Budapest celebrates Samhain, the Celtic festival that gave rise to Halloween

euronews (in English)

Before the Roman conquest, the area around present-day Budapest was inhabited by a Celtic tribe, the Eravisci, who celebrated Samhain, the beginning of the dark season.

Transcript

00:00 A special Halloween celebration awaited lovers of antiquity at Budapest`s Roman Archaeological

00:07 Park and Museum.

00:09 Although many people associate Halloween with the United States, it actually has Celtic

00:13 roots.

00:14 Part of present-day Budapest was inhabited by a Celtic tribe, the Erevisi, before the

00:19 Roman conquest in 12 BC.

00:21 So, the museum celebrated their festival, Samhain, on October 31.

00:26 "It was basically at the end of summer, when the cleaning was finished, when they pulled

00:33 it back a little bit to the winter season, and they closed it down in the context of

00:39 such a big celebration, they celebrated it, and there is a lot of information that we

00:43 can reconstruct what traditions were also connected to this particular Samhain event,

00:48 which then later developed or transformed into the Halloween we know today."

00:53 The ancient Celtic holiday involved face painting and dressing up, much as Halloween does today.

00:59 Pumpkin carving, which also has ancient roots, was also on the agenda, as the Celts carved

01:04 lanterns from turnips during Samhain.

01:08 The various activities offered an insight into the 2000-year-old traditions, and the

01:13 musical highlight was the performance of several traditional bands.

01:17 ♪ MUSIC ♪

01:21 (whooshing)

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