Inside the Irish 'hell caves' where Halloween was born

[RandySF]

In the middle of a field in a lesser known part of Ireland is a large mound occupied by sheep. These livestock wander freely, chewing the grass beneath their feet. Yet, had they been in that same location 2,000 years ago, these animals probably would have been stiff with terror, held aloft by chanting, costumed pagans while being sacrificed to Celtic demons that inhabited nearby Oweynagat cave.

Considered by the ancient Celts to be a passage between Ireland and its devil-infested “otherworld,” Oweynagat (pronounced “Oen-na-gat” and meaning “cave of the cats”) was the birthplace of the Samhain festival, the ancient roots of Halloween, according to Irish archaeologist Daniel Curley. Far from the child-friendly event it has become, Halloween can trace its origins to a bloody and eerie ritual marked in Rathcroghan, a former Celtic center buried beneath the farmland of Ireland’s County Roscommon.

Curley is an expert on Rathcroghan, which was the hub of the ancient Irish kingdom of Connaught. At the heart of Rathcroghan, on that monumental mound, animals were sacrificed at a mighty pagan temple during Samhain. Now Ireland is pushing for UNESCO World Heritage status for Rathcroghan (“Rath-craw-hin”), a 5,500-year-old mystery slowly being decoded by scientists and historians.

Spread across 2.5 square miles of rich agricultural land, Rathcroghan boasts 240 archaeological sites. They range from burial mounds to ring forts, standing stones, linear earthworks, an Iron Age ritual sanctuary, and Oweynagat, the so-called “gate to hell.”

More than 2,000 years ago, when paganism was the dominant religion among Ireland’s majority Celtic people, it was here in Rathcroghan that the Celtic New Year festival of Samhain (“Sow-in”) was born, Curley says. In the 1800s, the Samhain tradition was brought by Irish immigrants to the United States, where it morphed into the sugar overload that is American Halloween.





https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/inside-irelands-gate-to-hell-that-birthed-halloween

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[oasis]

2. Learning something new almost every day. K and R

[gratuitous]

5. Yeah, you gotta be careful about that

Learning something new, that is.

I just read a Barnes & Noble book about Irish folklore and legends. The amount of suffering and death that goes into these stories is astounding. When I considered the real-life bases for these stories (infants dying in their cradles; changelings put in place of kidnapped children; haunted castles, rings, hillocks; and all kinds of other terror tales), it's a wonder Ireland is still inhabited.

[mopinko]

3. a neighbor who is a halloween freak posted another nat geo article about the irish roots.

i sorta knew it was connected to ireland. i knew the jack o'lantern thing started there.
but i had no idea the whole idea was irish. such a pity i was raised knowing so little about my people.

i have a habit of calling my irish friends-'cousin'. there a fellow in the hood that was born there that is bugged by this, i think. some irish born dont like us american born thinking we are country men.
but i'll tell ya, they should be proud of how much about america came here from ireland. this country would be a very different place w/o the irish diaspora.
even tho parts of my family came here very early, i'm still nothing but irish.

[Deep State Witch]

4. Not demons

Gods. Tir na Nog was the home of the Tuatha de Danaan, who are considered to be the Gods of Ireland. They were one of the waves of people who came to Ireland in pre-historic times. I expect better scholarship from NatGeo.