TROUBADOURS & TROBAIRITZES, OCCITAN LYRIC POETRY

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the troubadours, the composers and performers of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages.

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). 

Since the word troubadour is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz.

The troubadour school or tradition began in the late 11th century in Occitania, but it subsequently spread to the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas.

Under the influence of the troubadours, related movements sprang up throughout Europe: the Minnesang in Germany, trovadorismo in Galicia and Portugal, and that of the trouvères in northern France.

Dante Alighieri in his De vulgari eloquentia defined the troubadour lyric as fictio rethorica musicaque poita: rhetorical, musical, and poetical fiction. After the classical period around the turn of the 13th century and a mid-century resurgence, the art of the troubadours declined in the 14th century and around the time of the Black Death (1348) it died out.

The texts of troubadour songs deal mainly with themes of chivalry and courtly love. Most were metaphysical, intellectual, and formulaic. Many were humorous or vulgar satires.

Works can be grouped into three styles: the trobar leu (light), trobar ric (rich), and trobar clus (closed). Likewise there were many genres, the most popular being the canso, but sirventes and tensos were especially popular in the post-classical period.

More information: Midi-France

The English word troubadour was borrowed from the French word first recorded in 1575 in an historical context to mean langue d'oc poet at the court in the 12th and 13th century.

The first use and earliest form of troubador is trobadors, found in a 12th-century Occitan text by Cercamon.

The French word itself is borrowed from the Occitan trobador. It is the oblique case of the nominative trobaire composer, related to trobar to compose, to discuss, to invent.

Trobar may come, in turn, from the hypothetical Late Latin *tropāre to compose, to invent a poem by regular phonetic change. This reconstructed form is based on the Latin root tropus, meaning a trope. In turn, the Latin word derives ultimately from Greek τρόπος (trópos), meaning turn, manner. Intervocal Latin shifted regularly to in Occitan (cf. Latin sapere → Occitan saber, French savoir, to know). The Latin suffix -ātor, -ātōris explains the Occitan suffix, according to its declension and accentuation: Gallo-Romance *tropātor → Occitan trobaire (subject case) and *tropātōre → Occitan trobador (oblique case).

The 450 or so troubadours known to historians came from a variety of backgrounds. They made their living in a variety of ways, lived, and travelled in many different places, and were actors in many types of social context. 

The troubadours were not wandering entertainers. Typically, they stayed in one place for a lengthy period of time under the patronage of a wealthy nobleman or woman. Many did travel extensively, however, sojourning at one court and then another.

More information: TrobEu

The Consistori de la Gaya Sciència de Barcelona, Academy of the Gay Science of Barcelona, was a literary academy founded in Barcelona by Joan I El Caçador, John the Hunter, King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, in 1393 in imitation of the Consistori del Gay Saber founded in Toulouse in 1323.

The poetry produced by and for the Consistori was heavily influenced by the troubadours.

The Consistori's chief purpose was to promote correct styles and themes and discourage vices (vicis) by awarding prizes in competition to poets who adhered to the rules of poetic composition.

The names of few poets laureate have come down to us and despite some excellent descriptions of the Consistori's activities, associated persons and poems are obscure.

At Pentecost, 31 May 1338, a contest was held at Lleida before Pere El Cerimoniós, Peter the Ceremonious, Joan's predecessor, at which those poems adjudged the best were given awards. A panel of judges was designated in advance by the king. It was to pass judgement super arte dictandi et faciendi pulcra carmina sive cantars, on the art of speaking and composing beautiful songs, that is, cantars.

The winning poets received a rosa d'or (golden rose) and piece of expensive golden satin called diasprell. With its floral prize, the 1338 contest emulated the Jocs Florals (floral games) already being held in Toulouse and to be held eventually in Barcelona as well.

Much about this event, however, remains unknown: the language of composition was vernacular (cantars), but which vernacular is uncertain (Occitan or Catalan), and the names of the poets or any portions of their work have not survived.

More information: British Library

Les poèmes racontent des libertés, des fratries unies;
ils dessinent des pays fidèles comme aucun homme,
qui mêlent l'haleine tiède des arbres
à la peau diaphane des rivières, des landes,
des dunes et des marais.
Mon pays.
Les troubadours me le rendent à chaque fois.

The poems tell of freedoms, of united siblings;
they draw countries faithful like no man,
which mingle the warm breath of the trees with
the diaphanous skin of the rivers, the wastelands,
the dunes and the marshes.
My country.
The troubadours give it back to me every time.

Clara Dupont-Monod

THE 'FALL OF MONTSEGUR', CATHARS BURNT TO DEATH

Today, The Grandma has been reading about a community that fascinates her, the Cathars, who lived in Occitania until they were massacred by the Catholic Church and the French forces.

On a day like today in 1244, over 200 Cathars who refused to recant, burnt to death after the Fall of Montsegur.

The Siege of Montsegur was a nine-month siege of the Cathar-held Château de Montsegur by French royal forces starting in May 1243.

After the castle surrendered, about 210 perfecti and unrepentant credentes were burned in a bonfire on 16 March 1244.

Although the Albigensian Crusade had been concluded with the Treaty of Paris-Meaux in 1229, local resistance continued. The Cathar Church was still able to operate and oppose the Inquisition that pervaded the Languedoc.

In 1233, the Cathar Bishop Guilhabert de Castres asked Raymond de Pereille for permission to make Montsegur the seat and head (domicilium et caput) of the Cathar Church.

As a haven for Cathars, Montsegur gained symbolic and strategic importance in the resistance fight against the Catholic Church and the French forces in subsequent years.

In 1241, Raymond VII made a token attempt to capture Montsegur, primarily to impress the King and the Catholic Church of his allegiance. At that time Montsegur housed about 500 people.

More information: Cathar

In the context of Occitan resistance and possibly linked to Raymond's efforts to free himself from the chains of the Paris Treaty, two representatives of the Inquisition, William Arnald and Stephen de Saint-Thibéry, as well as their companions and retinue were murdered by about fifty men from Montsegur and dispossessed faidits at Avignonet on 28 May 1242. This event led to the decision to send a royal military expedition to eliminate the stronghold.

In May 1243, the seneschal Hugues des Arcis led the military command of about 10,000 royal troops against the castle that was held by about 100 fighters and was home to perfecti, who as pacifists did not participate in combat, and civilian refugees.

Many of these refugees were Cathar credentes who lived in huts and caves outside the castle on the mountain. The initial strategy was to besiege the castle in expectation that water and supplies would run out, a strategy that had worked well for the crusaders before.

However, the defenders were well supplied and able to keep their support lines open, being supported by many of the local population; some reinforcements even arrived. Thus eventually it was decided to attack the place directly, a difficult task due to its well protected location high on a massive limestone rock.

More information: Learn Religions

After many failures, Basque mercenaries were able to secure a location on the eastern side of the summit across a depression which allowed the construction of a catapult. This forced refugees that were living outside the walls of the castle to move inside, making living conditions difficult. Apparently by treachery, a passage was found to get access to the barbican which was conquered in March 1244.

The catapult was now moved closer and the living situation inside deteriorated under the day-and-night bombardment. When an attempt by the garrison failed to dislodge the invaders from the barbican, the defenders gave the signal that they had decided to negotiate for surrender.

Surrender conditions were quickly decided on: All the people in the castle were allowed to leave except those who would not renounce their Cathar faith, primarily the perfecti. A two-week truce was declared. The last two weeks were spent praying and fasting. A number of defenders decided to join the about 190 perfecti and received their consolamentum bringing the total number of Cathar believers destined to burn to between 210 and 215.

On 16 March, led by Bishop Bertrand Marty, the group left the castle and went down to the place where the wood for the pyre had been erected. No stakes were needed: they mounted the pyre and perished voluntarily in the flames.

More information: Domaine de Palatz

The remainder of the defenders, including those who had participated in the murder of the inquisitors, were allowed to leave, among them Raymond de Pereille who was later, like others, subjected to the Inquisition.

It has been claimed that three or four perfecti survived; they left the castle by a secret route to recover a treasure of the Cathars that had been buried in a nearby forest in the weeks prior to the surrender. The treasure not only contained material valuables but also documents and possibly relics. Nothing about its whereabouts is known.

Catharism continued in the Languedoc for many decades, but it had lost its organization, and, under the pressure of the Inquisition, adherents if not captured moved to other places, such as Catalonia and Italy, where conditions were less oppressive.

Montsegur Castle was destroyed; today’s ruins are a remnant of the French border fortress of a later time.

At the base of the mountain, in the Prat dels Cremats, Occitan for Field of the Burnt, a modern stone commemorates the death of the victims; it is inscribed Als catars, als martirs del pur amor crestian. 16 de març 1244, in Occitan for To the Cathars, to the martyrs of pure christian love. 16 March 1244.

More information: Château Marcel

 When genocide is committed,
it must be seen.
People must look at it with open eyes,
not minimize its impact.

Nadia Murad

'THE CANTERVILLE GHOST', A CRITICISM OF A WAY OF LIFE

Old memories of Sant Boi

Today, The Stones and The Grandma have continued with their English classes.

Firstly, they have learnt how to create question tags using Present Simple and where and how to use the Adverbs of Frequency. They have also reviewed modal verbs with Should and Shouldn't.

Next, they have started to read The Canterville Ghost, an amazing short story written by Oscar Wilde that represents a great criticism of the American way of life during the last decades of the 19th C. Ghost stories are anything but a contemporary phenomenon. They have been passed down from generation to generation for centuries, either orally or through the written word.

Later, The Grandma has been talking about the importance of trade and commerce in Sant Boi along the history and its connections with Occitan merchants, especially when Sant Boi was opened to the sea and the Llobregat River was navigable. Nowadays, the influence of these cultural ties is seen in the names of the streets (Alou, Raurich...) in the architecture and with the recognition of great figures in the history of the city. Names like the Santboian Baldiri Aleu, the founder of U.E. Santboiana, the local rugby team, or Frederic Mistral, the Occitan poet and a great admirer of the city, are two good examples.

Finally, with the arrival of the last of the members of the family, they have returned to their normal life, then travelling, enjoying and learning more English. They have decided to prepare a new travel, a long travel with different stops: Manchester-Hawaii-Buenos Aires and Tierra del Fuego to start.

Prepare your baggage Stones. We are going to enjoy together of this new experience. Next stop: Manchester.

More info: Adverbs of Frequency, Question Tags & Should/Shouldn't

More information: Writeexpress

A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them.

The ghost may appear of its own accord or be summoned by magic. Linked to the ghost is the idea of hauntings, where a supernatural entity is tied to a place, object or person. Ghost stories are commonly examples of ghostlore.

Colloquially, the term ghost story can refer to any kind of scary story. In a narrower sense, the ghost story has been developed as a short story format, within genre fiction. It is a form of supernatural fiction and specifically of weird fiction, and is often a horror story.

While ghost stories are often explicitly meant to be scary, they have been written to serve all sorts of purposes, from comedy to morality tales. Ghosts often appear in the narrative as sentinels or prophets of things to come. Belief in ghosts is found in all cultures around the world, and thus ghost stories may be passed down orally or in written form.

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

What we understand as a ghost today has its roots in the myths and beliefs of ancient cultures.

Ghosts were and sometimes still are believed to be the spirit of a person that exists after the body has died.

It is because of these beliefs that funeral rituals initially took place and were practised as a passage of rights to the next world, a way to say goodbye, and to prevent the spirit from remaining on Earth and haunting the living.

Further to this, the existence of ghosts is believed because of the human experience of feeling haunted or being in the presence of a spirit. This can range from hearing, seeing or other unexplainable spooky happenings.

More information: Arapahoe Libraries

The Canterville Ghost is a humorous short story by Oscar Wilde. It was the first of Wilde's stories to be published, appearing in two parts in The Court and Society Review, 23 February and 2 March 1887.

The story is about an American family who move to a castle haunted by the ghost of a dead English nobleman, who killed his wife and was then walled in and starved to death by his wife's brothers. It has been adapted for the stage and screen several times.

The home of the Canterville Ghost was the ancient Canterville Chase, which has all the accoutrements of a traditional haunted house. Descriptions of the wainscoting, the library panelled in black oak, and the armour in the hallway characterise the setting.

Wilde mixes the macabre with comedy, juxtaposing devices from traditional English ghost stories such as creaking floorboards, clanking chains, and ancient prophecies.

More information: BBC & The New York Times

We have really everything in common with America nowadays,
except, of course, language.

Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

J. E. FREDERIC MISTRAL, ''LOU TRESOR DÓU FELIBRIGE'

Frederic Mistral

Today, The Grandma has received the visit of one of her closest friends, Jordi Santanyí. Jordi is a writer and he loves Literature. He spends lots of hours talking with The Grandma about authors and their works. They have been talking about Frederic Mistral, the Occitan writer and lexicographer.

The Grandma loves Occitan culture and it is a great pleasure and honour to talk about Frederic Mistral, one of her favourite writers who received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature and who was born on a day like today in 1830. Jordi and The Grandma think that the best way to pay homage to Frederic Mistral is talking about his life and his excellent works, especially his poems.

Frederic Mistral, in Occitan Josèp Estève Frederic Mistral (8 September 1830-25 March 1914) was an Occitan writer and lexicographer of the Provençal form of the language.

Mistral received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist. He was a founding member of the Félibrige and a member of l'Académie de Marseille.

His name in his native language was Frederi Mistral (Mistrau) according to the Mistralian orthography or Frederic Mistral or Mistrau according to the classical orthography.

More information: Gutenberg

Mistral's fame was owing in part to Alphonse de Lamartine who sang his praises in the 40th edition of his periodical Cours familier de littérature, following the publication of Mistral's long poem Mirèio. Alphonse Daudet, with whom he maintained a long friendship, eulogized him in Poet Mistral, one of the stories in his collection Lettres de mon moulin.

Mistral was born in Maillane in the Bouches-du-Rhône département. His parents were wealthy landed farmers. His father, François Mistral, was from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. His mother was Adelaide Poulinet. As early as 1471, his paternal ancestor, Mermet Mistral, lived in Maillane. By 1588, the Mistral family lived in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

Mistral was given the name Frederi in memory of a poor small fellow who, at the time when my parents were courting, sweetly ran their errands of love, and who died shortly afterward of sunstroke.

Frederic Mistral

Mistral did not begin school until he was about nine years, and quickly began to play truant, leading his parents to send him to a boarding school in Saint-Michel-de-Frigolet, run by a Monsieur Donnat.

After receiving his bachelor's degree in Nîmes, Mistral studied law in Aix-en-Provence from 1848 to 1851. He became a champion for the independence of Provence, and in particular for restoring the first literary language of civilized Europe, Provençal. He had studied the history of Provence during his time in Aix-en-Provence.

Emancipated by his father, Mistral resolved: to raise, revive in Provence the feeling of race...; to move this rebirth by the restoration of the natural and historical language of the country...; to restore the fashion to Provence by the breath and flame of divine poetry. For Mistral, the word race designates people linked by language, rooted in a country and in a story.

For his lifelong efforts in restoring the language of Provence, Frederic Mistral was one of the recipients of the 1904 Nobel Prize for Literature after having been nominated by two professors from the Swedish Uppsala University. The other winner that year, José Echegaray, was honored for his Spanish dramas. They shared the prize money equally.

Mistral devoted his half to the creation of the Museum at Arles, known locally as Museon Arlaten. The museum is considered to be the most important collection of Provençal folk art, displaying furniture, costumes, ceramics, tools and farming implements. In addition, Mistral was awarded the Légion d'honneur. This was a most unusual occurrence since it is usually only awarded for notable achievement on a national level whereas Mistral was uniquely Provençal in his work and achievement.

More information: Languedoc, France

In 1876, Mistral married a Burgundian woman, Marie-Louise Rivière (1857-1943) in Dijon Cathedral. They had no children. The poet died on 25 March 1914 in Maillane, the same village where he was born.

Mistral joined forces with one of his teachers, Joseph Roumanille, and five other Provençal poets and on 21 May 1854, they founded Félibrige, a literary and cultural association, which made it possible to promote the Occitan language. Placed under the patronage of Saint Estelle, the movement also welcomed Catalan poets, driven out by Isabelle II.

The seven founders of the organization were to use their Provençal names: Jóusè Roumaniho, Frederi Mistral, Teodor Aubanel, Ansèume Matiéu, Jan Brunet, Anfos Tavan and Paul Giera. Félibrige exists to this day, one of the few remaining cultural organizations in 32 departments of the Langue d'Oc.

Frederic Mistral

Mistral strove to rehabilitate the language of Provence, while carrying it to the highest summits of epic poetry.

He redefined the language in its purest form by creating a dictionary and transcribing the songs of the troubadours, who spoke the language in its original form.

Mistral is the author of Lou Tresor dóu Félibrige (1878–1886), which to date remains the most comprehensive dictionary of the Occitan language, and one of the most reliable, thanks to the precision of its definitions.

It is a bilingual dictionary, Occitan-French, in two large volumes, with all of the dialects of oc, including Provençal. Mistral owes to François Vidal the work of typesetting and revising that dictionary.

Mistral's most important work is Mirèio (Mireille), published in 1859, after eight years of effort. Mirèio, a long poem in Provençal consisting of twelve songs, tells of the thwarted love of Vincent and Mireille, two young Provençal people of different social backgrounds. The name Mireille (Mirèio in Provence) is a doublet of the word meraviho which means wonder.

Mistral used the occasion not only to promote his language but also to share the culture of an area. He tells among other tales, of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, where according to legend the dragon, Tarasque, was driven out, and of the famous and ancient Venus of Arles. He prefaced the poem with a short notice about Provençal pronunciation.

The poem tells how Mireille's parents wish her to marry a Provençal landowner, but she falls in love with a poor basket maker named Vincent, who loves her as well. After rejecting three rich suitors, a desperate Mireille, driven by the refusal of her parents to let her marry Vincent, runs off to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer to pray to the patrons of Provence to change her parents' minds. Having forgotten to bring a hat, she falls victim to the heat, dying in Vincent's arms under the gaze of her parents.

Mirèio was translated into some fifteen European languages, including into French by Mistral himself. In 1863, Charles Gounod made it into an opera, Mireille.

More information: JFBrun

Aioli epitomizes the heat, the power,

and the joy of the Provencal sun,

but it has another virtue -it drives away flies.

Frederic Mistral

VIELHA E MIJARAN, CAPITAL OF THE ARANESE COUNTRY

Víctor meets The Grandma in Vielha e Mijaran, Aran

Today, The Grandma has just arrived to Vielha e Mijaran to visit her friend Víctor.

Vielha e Mijaran is the capital of Aran, an Occitan country inside Catalonia. 

The Grandma loves Occitan culture. It is amazing and we cannot explain our current Europe without knowing the importance of Occitania during the Middle Age.

During her travel from Cadaqués to Vielha e Mijaran, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her interesting course of Ms. Excel course.

Chapter 13. Images, diagrams and titles (III) (Spanish Version)

Vielha e Mijaran is a municipality in Aran. It was created in 1970 by the merger of the municipalities of Arròs e Vila, Betlan, Escunhau, Gausac, Vielha and Vilac: some of the former municipalities retain some privileges as decentralised municipal entities, as does the village of Betren. 

Mijaran literally means Middle Aran in Aranese, as the inhabited part of the municipality is situated in the valley of the Garonne. The Noguera Ribagorçana has its source on the territory of the municipality, on the opposite side of the watershed. The ajuntament or town hall is in Vielha, which is also the capital of Aran.

More information: Conselh Generau d'Aran (Aranese Version)

The municipality is linked to France and to Catalonia, via the Vielha tunnel, by the road. The road continues up the valley to Naut Aran, and on over the Port de la Bonaigua (2,072 m) to the Catalan comarca of Pallars Sobirà. This road, the higher stretches of which are impassable in winter, was the only route between the Aran valley and Catalonia before the opening of the Vielha tunnel in 1948.

The municipality is composed of thirteen distinct settlements: Arròs, Aubèrt, Betlan, Betren, Casarilh, Casau, inhabited in Roman times, Escunhau, Gausac, Mont, Montcorbau, Vielha, Vila and Vilac.

Víctor is playing at his Aranese home

Aran, previously officially called Val d'Aran, is an administrative entity in Catalonia, consisting of the Aran Valley, 620.47 square kilometres in area, in the Pyrenees mountains, in the northwestern part of the province of Lleida.

This valley constitutes one of only two areas of contiguous part of current Catalonia that are located on the northern side of the Pyrenees. Hence, this valley holds the only Catalan rivers to flow into the Atlantic Ocean -for the same reason, the region is characterized by an Atlantic climate, instead of a Mediterranean one.

The Garonne river flows through Aran from its source on the Pla de Beret near the Port de la Bonaigua. It is joined by the Joèu river, from the slopes of Aneto mountain, which passes underground at the Forau de Aigualluts. It then reappears in the Val dera Artiga de Lin before reaching the Aran valley, then through France and eventually to the Atlantic Ocean. The Noguera Pallaresa river, whose source is only a hundred meters from that of the Garonne, flows the opposite way towards the Mediterranean.

Aran borders Occitania (France) on the north, Aragon (Spain) to the west and the Catalan counties of Alta Ribagorça to the south and Pallars Sobirà to the east.

More information: Ajuntament de Vielha e Mijaran (Aranese Version)

The capital of the comarca is Vielha, with 5,474 inhabitants. The entire population of the valley is about 9,991. A plurality of people in Aran spoke Spanish (38.78%) as their native language, followed by Aranese (34.19%), then Catalan (19.45%) with 7.56% having a different native language. Speakers of languages other than the local Aranese are typically people born outside the valley, or their children.

In 1313, Jaume II granted administrative and political autonomy to the Aran Valley, the legal details of which are described in a Latin manuscript called the Querimònia. The devolution of power was a reward for the Aranese pledging allegiance to Jaume II in a dispute with the kingdoms of France and Mallorca over control of the valley. This situation was suppressed in 1834, when the Valley was integrated into the new Province of Lleida, in the context of creation of the liberal state.

Visiting Musèu dera Val d'Aran

On 19 October 1944, Spanish Communist Party guerrillas invaded the valley in an attempt to bring about the fall of the Spanish dictatorship. They took control of several villages until October 27, 1944, but were forced to retreat back into France after Franco sent reinforcements to defend Vielha.

Before the construction of the Vielha tunnel, opened in 1948, the Aran valley had no direct communication with the south side of the mountains during winter.

In 1990 the autonomy of Aran was restored by the Parliament of Catalonia, as well the establishment of the Occitan as official language.

In 2015 the powers of Aranese institutions were increased.

Aranese is the standardized form of the local Gascon variety of the Occitan language. Aranese has been regularly taught at school since 1984. Like several other minority languages in Europe that recently faced decline, Aranese is experiencing a renaissance.

The name Aran comes from Basque haran, meaning valley. Basque toponyms reveal that Basque was spoken further east along the Pyrenees than today. The growing influence of Latin began to drive Basque out after the turn of the first millennium.

Administratively, Aran is a unique territorial entity roughly equivalent to a comarca (county) with additional powers. This status was most recently formalised in February 2015. The area is divided into six administrative divisions called terçons -meaning thirds, as there were formerly three divisions. The current arrangement of the divisions dates from the 15th century. Since 1991, Aran has an autonomous government called the Conselh Generau.

The main economic activity in the valley is tourism; from the ski resorts in the winter and from other tourist activity in the summer. Other primary sectors of the economy include forest products, cattle ranching and agriculture, all of which have become progressively less important since the opening of ski resorts.

More information: Visit Val d'Aran

Every crag and gnarled tree and lonely valley has

its own strange and graceful legend attached to it.

Douglas Hyde

SAMHAIN, CASTANYADA, GAU BELTZA, MAGOSTO...

Celebrating this amazing night

Today, The Grandma is going to celebrate this wonderful night, the Castanyada, with Tina Picotes, Joseph de Ca'th Lon and Claire Fontaine. She wants to talk about this October, 31, a wonderful day celebrated in different cultures in different ways but with the same origin: Occitania.

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the darker half of the year. Traditionally, it is celebrated from 31 October to 1 November, as the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. This is about halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.

It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasadh. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Similar festivals are held at the same time of year in other Celtic lands; for example the Brythonic Calan Gaeaf, in Wales, Kalan Gwav, in Cornwall, and Kalan Goañv, in Brittany, both Celtic branches are roughly as old as each other.

More information: Irish Genealogy

In the 9th century AD, the Western Christian church shifted the date of All Saints' Day to 1 November, while 2 November later became All Souls' Day. Over time, Samhain and All Saints/All Souls merged to create the modern Halloween. Historians have used the name Samhain to refer to Gaelic Halloween customs up until the 19th century.

Since the later 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Samhain, or something based on it, as a religious holiday. Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere often celebrate Samhain at the other end of the year, about 1 May.

In Modern Irish as well as Scottish Gaelic the name is Samhain. Older forms of the word include the Scottish Gaelic spellings Samhainn and Samhuinn. In Manx Gaelic the name is Sauin.

The Grandma celebrates the Castanyada

Castanyada in Catalan, the festival is also celebrated across Catalonia on both sides of the French-Catalan border.

It is a popular party in Portugal, where it is called magusto. It has also spread internationally as chestnut party.

The common elements of this celebration are the celebration in the month of November or end of October and the main elements are chestnut and fire. With this feast the chestnut tree recovers the importance that the corn and the potato have snatched from him in the last centuries.

More information: Fisa Rentals

The magosto is a traditional festival in some areas of northern Spain, such as Galicia, Cantabria, Asturias and the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca and Cáceres.

It is a party of Celtic roots, the party that celebrates the end of summer and begins the middle of the dark and cold year. In all the regions where it is celebrated and especially in Galicia, it is deeply related to the cult of the dead, being habitual to leave the fire of the house set and food around the fireplace so that the spirits of the deceased of the family return to their homes to warm up tonight. Numerous traditional rituals are celebrated throughout this feast, both for purification, healing, remembering ancestors, attending mass or visiting the local healer. 

In Euskalherria, this festivity is known as Gau Beltza.

More information: Galician Rustic

I was born on the night of Samhain, 

when the barrier between the worlds is whisper-thin 

and when magic, old magic, sings its heady 

and sweet song to anyone who cares to hear it.

Carolyn MacCullough

FROM OCCITANIA TO THE USA: HONOUR TO THE DEAD

The Grandma's celebrates Castanyada

Castanyada, Magosto or Magüestu, Samhaín and Halloween are popular festivals mainly on All Saints' Day. In Catalonia, Andorra and Occitania, celebrations involve eating roast chestnuts, panellets or baked sweet potato and preserved fruit, candied or glazed fruit, typically with moscatell to drink. 

It seems that the tradition of eating these foods comes from the fact that during All Saints' night, on the eve of All Souls' Day in the Christian tradition, bell ringers would ring bells in commemoration of the dead into the early morning. Friends and relatives would help with this task, and everyone would eat these foods for sustenance.

Other versions of the story state that the Castanyada originates at the end of the 18th century and comes from the old funeral meals, where other foods, such as vegetables and dried fruit were not served. The meal had the symbolic significance of a communion with the souls of the departed: while the chestnuts were roasting, prayers would be said for the person who had just died.

The festival is usually depicted with the figure of a castanyera: an old lady, dressed in peasant's clothing and wearing a headscarf, sitting behind a table, roasting chestnuts for street sale.

More information: La castanyada (Catalan Version)

Tina Picotes celebrates Magosto/Magüestu

The Magosto or Magüestu is the essential Galician, Asturian and Portuguese autumn pagan festival. In addition to chestnuts and local young wine, various foods have been incorporated such as sausages and other products made from the pig slaughter, which occurs precisely at that time. 

Chestnut festival is traditionally celebrated in the same grove, starting early in the afternoon to collect firewood and chestnuts. One or more bonfires are lit with sticks and pine needles. Young people took to the streets. It was customary for the girls to bring the chestnuts, and for the boys to bring the wine. Chestnuts are roasted on the floor, directly in the fire. Children play to dirt their faces with soot and ash. The adults dance and sing, jumping over the remains of the fire.

More information: Festa do Magosto (Galician Version)

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, or the "darker half" of the year. Traditionally, it is celebrated from the very beginning of one Celtic day to its end, or in the modern calendar, from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November, this places it about halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. 

Joseph de Ca'th Lon celebrates Samhaín

Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Similar festivals are held at the same time of year in other Celtic lands; for example the Brythonic Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan Gwav in Cornwall, and Kalan Goañv in Brittany.

Samhain is believed to have Celtic pagan origins, and there is evidence it has been an important date since ancient times. The Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithic passage tomb at the Hill of Tara, is aligned with the Samhain sunrise. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature, and many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain.

More information: Samhaín (Celtic Guide)

Halloween or Hallowe'en, a contraction of All Hallows' Evening, also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide,  the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints, hallows, martyrs, and all the faithful departed.

Claire Fontaine celebrates Halloween

Halloween's activities include trick-or-treating, attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories and watching horror films. 

In many parts of the world, the Christian religious observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, remain popular, although elsewhere it is a more commercial and secular celebration. Some Christians historically abstained from meat on All Hallows' Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes and soul cakes.

It was not until mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in North America. Confined to the immigrant communities during the mid-19th century, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and by the first decade of the 20th century it was being celebrated coast-to-coast by people of all social, racial and religious backgrounds.

More information: History of Trick-or-Treating

The fear of death follows from the fear of life.

A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time

Mark Twain