Even in Central Europe, remote from the region now occupied
by the Celts, a similar bisection of the year may be clearly traced
in the great popularity, on the one hand, of May Day and its Eve
(Walpurgis Night), and, on the other hand, of the Feast of All Souls
at the beginning of November, which under a thin Christian cloak
conceals an ancient pagan festival of the dead. Hence we may
conjecture that everywhere throughout Europe the celestial division
of the year according to the solstices was preceded by what we may
call a terrestrial division of the year according to the beginning
of summer and the beginning of winter.
Be that as it may, the two great Celtic festivals of May Day and the
first of November or, to be more accurate, the Eves of these two
days, closely resemble each other in the manner of their celebration
and in the superstitions associated with them, and alike, by the
antique character impressed upon both, betray a remote and purely
pagan origin. The festival of May Day or Beltane, as the Celts
called it, which ushered in summer, has already been described; it
remains to give some account of the corresponding festival of
Hallowe'en, which announced the arrival of winter.
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