A few weeks ago on Witches’ Voice, there was an article discussing a Kemetic (Egyptian) presentation of the Wheel of the Year. In her essay, the author argued that, while the majority of the festivals in the Wheel are of European origin, their themes are common to Egyptian mythology and thus the festivals can be celebrated within an Egyptian context.
For those who wish to read the article, it can be found here: http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=ukgb2&c=holidays&id=14499
This article leaves a question in my mind, and I am wondering what you all think of this situation: Is the author of this article really celebrating the festivals in the Wheel of the Year?
For example, let’s take a look at Samhain: Is the author really celebrating Samhain?
In her Kemetic construction of the Wheel, the author terms Samhain as ‘the festival of the dead,’ and she places her emphasis on the myth of Osiris’ mummification. Certainly these are common themes within the festival of Samhain, but does that make the author’s celebration Samhain out-right?
Taking a look at the history of Samhain, we find that it is a Gaelic agricultural festival used to mark the last harvest, the end of summer, the beginning of winter, and to commemorate the dead. Even modern Pagan 101 books often define Samhain as a Celtic fire festival of the last harvest and of the dead. But what happens when we take out the ‘Gaelic/Celtic’ and ‘fire festival’ parts from the definition—as the author of the article has done. Is it still fair to term the celebration as Samhain? Or has it become something else?
Without the designation of ‘Gaelic/Celtic’ and ‘fire festival,’ our definition of Samhain is left as ‘a festival of the last harvest and of the dead.’ Is this really a fair way to define the culturally-specific and indeed culturally important festival of Samhain? And if this is the definition, was my Thanksgiving last year, in fact, a celebration of Samhain? (After all, Thanksgiving certainly has roots in commemorating the harvest, and my grandfather had just passed away, so the family said some special prayers for him.)
Or, is Samhain—and any festival, for that matter—just a manner of date. If someone celebrates a festival on October 31, is it okay for them to call it a Samhain celebration, whether or not it has anything to do with the historical celebration for which it is named? Yet, if this is the case, those people who celebrate Samhain on the nearest full moon or who are more traditional and actually celebrate the festival on the day of the last local harvest would not be celebrating Samhain. So is this really a fair judgment?
Perhaps, then, Samhain is not about the actual date but more about the time of the year. It does not matter if you celebrate on October 31 but that you celebrate in autumn. But, with this logic, would a complete El Dia de los Muertos celebration be considered a Samhain festival? And would this be fair to either culture? It is akin—in my mind—to saying: “In winter, I decorate my house with evergreen boughs, set up the tree, wait for Santa to arrive, and celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. BUT, this is Hanukah, NOT Christmas! It has nothing to do with the Jews nor the Maccabean revolt, but my celebration is most certainly Hanukah.”—Can this logic really work?
Or, is the issue of “is this Samhain?” simply an issue of name? Is something Samhain because the individual/group decides to call it as such? If this is the case, it sounds a little absurd to me. Does that mean that I can begin calling the Fourth of July Easter, even though I am celebrating the independence of the United States? Somehow that one just does not work out in my brain.
What I am getting at is this: Can we title a festival using the name of a historical celebration if none of the historically associated elements are present? (This is assuming, of course, that the historical celebration in question is still practiced in some traditional way by its respective indigenous group(s)—which all of the Greater Sabbats of the Wheel certainly are!)
That is the question that I am posing to all of you. I do not think that there is a right or a wrong answer, only opinions, and I am really interested to hear your takes on the issue.
For the record, here is my opinion on all of this:
The author is not celebrating the Greater Sabbats of the Wheel—i.e. Samhain, Imbolg, Bealtaine, and Lughnasadh. All of these festivals are culturally-tied celebrations. In my opinion, when you strip them of their cultural associations, they become something else. It is not enough to just have similar themes if these themes are placed in a dislocated context. After all, Ramadan and Lent—while both involve fasting—are not even close to being the same event.
I think that what may be used to distinguish this tendency of Pagans to label any festival of the dead as Samhain or any celebration of sexuality as Bealtaine is perhaps the development of a new language schema. To do this, there would have to be a distinction between, for example, Samhain (proper noun) and samhain (adjective). Samhain (proper noun) would relate to the historical and culturally-specific festival of the Gaels. On the other hand, samhain (adjective) would relate to items that have similar themes as the Gaelic festival, Samhain. This adjective form would hearken to the etymological meaning of the word “samhain" (meaning “summer’s end”), rather than denoting the cultural festival of Samhain. Thus a samhain celebration would be any celebration which focused on the summer’s end and honoring that transition, whereas the festival of Samhain would focus on honoring the end of summer in a traditionally Gaelic/*Celtic* way.
Now, I am not meaning to promote this dichotomy of terms as a concrete scholarly divide. I do not think that books should be written with this language, nor that we even should use this type of language in our everyday conversations. Rather this goes to suggest that a new way of thinking about the festivals be adopted, one which clearly states that just because two things are similar, it does not mean that they are the same. I would not call an apple a guava just because they are both fruits.
Anywho, those are my thoughts. As I said, I do not think that there can be any right or wrong answer to these questions, just different opinions. I am very interested to know what you guys think, as you are a pretty smart bunch :-)
-Bryce
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