Druid

It goes way back.

I think it's almost as far back as the Druids.

I think I'll have a look, but it's certainly not American holiday.

But they adopted it.

Did you? Why?

Well, I was invited to, had one here, and...

And it does go back to the Druids.

It's Celtic,

All we've got...

The Druids and that was...

They never wrote anything down.

So all we've got is from Roman historians who weren't very good historians.

It's definitely Celtic as all hell.

Maybe it's Druidic.

I don't know.

I just felt very Stargate-y.

I mean, now you're explaining, you know, so it was somehow with a noise and the Micmacs actually, I mean, who knows, but somehow

Druid, um, markings here in New Hampshire at the, um, what is it? The, uh, Yeah, but you see the various markings, you know, it was global travel long before, you know,

they...

There's also a universal symbolism, which you find, regardless even of these cultures... apparently touching each other, you know, there are some universal symbols which reappear, spirals and, you know, certain kind of swastika-like spirals and stuff,

You know, the ale was dropped.

Anyway, in the 1920s, kids coming in costumes, which goes back to the Druids, which goes back to the Celtic countries in Ireland.

Well, nowadays, many of us, including Denny, our engineer, associate Halloween with bats.

Isn't that right, Denny? He's nodding his head.

And that has historical roots, too.

The Druids' Samhain bonfires—no, we just talked about that— attracted bugs, lots of bugs, which in turn tempted the bats to a very tasty feast.

Well, in latter years Folklore emerged citing bats as harbingers of death or doom.

In fact, in Nova Scotian mythology, a bat settling in a house means a man in the family is going to die.

And yes, we are even doing a deep dive into modern Dungeons and Dragons rule books to see exactly how this myth morphed over 2000 years.

Well, the challenge we face in this exploration and really, I mean, it is the central paradox of the Druids is that we are analyzing an elite class of people who functioned as the intellectual, spiritual, legal and political heavyweights across Celtic societies.

Right.

In Gaul, Britain, Ireland.

The victors write the history.

Exactly.

So to understand the Druids, we have to start by looking through the lens of their absolute worst enemies.

We have to look at the Romans.

Right.

It says, beyond causing mischief and crops, Celts thought that these returning spirits could also make it easier for the Druids or Celtic priests to predict the future.

So that's where we get into kind of the occult stuff, the occult tie-in to this holiday, this old tradition, if you will.

For a people entirely dependent on the volatile nature of the world, these prophecies were important sources of comfort and stability during a long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires where people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to Celtic deities.

So definitely the Halloween tradition has some ties to stuff that we would consider today to be evil or not good practices.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes typically made of animal heads and skins and told each other's fortunes.

We can look it up and he goes by a bunch of names, Jack, the Smith, uh, drunk Jack, flaky Jack and other names.

Everyone sounds good, right? No more technical difficulties.

Druids were simply not white-robed forest priests.

Caesar described them as religious authorities, teachers, judges who settled disputes involving property, inheritance, and even homicide.

So, you know, they weren't the...

We can do Wayne and

Garth.

Around AD 60 or 61, Roman forces attacked Mona and Tacitus described a black clad woman carrying torches while Druids stood on the shore, raising their hands and screaming curses at approaching soldiers.

After taking the island, the Romans destroyed the Sega Groves.