456: Halloween and its pagan origins. Plus, what is paganism anyway?

The boys drink and review a pumpkin beer from Sam Adams, then discuss the origins of Halloween and paganism in general.

Halloween came from something called Samhain, which was a pagan feast for the end of the year. In the years before capitalism and industrial food production, this was a time of year where you desperately hope and your family won’t starve over the winter.

At Samhain, ghosts and spirits walk around on earth. The veil between this world and the world of the dead gets thin. To scare away the spirits our ancestors would dress up as scary characters. They’d also carve vegetables with scary faces.

When the Scots and other Europeans came to America they brought some of these customs with them. It wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that we got full-blown Halloween in the United States. So we’d buy candy and costumes and such.

They then review paganism in general. Its history. What the word means? Who are the pagans? What did they believe? And so on.

Unfortunately, we don’t know much. Even the Druids and the cult of Mithra — both very influential in their time — are not well known.