From: eshin@ddsw1.mcs.com (Eshin-Fun)
Subject: HALLOW'EEN
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 15:19:34 GMT
Expires: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 06:00:00 GMT
Organization: ddsw1.MCS.COM Contributor, Chicago IL
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3



      ******************IT'S ELECTION TIME AGAIN***************

         Halloween reminds us.    It's in the stars!

Dispensing with the camouflage that clouds an old favorite holiday we find
that Halloween, (October 31) is nothing more than the commemorative of a great
catastrophe which actually resulted in the re-election of chiefs unto public
office.

This event is marked by the culmination of the Pleiades star group in the 
constellation of Taurus, at midnight, a phenomena visible in the night sky
from about October 30th till Novemeber 17th.

Throughout the world this star group has impressed manking with a sense of
mystery implying some great events like that of a great cataclysim, possibly
by water. Memorial services to the dead at this season of the year, when
the Pleiades occupy a conspicuous position in the night sky are found from 
remote antiquity to the present day. Logically, the lighting of new fires
and election of new leaders or chiefs into public office follow the same
dates.

Among the Aztec of Central America we find the Pleiades the cynosure of all
eyes. At the end of every period of fifty-two years in the month of
November, when the Pleiades would culminate in their skies at midnight
it was believed that the world could end. Sacrifices were offered while
the entire population passed the night upon their knees awaiting their
doom or redemption.

Far removed from the Aztecs we find the people of Japan in their great national
festival, "The Feast of Lanterns", a celebration which is still alive today
commemorating at this same season of the year what seems to have been some
great calamity that was suposed to have overwhelmed the race of man in the 
far distant past.

These stars were also pictured by the Hindu as a flame, typical of Agni, the god of fire, the regent of this asterism. There is speculation then, that there may be a connection between the Hindu title "flame" and the great "Feast of
Lamps" which the western Hindu celebrate also in the Pleiad season [October
/November]; a great festival of the dead, with that of the "Feast of Lanterns"
in Japan; even though now a more common representation of this same group
of stars among the Hindu is a razor, possibly because of the arrangement of the
stars in the group which suggest this title.

Among the ancient Egyptians the same day was observed. Though their calendar 
was subsequently changed, the occasion was not lost sight of. The date of
their celebration was determined by the culmination of the Pleadies at midnight
and on this day a solemn three day festival mended. With them, as with the three previously mention nations, the festival was associated with the tradion
of an inundation or race destroying calamity.
If we connect the fact that this festival occured on the 17th day of Athyr, with the date on which the Mosaic account of the deluge of Noah states to have
commenced, in the second month of the Jewish New Year; which corresponds to
November, the 17th of the month, it must be acknowledged that this is no
chance coincidence and that the precise date here stated must have been
regulated by the Pleiades as with the Egyptian date.

In the Israelite Talmud we find another curious legend associating the
Pleiades with an all destroying flood, expressed as follows:
"When the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to bring the deluge upon the
world, he took two stars out of the Pleiades and thus let the deluge loose,
and when He wished to arrest it, He took two stars out of Arcturus and 
stopped it."

The Persians formerly called the month of November "Mordad" meaning the
"Angel of Death" and that month marked the date of their festival of the 
dead. On the day of the midnight culmination of the Pleiades, November 17th
no petition was presented in vain to their ancient kings.

Druid and Celtic tribes of Britain celebrated this same time as a tribute to
 "Samhain", the Lord of Death, in the hope that he be merciful to those
individuals who had died in the previous year. Because the Druids regarded
black cats as sacred and embodying the souls of persons punished by Samhain for
evil deeds,  cats played an important role in early Hallow'een rites.
Pumpkin carving on the other hand, started with a biblous and gluttonous
Irishman named Jack O'Lanter. After Jack died it is said he couldn't enter the 
Netherworld because of his reputation as a trickster. The Lord Samhain angrily 
threw him out of the Netherworld on Halloween night but allowed him to
hallow out the pumpkin he was eating and put a glowing coal inside for
illumination as he was condemned to wander in the darkness of the earth.
Irish imagination has no doubt left a profound influence in Hallow Eve
myths. The custom of trick or treat goes back to an early Irish law that
allowed farmers to solicit food for the poor villagers at Halloween.
Willing givers were promised a treat in the future while the miserly or
uncharitable folk could expect some undignified trick in public.

Thus the first of November was with the ancient Druids of Britain a night full 
of mystery in which they annually celebrated the reconstruction of the world.
Relics remain to this day, for in our calendar we will find November first
marked as "All Saints Day"; and in the pre-Reformation calendar the last
day of October was marked as "All Hallows Eve"; as with the second of November
named "All Souls" indicating clearly a three day festival of the dead, 
commencing in the evening and originally regulated by the Pleiades.

In Ceylon and far distant Peru a like festival took place at this season 
of the year and was the basis of the later's primitive calendar.

The Society Islanders commenced their year on the first day of the appearance
of the Pleiades which occur in November. This star group also marked
a festival in commemoration of the dead which took place annually about 
the end of October in the Tonga Island of the Fiji group.

In France, the Parisian at this festival repair to their cemeteries and lunch
at the graves of their ancestors.

The actual observance at the present day of this festival is to be found
among the Australian savages. At midnight culmination of the Pleiades, in 
November, they still hold a New Year's corroboree in honor to this group
of stars, which they say are "very good to black fellows". The corroborees
are connected with the worship of the dead.

Still another custom associated with the Pleiades, which have come down to us
is the November date of our elections; the convocation of the tribal meeting at this time, because of the significant position of the Pleiades, being a very 
ancient custom.

Many Masonic organizations of the present day have memorial services to the
dead about the middle of November.

Many more are the traditions which revolve around this ancient star group
that 6,000 years ago marked the position of the sun at the spring equinox
and this is the principle reason why as we have seen, it was so universally 
associated with the apparent wax and wane of the forces of nature.

The ancient Romans, Assyrians, the Dyaks of Borneo, the Iriquois, Onondaga and
Shasta Indians, the Eskimo, Malayan, the ancient Greek and others also have 
tradition and myths alluding to these stars. But most interesting of all
is the presistance of this festival today, at a time when stars can hardly
be seen from the city and after the influence of a great national catastrophe
suggested by water. (Watergate??)

Many more are the traditions that we have inherited from the Irish and Scotch
whose vision of a night of wild tempestuopus play of witches, 
fairies and goblins frolicking with wild abandon is not unsimilar to the 
German wanton spectacle of the Vernal "Walpurgus Nacht" when once a year from
the four corners of the world, witches, sorcerers, magicians and wizards
convene to a wild and desolate spot in the Schirk Valley and romped amongst
the awsome hights of the "Brocken" (the witche's mountain) and its jagged 
peaks resounded the unholy revelry of the "Witches' Sabbath"!

Eshin-Fun
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