty stingy. And then the devil was like, just give me your soul. and I'll buy you this drink.
And Jack was like, okay. He thought it was a good deal.
Yeah, he was like, cool. But can you, he was like, I don't have any, I don't want to pay for this.
Like, I don't have any coins. So can you transform yourself into a coin and show me that you're really the devil?
And he was like, okay. So the devil transformed himself into a coin to pay for the drink.
And Jack took the coin. and kept it in his pocket with a cross, with like a crucifix, so the devil couldn't change back from that form initially.
And he said, I will agree to take you out of there and let you change back, but only if you wait a beat, and specifically a year, on the whole taking of my soul thing.
Okay. So he was like, he was like, wait a year to take my soul.
Yeah. He was like, you can have my soul.
Like I agreed to, but like. you're not going to transform back unless you agree to the year thing.
And weirdly enough, the devil was like, okay.
Devil loves a deal. He does. And he's apparently a man of his word.
I don't know. So then one year after this, he runs into the devil.
Because TikTok, it's been a year. Hi, I'm the devil.
And they happen to be near an apple tree.
And the devil was like, hey, so I'm here to take your soul.
And Jack was like, wait. How about before you take this soul of mine, like you can totally have it, but can you just jump up that apple tree real quick and grab me an apple?
The devil's not a fool, though. And he was like...
Cool. Yeah, I'll do that because I really want your soul.
But like, sure, you can have some sustenance, I guess.
He's like, weird flex, sure. Yeah. He was like an apple a day.
The devil said weird flex, but okay. I'll work it into any episode I can.
There you go. And the devil climbed up the tree, and he's picking an apple, and while he did that, Jack either threw a bunch of crosses around the tree, which I don't think that's what it was, Or he carved a crucifix into the trunk, which I think that's what happened.
That's what it is. And because this is all very real, obviously.
And he made him promise because the devil couldn't come down.
So he was like, you have to promise not to take my soul when I die. that that's the whole point of the motherfucking deal and the devil was like damn it fooled me again and so he was like sure but he all he got was a drink out of this don't worry The devil got his.
He has something in his, up his sleeve because he was like, okay.
Sure, I won't take your soul when you die.
But he knew something that Jack did not. so of course years later when he dies he goes up to those you know the gates of heaven and he's like hey I'm Stingy Jack.
I'm ready to be on the list. And St. Peter was like looking at his list and he's like, oh.
No, you're a giant dick. You don't get to come in here.
Sorry, you're not on the list. He was like, no, no. back of the line and he was like you need to get the fuck out of here so he was like you you mean to be on the first floor The basement.
That's what you mean. The basement of heaven.
The basement of the world. So he was like, you need to go down to hell, motherfucker.
That's where you belong. Ugh. So he sent him down there to the gates of hell and he was like, maybe they'll take you.
So when he gets to the gates of hell, the devil's like, oh no, remember?
I agreed not to take your soul when you died.
And he was like, but what the fuck? Like, I can't get into heaven now.
I can't get into hell. And he was like...
Not my problem. So the devil just tosses him some hellfire and was like...
Good luck wandering the in-between alone for all eternity.
Oh, so he's in... So he's in purgatory.
So he's just floating around. So Jack happened to have a turnip.
Because he liked turnips, so he just had one.
And he quickly hollowed it out and he carried the hellfire in it like it was a lantern.
And he just wanders around with his turnip and his hellfire in the in-between.
That doesn't seem so bad. And the Irish called the ghost of Stingy Jack, Jack of the Lantern.
Duh. and later abbreviated to Jack O' Lantern.
Jack O'. And Irish, you know, and the Irish carved different veggies and things like turnips and potatoes. to keep Jack and his loner fucking Hellfire away because he sucks.
And he likes to play tricks. They were like, he sucks.
Can you imagine if we still carved potatoes?
That's what I got out of this. I'm saying.
And they really were forever. And when they brought this tradition to America, people were like, oh, I don't want to carve a turnip.
That's really hard to do. it is hard yeah and they're little and so we have tons of pumpkins around here so people realize that it's easier to carve a pumpkin and that they look Cool?
They do. They're pretty metal. That's how we got our jack-o'-lanterns.
Let me tell you a story. Tell me a story.
All right, here's my story for you. You know it.
This is for the listeners out there. Oh, yeah.
Don't be carving your pumpkins too soon.
I would have told you this had you told me.
Elena would have told me. I, my little sister was visiting from New York and I was like, oh my God, a really cool Samhain thing that we can do while she's here.
A cool Samhain thing. Lauren, do you know about Samhain?
This is what we can do. We can carve pumpkins, but it was still September.
It was like the end of September and it had been cool for a week and I carved my pumpkins and then fucking death flies were all over my porch and it looked like we had murdered a body so yeah because the pumpkin just rotted.
Oh, not the pumpkin. It accelerated. Four or five pumpkins accelerated.
And we had to, like, get them all in bags and then take them through our indoors apartment.
Yeah. And then go down the stairs and then go all the way to the trash.
And rotten pumpkin. reeks. It is a nasty smell.
And by we, I mean Annie. Truth. But I think that was a really cool Samhain thing that we did.
Yeah, but don't do that, guys, because...
Your pumpkins will rot and stank. Don't do it.
And your neighbors will assume that you have killed a few people.
Yeah, exactly. But what you can do is carve some potatoes.
Yeah, you can. And so that concludes where... we got some of our traditions like trick-or-treating and you know um pumpkins and all that good stuff that was a really fun episode It was just fun to research.
There was a lot to it. I'm sure there's, you know, some other stuff that I didn't touch upon.
Maybe I'll touch upon it in another episode if I find things.
But this was just basically what I could find about Samhain and how it fused with the Roman traditions and Druids are pretty interesting.
And then I had no idea that Christianity changed some things.
And it's all very interesting. Yeah. I want to go to one of those fortune telling parties.
With the egg yolk. I think we should do that this year.
We should do it. I don't know if we, I love that you're like, we should do it.
Like we should just do that and then like interpret egg yolk in our own way.
Yeah. That's what I'm saying, was that we should poke a hole in an egg and we should interpret it.
Yeah. And then there was also traditions like if you peel an apple in like one... peel without breaking the peel and you throw it over your shoulder you see what it lands like what shape it lands in and that's the initial of the person you're going to marry.
I don't want to do that because if it's not A, I'll be pissed.
I'll be like, wow, what a waste of fucking three years I've been having.
Like, well, shit. So... There's a lot of those things though.
So there's cool traditions. That's really cool.
And if we have any, if we have any I'm like if we have any that we don't know about no I'm like I was gonna say if we have any like Irish or Scottish listeners oh I was like, are there any of you out there?
Fucking half the fucking time. listener no you guys are fucking awesome uh but if you guys have anything you want to like add to this or you want me to like update or You can give me any of your traditions that you guys, you know, the UK listeners and European listeners.
I'd love to do like. You know an episode that's about different parts of the world and how they celebrate this time of year.
It would be very interesting. So if anybody has any stories that they'd like me to tell...
They're your own personal things that you celebrate.
That'd be cool to hear. I'd love that. Feel free to email the Gmail. at morbidpodcast at gmail.com.
Email the gmail. Gmail the email. While you're at that, you can follow us on Instagram.
At Morbid Podcast. Hit us up on Twitter.
At Amorbid Podcast. Email the Gmail. morbidpodcast.gmail.com.
And if you don't have a Halloween costume, you might as well just go as a Morbid Podcast listener, shop.morbidpodcast.com. go wow look at you with the segway she is basically paul blart mall cops so true We are just segueing everywhere.
Out here, I'm a segue. Out here, I'm a segue.
But we hope you guys enjoyed this little like loosey-goosey Samhain. ad free episode ad free and we hope that you keep listening and we hope you keep it Weird.
But not somewhere that you don't do Samhain.
Yeah, because Samhain rules. Do all the Samhain things.
Stealing. Love you. Bye. Happy Halloween.
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