Samhain to Soulmass: The Pagan origins of familiar Halloween rituals

Beverley D'Silva
BBC

OCTOBER 30,2024


From outrageous costumes to trick or treat: the unexpected ancient roots of Halloween's most popular – and most esoteric – traditions.


With its goblins, goosebumps and rituals – from bobbing for apples to dressing up as vampires and ghosts – Halloween is one of the world's biggest holidays. It's celebrated across the world, from Poland to the Philippines, and nowhere as extravagantly as in the US, where in 2023 $12.2 billion (£9.4 billion) was spent on sweets, costumes and decorations. The West Hollywood Halloween Costume Carnival in the US is one of the biggest street parties of its kind; Hollywood parties such as George Clooney's tequila brand's bash make a big social splash; and at model Heidi Klum's party she is renowned for her bizarre disguises, such as her iconic giant squirming worm outfit.

Heidi Klum wore a worm costume for Halloween 2022 in NYC – scary disguises were originally intended to ward off evil spirits (Credit: Getty Images)

With US stars turning out again for the biggest dressing-up show after the Oscars' red carpet, it's no surprise Halloween is often viewed as a modern US invention. In fact, it dates back more than 2,000 years, to Ireland and an ancient Celtic fire festival called Samhain. The exact origins of Samhain predate written records but according to the Horniman Museum: "There are Neolithic tombs in Ireland that are aligned with the Sun on the mornings of Samhain and Imbolc [in February], suggesting these dates have been important for thousands of years".


Celebrated usually from 31 October to 1 November, the religious rituals of Samhain (pronounced "sow-win", meaning summer's end), focused on fire, as winter approached. Anthropologist and pagan Lyn Baylis tells the BBC: "Fire rituals to bring light into the darkness were vital to Samhain, which was the second most important fire festival in the Pagan Celtic world, the first being Beltane, on 1 May." Samhain and Beltane are part of the Wheel of the Year, an annual cycle of eight seasonal festivals observed in Paganism (a "polytheistic or pantheistic nature-worshipping religion", says the Pagan Federation).


The ancient Celtic festival of Samhain is still celebrated in some places, including Glastonbury Tor, pictured in 2017 (Credit: Getty Images)

Samhain was the pivotal point of the Celtic Pagan new year, a time of rebirth – and death. "Pagans had three harvests: Lammas, harvest of the corn, on 1 August; the one of fruit and vegetables at autumn equinox, 21 September; and Halloween, the third," says Baylis. At this time animals that couldn't survive winter were culled, to ensure the other animals' survival. "So there was a lot of death around that time, and people knew there would be deaths in their villages during the harsh winter months." Other countries, notably Mexico, celebrate The Day of the Dead around this time to honour the deceased.
Costumes and ugly masks were worn to scare away malevolent spirits believed to have been set free from the realm of the dead


At Samhain, Celtic Pagans in Ireland would put out their home fires and light one giant bonfire in the village, which they would dance around and act out stories of death, regeneration and survival. As the whole village joined in to dance, animals and crops were burned as sacrifices to Celtic deities, to thank them for the previous year's harvest and encourage their goodwill for the next.


It was believed that at this time the veil between this world and the spirit world was at its thinnest – allowing the spirits of the dead to pass through and mingle with the living. The sacred energy of the rituals, it was believed, allowed the living and the dead to communicate, and gave Druid priests and Celtic shamans heightened perception.

And this is where the dress-up factor came in – costumes and ugly masks were worn to scare away malevolent spirits believed to have been set free from the realm of the dead. This was also known as "mumming" or "guising".

Those early Samhain dressing-up rituals began to change when Pope Gregory 1 (590-604) arrived in Britain from Rome to convert Pagan Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. The Gregorian mission decreed that Samhain festivities must incorporate Christian saints "to ward off the sprites and evil creatures of the night", says Baylis. All Souls Day, 1 November, was created by the Church, "so people could still call on their dead to aid them"; also known as All Hallows, 31 October later became All Hallows' Eve, later known as Halloween.

"There is a long tradition of costuming of sorts that goes back to Hallow Mass when people prayed for the dead," explains Nicholas Rogers, a history professor at York University in Canada. "But they also prayed for fertile marriages." Centuries later boy choristers in the churches dressed up as virgins, he says. "So there was a certain degree of cross-dressing in the ceremony of All Hallow's Eve."

New York City Halloween parade participants in the early 1980s (Credit: Getty Images)


The Victorians loved a ghost story, and adopted non-religious Halloween costumes for adults. Later, after World War Two, the day centred on children dressing up, a ritual still alive today at trick-or-treating time. Since the 1970s, adults dressing up for Halloween has become widespread again, not just in creepy and ugly costumes, but also hyper-sexualised ones. According to Time, these risqué outfits emerged because of the "transgressive" mood of the occasion, when "you can get away with it without it being seen as particularly offensive". In the classic teen film Mean Girls, it's jokingly said that "in girl world" Halloween is the "one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it". It's not just in "girl world" that Halloween has a disinhibiting effect – it is a hugely popular holiday in the LGBTQ+ community, and is often referred to as "Gay Christmas". In New York, the city famously comes alive every year with a Halloween parade featuring participants in elaborate and outlandish costumes.

Playing with fire

Echoes of Samhain also live on today in fire practices. Carving lanterns from root vegetables was one tradition, although turnips, not pumpkins, were first used. The practice is said to have grown from a Celtic myth, about a man named Jack who made a pact with the devil, but who was so deceitful that he was banned from heaven and hell – and condemned to roam the darkness, with only a burning coal in a carved-out turnip to light the way.

The ritual of carving lanterns out of pumpkins came from the myth of a man called Jack who made a pact with the devil (Credit: Getty Images)


In Ireland, people made lanterns, placing turnips with carved faces in their window to ward off an apparition called "Jack of the Lantern" or Jack-o'-Lantern. In the 19th Century, Irish immigrants took the custom with them to the US. In the small Somerset village of Hinton St George in the UK, turnips or mangolds are still used, and elaborately carved "punkies" are paraded on "punkie night", always the last Thursday of October. In the UK town of Ottery St Mary there is still an annual "flaming tar barrels" ritual – a custom once practised widely across Britain at the time of Samhain, where flaming barrels were carried through the streets to chase away evil spirits.
Soulers went door to door singing and saying prayers for souls in exchange for ale, cakes and apples

Leaving food and sweetly spiced "soul cakes" or "soulmass" cakes on the doorstep was said to ward off bad spirits. Households deemed less generous with their offerings would receive a "trick" played on them by bad spirits. This has translated into modern-day trick or treating. Whether soul cakes came from the ancient Celts or the Church is open to argument, but the idea was that, as they were eaten, prayers and blessings were said for the dearly departed. From Medieval times, "souling" was a Christian tradition in English towns at Halloween and Christmas; and soulers (mainly children and the poor) went door to door singing and saying prayers for souls in exchange for ale, cakes and apples.
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Apple bobbing – dipping your face into water to bite an apple – dates back to the 14th Century, according to historian Lisa Morton: "An illuminated manuscript, The Luttrell Psalter, depicted it in a drawing." Others date the custom back further, to the Romans' conquest of Britain (from AD43) and the apple trees that they imported. Pomona was the Roman goddess of fruitful abundance and fertility, and hence, it is argued, apple bobbing's ties to love and romance. In one version, the bobber (usually female) tries to bite into an apple bearing her suitor's name; if she bites it on the first go, she is destined for love; two gos means her romance will start but falter; three means it will never get started.

It is thought that apple bobbing originated in the 14th Century – or possibly even further back (Credit: Getty Images)


British rituals, at the heart of Halloween traditions, are the subject of Ben Edge's book, Folklore Rising, illustrated with his mystical paintings. Edge says that he has observed a "resurgence of people becoming interested in ritual and folklore… I call it a folk renaissance, and I see it as a genuine movement led by younger people".


He cites such artists as Shovel Dance Collective, "non-binary, cross-dressing and singing traditional working men's songs of the land". There is also Weird Walk, a project "exploring the ancient paths, sacred sites and folklore of the British Isles… through walking, storytelling and mythologising." If interest in folk rituals is on the rise, so too are the numbers turning to such traditions as Paganism and Druidry, both adhering to the Wheel of the Year, and Samhain, "dedicated to remembering those who have passed on, connecting with the ancestors, and preparing ourselves spiritually and psychologically for the long nights of winter ahead".

Ben Edge
The Flaming Tar Barrels of Ottery St Mary (2020) is featured in artist Ben Edge's book about ancient traditions, Folklore Rising (Credit: Ben Edge)

Philip Carr-Gomm, a psychologist, author and practising druid, says that he has witnessed a "steady growth" in interest around Druidry over the past few decades. "We now have 30,000 members, across six languages," he tells the BBC.

The need for ritual, connectedness and community is at the heart of many Halloween traditions, says Baylis: "One of the most important aspects of Halloween for us is remembering loved ones. We light a candle, possibly say the name of the person or put a picture of them on an altar. It's a sacred time and ceremony, but you don't have to be a Pagan to be involved. The important thing is that it comes from a place of protection and love."

 Stalin and Stalinism in History (2012)

Domenico Losurdo

2024-05-16

Original publication: lafauteadiderot.net

Translation: Roderic Day

Red Sails

On 12 April 2012, the Gabriel Péri Foundation hosted a panel on the question of “Stalin and Stalinism in History,” featuring anti-communist historian Nicolas Werth — who contributed the USSR chapters to Stéphane Courtois’s infamous Black Book of Communism (1997) — and philosopher Domenico Losurdo. [1] [2] Below is Domenico Losurdo’s keynote address. All citations are my addition. — R. D.

Philosophers like to evoke not only historical events but also the categories through which we interpret these events. Today, what is the category through which Stalin is interpreted? That of bloodthirsty madness. This category has already been used against Robespierre, against the Revolution of 1848, against the Paris Commune, but never against war, or against Louis XVI, or against the Girondins or Napoleon. Regarding the twentieth century, we have psychopathological studies of Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, but not, for example, of Churchill. [3] However, all of the Bolshevik leaders spoke up against colonial expansionism, while Churchill wrote: “War is a game that is played with a smile.” [4] Then there was the carnage of the First World War. The Bolshevik leadership group, including Stalin, was against this carnage, but Churchill said again: “War is the greatest game in world history, here I play with the highest stakes. War is the sole acute sensation of our lives.” [5] So, why the psychopathological approach in the one case and not in the other?

Given these conditions, what central category can we part from? For the sake of reflection, I will cite Nicolas Werth: “The source (matrice) of Stalinism was the period of the First World War, the revolutions of 1917, and the Civil Wars, taken as a whole.” I fully share this view. So we have to start with the First World War. The origins of Stalinism lie not in an individual’s thirst for power, but in the permanent state of emergency that started with the First World War. But we need to take into account not just the First World War, but the whole period of the Second Thirty Years’ War — because even after the Treaty of Versailles, everyone sensed that there would be a Second World War. This is a war that would affect the Soviet Union and the West in different ways. The war in the East, against the Soviet Union — and before that, against Poland — was a colonial war. Eminent scholars today characterize the war against the Soviet Union as “the greatest colonial war in history.” [6] And I would add that this war was not just a colonial war, but a slaver war, explicitly aimed at the reintroduction of slavery. We can read about this in Hitler or Himmler. The latter, speaking at a meeting of Nazi leaders, declared “we need slaves for our culture.” [7] Then, if Hitler-led Germany was one of the protagonists of this colonial and slaver war, the Stalin-led Soviet Union was the other — its antagonist.

We can also place this war in a larger historical context. There is another important slaver war that we can consider: Napoleon’s war against Saint-Domingue. Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines were protagonists of a resistance to slavery, just like Stalin. And regarding this connection I want to draw attention to the fact that Stalin did not become a protagonist only in Stalingrad 1942 — even before the October Revolution he considered that Russia was in danger of becoming a colony: “Certain foreigners,” he writes “were behaving in Russia like Europeans in Central Africa.” [8] I’ll quote him again: the question of the Revolution is about “the liberation of Russia.” [9] Stalin clearly perceived a risk that Russia would become a colony.

Let’s now turn to the objection: “But what about the 1939 pact with Hitler?” For starters, to the extent there was a race to compromise with Hitler, Stalin lost it: the Third Reich had by that time a concordat with the Holy See (Reichskonkordat, 1933), an agreement with the Zionists (Haavara Agreement, 1933), and a naval agreement with Britan (Anglo-German Naval Agreement, 1935) — the last of which prompted Hitler to write in his diary: “this is the happiest day of my life.” [10] And then, of course, there was Munich (1938). [11] But that’s perhaps not the most important point. Here again I’ll draw a comparison with the politics of Toussaint Louverture, whose anti-conformism is beyond dispute: in early 1794 he allied with royal Spain and England against revolutionary France, and yet no one considers him an agent of feudalism. Toussaint Louverture and his followers may have made mistakes, but the fact that they were protagonists in the first great struggle against the colonialist and slave-owning system is not disputed.

Thus far I’ve only talked about grand gestures and not of tragedies, but the two things go hand-in-hand, because with the October Revolution come messianic expectations: power, the rationale behind States, States as such, nations… all of this was expected to disappear. One philosopher, Ernst Bloch, even claims Soviets will turn power into love! When Lenin introduces the New Economic Policy (NEP), tens of thousands of workers literally tear up their party cards in disgust, and rechristen it the “New Extortion of the Proletariat.” Stalin, of course, wasn’t Lenin, but he insisted on building socialism in Soviet Russia, although premised above all on national liberation: that’s how he invited people to study technology, to become masters of science. He thought the class struggle revolved, at this particular juncture, around the conquest of technology and of science.

When Walter Benjamin visited Moscow in December 1927, he said that, for many people, Bolshevism was the crowning achievement of Peter the Great. [12] However, Trotsky compares Stalin not to Peter the Great but to Nicholas II — and so the Stalinist regime must be dealt a fate analogous to that dealt to Nicholas II’s regime. [13] Trotsky then called Stalin “Hitler’s butler,” “a provocateur in Hitler’s service.” In turn, Stalin used the same language against Trotsky and others. This is the language of civil war. From his point of view, as a revolutionary, Trotsky had not only the right but also the duty to overthrow Hitler’s so-called butler. And this civil war was playing out not only in words, but also at the organizational level. In my book on Stalin, I quote Ruth Fischer, who says that by 1927 we can already speak of opposing parties and military apparatuses. [14]

The ideological struggle becomes a civil war: unfortunately, this is the history of all great revolutions. The civil war in Russia was particularly horrific, that’s not in dispute. But how can we understand the particularity of this horror? The challenge is to come up with categories which enable us to understand this horror in particular. On this subject, a well-known historian in the Western world, Robert Conquest, argues that “mental aberrations” are peculiar to the French and Russians, and mostly foreign to the Anglo-Celts. [15] Is this recourse to Anglo-Celtic natures as root explanation any different from Nazi recourse to Aryanism? For my part, in order to understand the particular horror of the civil war in Soviet Russia, I’ll quote Nicolas Werth again: “The collapse of all authority and institutional frameworks.” [16]

Let me emphasize: the Trotsky-Stalin struggle is not one between two different personalities. It’s a struggle between two different principles of legitimizing power.

What’s more, the civil war in Soviet Russia is characterized by the fact that both the opposing parties have experience in conspiracy and clandestine struggle, and agree upon the necessity underlined by Lenin in What Is To Be Done? of agitating within the army, the police, and the State apparatus; all while camouflaging and hiding it by speaking sometimes in an “aesopic language.” It should also be noted here that even Khrushchev in his report speaks of false denunciations and “provocatory accusations,” made either by “real Trotskyites” — who could thus “take revenge” and thrust the State apparatus into confusion — or by “conscienceless careerists” — prepared to get ahead by the most despicable means. [17] [18]

The dominant ideology equates the gulag system and the concentration camps (konzentrationslager) in Nazi Germany. In my book I discuss the “absent third party.” As a matter of fact, there are other concentration camps. Mike Davis brings the militarized labor camps of colonial India in the late 19th century, referring to them as “extermination camps.” [19] An Italian historian, Angelo Del Boca, also speaks of extermination camps, this time of Libyans incarcerated by liberal Italy. If we compare the various different camps, there is an important similarity between Nazi concentration camps and colonial camps: in both cases, the rule is a racial rule.

Ideology also plays a role in the terror. The most horrifying period was the collectivization of agriculture. Bukharin rightly spoke of the danger of a “St. Bartholomew’s Night.” [20] But finally the decisive role in collectivization was played by military concerns — though it in no way detracts from the horror.

One has to distinguish between horror and mythology. After the French Revolution mythologies spread widely, such as Robespierre wanting to become the new King of France, or of a genocidal Robespierre who, according to Babeuf, wanted to enact in the Vendée a “system of depopulation.” The October Revolution and the Stalinist period gave rise to mythologies of this sort.

The central question is the following: is Nazism the twin brother of Communism, or is Nazism the continuation and radicalization of the colonial tradition and the racial ideology that accompanied it? [21] This is a very important question. As a philosopher, I interrogate the watchwords of Nazi ideology. One of these is Untermensch, which is to say “sub-human.” This word is translated from English, from the expression under man, first used by Lothrop Stoddard in the United States. In Nazism, we find white supremacy [22] — the category of the colonial tradition and of the racist ideology of the United States. Similarly, while the Nazis spoke of “racial hygiene,” Lothrop Stoddard spoke of “race cleaning,” “race purification,” and, more generally, of “the science of ‘Eugenics’ or ‘Race Betterment’.” Even the decisive term “final solution” comes from the United States, where the Black or Indigenous question was referred to as the “ultimate solution” or the “final and complete solution.” [23]

Indeed, British and Western colonialism have long been compared to Hitler’s colonialism. Gandhi said: “I assert that in India we have Hitlerian rule however disguised it may be in softer terms.” [24] “Hitler was Britain’s sin.” On the other hand, he referred to Stalin as a “great man.”

In conclusion, the horror of the Stalinist period is indisputable, but we cannot forget that Stalin was a protagonist of the anti-colonial struggle. Similarly, if we want to understand Hitler, we have to start from the history of colonialism. All the harsh condemnations of Stalin must reckon with this fact: with the October Revolution and with Stalin, we see colonialism begin to disappear, and with it also go the central categories of Nazi ideology stemming from the colonial tradition and the racial ideology of the West.

[1] See also Nicolas Werth’s speech at the same meeting. [web] 

[2] Referenced in Grover Furr, “In Memoriam: Domenico Losurdo” (2018). [web] 

[3] See also Michael Parenti’s “Against Psychopolitics” (1992). [web] 

[4] Winston Churchill (1915) cited in Martin Gilbert’s The Challenge of War: Winston S. Churchill, 1914-1916 (1990), p. 651. [web] 

[5] In Alex P. Schmid, Churchills privater Krieg. Intervention und Konterrevolution im russischen Burgerkrieg 1918-1920 (1974). [web] 

[6] David Olusoga and Casper W. Erichsen, The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide (2011), London: Faber and Faber, p. 327. 

[7] Heinrich Himmler, Posen Speeches (1943). [web] 

[8] J. V. Stalin, “Foreigners and the Kornilov Conspiracy” (12 September 1917). [web] 

[9] J. V. Stalin, “The Logic of Facts” (29 October 1918). [web] 

[10] In Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris (1998). [web] 

[11] “The Munich Agreement was an agreement reached in Munich on 30 September 1938 by Nazi Germany, Great Britain, the French Republic, and Fascist Italy. The agreement provided for the German annexation of part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland.” — Wikipedia. [web] 

[12] Peter I (b. 1672-1725) was the Tsar under whose reign people began referring to Russia as an empire, due to military victories, territorial expansion, and cultural modernization. 

[13] Nicholas II (b. 1868-1917), overthrown by the revolution, was the last Tsar of Russia, known for military defeats and violent repression. 

[14] For Domenico Losurdo’s take on Trotsky and Stalin, see “Primitive Thinking and Stalin as Scapegoat” (2011). [web] 

[15] “The huge catastrophes of our era have been inflicted by human beings driven by certain thoughts. […] How did these mental aberrations gain a purchase?” (p. 3), “[S]pontaneous legal, public activity is clearly an adjunct, if not a condition, of the Anglo-Celtic culture” (p. 32), “The intention here is more to consider how and why this aberration took place, to differentiate its various species, […]” (p. 115) — Robert Conquest, Reflections on a Ravaged Century (1999). [web] 

[16] Nicholas Werth in Stéphane Courtois, Quand tombe la nuit: origines et émergence des régimes totalitaires en Europe, 1900-1934 (2001). [web] 

[17] N. Khrushchev, “Speech to 20th Congress of the C.P.S.U.” (1956). [web] 

[18] See also Domenico Losurdo, “How to Cast a God into Hell: The Khrushchev Report” (2008). [web] 

[19] Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World (2000). [web] 

[20] “The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion.” — Wikipedia. [web] 

[21] See Domenico Losurdo, “Towards a Critique of the Category of Totalitarianism” (2004). [web] 

[22] Written out in English in the original French. 

[23] Losurdo extensively lays out material illustrating this question in “The International Origins of Nazism” (2010). [web] 

[24] Mahatma Gandhi, “Answers to Questions (25 April 1941)” in Collected Works, vol. 74, p. 17. [web] 

 Domenico Losurdo

2024-05-15Twitter

Original publication: lafauteadiderot.net

Translation: Roderic Day

Losurdo interviewed by Eychart (2007)

An interview with Domenico Losurdo conducted by Baptiste Eychart in 2007, marking the occasion of the publication of his book Gramsci: From Liberalism to “Critical Communism.”

 Red Sails

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Baptiste Eychart: Domenico Losurdo, you’ve devoted several book-length studies to major thinkers of the modern era: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Hegel. However, this is the first time you’ve written an intellectual biography of an important figure of the workers’ movement: Antonio Gramsci. What circumstances led you to this choice?

Domenico Losurdo: Gramsci enables us to challenge both neoliberalism and postmodernism — two versions of today’s dominant ideology that often appear intertwined. How many books have been written attempting to demonstrate that Marxism and Communism sacrifice concrete individuality and moral standards at the altar of the philosophy of history?

Important liberal writers, including Benedetto Croce, justified Italy’s intervention in the carnage of the First World War, over and against widespread popular opposition, in terms of the right of heroic elites to force the cowardly masses to rise for the sake of the unity and regeneration of the nation. Gramsci became a communist through his criticism of this philosophy of history; he condemned its pretensions towards “transforming the working people into raw material for the history of the privileged classes.” [1]

Baptiste Eychart: The analogues between our current political situation and Gramsci’s period of counter-revolution are strong. The strength of your work lies in showing that Gramsci needed to carry out a self-critique of his previously held positions to better grasp the historical situation in the late twenties and thirties.

Domenico Losurdo: The most interesting Gramsci is the one who reflects on the stability of Western capitalism in spite of the horrors of the Great War it provoked. This led him to a radical critique of the theory of the collapse of capitalism, and to a much more sophisticated reformulation of the theory of revolution. Thus, his vision of socialism underwent an evolution: when he first greeted the October Revolution he emphasized that it would produce equality; nine years later he supported the NEP despite its flagrant social inequalities in the name of the need to develop the productive forces.

Baptiste Eychart: For Gramsci it’s also a question of abandoning a utopianism that turns out to endanger the construction of socialism…

Domenico Losurdo: Indeed. The horrors of the 1914-1918 war on the one hand, and the extreme hopes generated by the October Revolution on the other, encouraged a messianic reading of Marxism: in the same manner as classes, states and nations, religion, the market, money (or power as such), and in fact every manifestation of conflict, were all set to disappear. Compounding the non-stop state of emergency provoked by imperialist aggression, these utopian aspirations made it even more difficult to build a post-capitalist society based on democracy and the rule of law. Gramsci proposed a path that still must be followed from beginning to end: to conceive of a powerful project of emancipation that nevertheless does not presume to be the end of history.

Baptiste Eychart: In your opinion, the “critical return” to this cultural heritage shouldn’t be an occasion for Communists to engage in self-flagellation, it should be carried out from the perspective of a struggle against a capitalism whose novel features are yet to be fully theorized. Do you think that Gramscian categories such as “passive revolution” shed light into the dynamics of today’s capitalism?

Domenico Losurdo: There’s no reason for communists to resign themselves to self-hate (autophobie) and a flight from history. [2] Decolonization and, focusing on the West more properly, the birth of democracy and of universal suffrage, as well as the overcoming of the three great historical discriminations (based on race, caste, and gender) and the creation of the welfare state, are achievements that would have been unthinkable without the contribution of the communist movement. [3]

In the era which corresponded to the “passive revolution,” the West responded to the challenge posed by communist agitation by introducing important reforms, albeit under the direction and control of the bourgeoisie. With the disappearance of this challenge comes a period of more or less open reaction: it suffices to consider here the dismantling of the welfare state, or what the American historian Arthur Schlesinger describes as the return of discrimination based on caste (discrimination censitaire) as a result of the growing role played by wealth in the electoral process. Also indicative of this regression is the return of the principle of hierachies among entire peoples, exemplified by American representatives openly claiming to be “God’s chosen people,” with a duty to lead and dominate the rest of the world.

Baptiste Eychart: For a long time Gramsci has been classified as a representative of “Western Marxism,” with a series of authors claiming that Gramsci shared with them a number of objections of the early “Orthodox Marxism” of Kautsky and Lenin. You seem to challenge this characterization.

Domenico Losurdo: Gramsci’s point of view contrasts “our Marx” — a Marx read alongside the “Oriental” Lenin — to the the “Marxism contaminated with positivist and naturalist encrustations” of Bernstein and Kautsky (“Westerners”!), which appears incapable of understanding the dialectics and historical necessity of the October Revolution. Moreover, Gramsci distinguishes between, on the one hand, a dogmatic communism and, on the other, a “critical communism” that presents itself as heir of the highest summits of the bourgeois cultural tradition, parting from Hegel and classical German philosophy. [4] That said, even here the notion of “Western Marxism” turns out to be misleading: it’s finally Stalin who liquidates Hegel as an expression of German reaction to the French Revolution; a formulation accepted by many European Marxists, yet rejected by Mao Zedong.

The problem is that this category of “Western Marxism” positively contrasts the West to the East, and pure intellectuals to politicians engaged in the construction of a post-capitalist society. This brings us back to the problematic discussed at the beginning of this interview: those unable to criticize the self-flattering apologia of the West promoted by liberal ideology are forced to retreat from history — the “original sin” of “Western Marxism.”

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[1] The pejorative use of “philosophy of history” here refers to the common liberal argument that socialists are guilty of abandonding all norms under the premise that “the (historical) ends justifies the (political) means,” which Losurdo demonstrates is in reality is a very generic vice, at many points in history championed primarily by liberals themselves. — R. D. 

[2] See also Domenico Losurdo’s “Flight from History? The Communist Movement between Self-Criticism and Self-Contempt” (1999). [web] — R. D. 

[3] See for example Alice Malone, “Concessions” (2023). [web] — R. D. 

[4] “Bolsheviks […] are not ‘Marxists’ as such; they have not derived a doctrine out of the work of the Master, dogmatic and beyond questioning. They live out Marxist thought, the undying continuation of German and Italian idealism, that in Marx appeared contaminated by positivist and naturalist affectations.” — Antonio Gramsci, “The Revolution Against Das Kapital” (1917). [web] — R. D. 

What is the mystery Roman object found on hill in Norton Disney?

20 hours ago
By David McKenna & Gemma Dawson,BBC News
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Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group

The 12-sided object, which has baffled experts as to its use, is the first to be discovered in the Midlands

A mysterious Roman artefact dug up in Lincolnshire has left experts baffled as to what it is. Found during an amateur archaeological dig in Norton Disney - where Walt Disney's ancestors hailed from - the 12-sided object has prompted fantastical suggestions as to its use.

It has been likened to a dog treat dispenser, a spaghetti measure and even a measuring gauge for slingshot.

Here, architectural historian and broadcaster Dr Jonathan Foyle offers his take on some of the suggestions put forward by BBC website users, and his own theory as to the object's purpose.

Toy story

David Hawley thought it was probably some sort of game dice, with the different sized holes denoting a different number.

"There are other sizes of dodecahedron in existence which could be more portable to carry if the army was on the move," Dr Foyle countered.

Lee Hartfield suggested it was some form of puzzle where the player had to align the right-sized ball with the correct hole.

In response, Dr Foyle said: "What's really striking about them is they are beautifully crafted and none of them show any signs of wear.

"They don't have any numbers on them so you can roll them [as dice]," he said.

He said although the artefact resembled a puzzle you might find in a Christmas cracker, the metal was "quite fragile" and would break.

"These things were clearly looked after," he added.

'Romans loved spaghetti'

Others thought the dodecahedron might have been used as a measuring device.

Brian Turner, from Norfolk, suggested it was a gauge for measuring lead balls or slingshot.

Meanwhile, Paul Roberts, from Dorset said it was "obviously a spaghetti measure".

"The Romans loved spaghetti, but obviously it was just as difficult back then as it is nowadays to work out exactly how much spaghetti to cook.

"I have a modern version of this, it's a lot more convenient but probably not as valuable," he added.

Jonathan Foyle

Dr Jonathan Foyle, who grew up in Lincolnshire, said he was delighted this dodecahedron had been unearthed in his home county

Dr Foyle replied that the Roman conquest of Britain would have "gone much more smoothly" with "bowls of carbonara" being dished out, but the foodstuff didn't become a staple in Italy until well after the fall of the Roman Empire.

"While the Romans had to wait centuries for pasta, they chowed down on dormice in fish sauce," he said.

Other suggestions included a fishing weight or a device used in childbirth to measure cervical dilation.

Nigel Monk thought it could be some sort of teaching device used by Roman mathematicians.

"Also it may just have been an ornament," he added.

Michael Lynch said it looked like an incense burner to get rid of smells - "an early version of a modern-day Air Wick".

Ruth Gilbert put forward the idea of a "rollable" pet treat dispenser.

"There are modern dog treat dispensers that look a lot like it - it must be said," Dr Foyle conceded.

"I've seen modern rubber ones. So if that's true, they should have asserted copyright."

BBC/Rare TVDigging for Britain's Alice Roberts described the Norton Disney find as one of the most remarkable things she had ever seen

The Norton Disney artefact featured in a recent episode of Digging for Britain, with presenter Prof Alice Roberts saying: "It has to be one of the greatest, most mysterious, archaeological objects I've ever had the opportunity to look at up close."

Commenting on the level of interest in the Norton Disney artefact, she added: "There are so many mysteries in archaeology that remain to be solved.

"The overwhelming range of responses to it from the audience shows just how these ancient riddles can capture the public imagination."

Newcastle student Lorena Hitchens, who goes by the name of Dodecahedra Girl on X (formerly Twitter), also featured in the show.

Ms Hitchens, who is studying the puzzling objects for her PhD, said: "For me, the challenge of solving the puzzle of what these items are is part of their appeal."
All fingers and thumbs

James Wyman supported the popular theory that it was a device used for knitting, while Lauren Dolphin, from Essex, said: "It is for crocheting gloves, different holes for different finger/thumb sizes."

"Perhaps they need more women on the dig team, lol."

Dr Foyle, who has appeared on TV shows including Time Team and Meet the Ancestors, replied: "I bet Alice Roberts would be absolutely up for that suggestion."


Some creative types have also taken it one step further and produced YouTube crafting tutorials using a plastic model of a dodecahedron.

"You can indeed make a glove finger from them, which people have ingeniously done," Dr Foyle said.

However, for the Romans "there was no evidence of knitting until centuries afterwards", he added.

One person suggested it was for sizing eggs.

Dr Foyle said he wasn't convinced there was any need to grade eggs at that time and "didn't think that idea's going to make it".

VW Pics/Getty Images

Some suggested a calendar or a device for charting the night sky

Some thought the 12-sided object was some type of desk calendar, or astronomical device.

Paula Dhugga put forward the idea that the 12 faces represented the 12 months, with the different face designs representing the differences between the months, or possibly seasons.

Steve Hill suggested a similar idea with the different sized holes denoting a different month and straws being added or removed to show the date.

"Because you have the smallest hole for December and the largest one for June, you can know when the shortest and longest days are," he said.


"Much more convenient than lugging Stonehenge around with you."

Others suggested some sort of of surveying device, while Chess Man thought it could be "a very crude and primitive sort of astronomical device".

"A primitive means of charting the night sky. Drawing the star patterns (constellations) down in an effort to measure and chart those. Using the holes to peer through so as to measure certain regions of the night sky," he said.
'Not Roman'

The object is one of only 33 dodecahedrons found in Britain, and the first to have been discovered in the Midlands.

So what does Dr Foyle think it was used for and does he concur with any of the suggestions listed above?


"What I think it is is a device for framing the constellations of the zodiac," Dr Foyle said (star of the day for Chess Man).

"If you look through them you can frame a view - much like a camera operator," he said.

sololos/Getty Images

Dr Foyle believes it was used for framing the constellations of the zodiac

Explaining his theory, the broadcaster said the Romans had brought with them an understanding of the 12-sided universe that Plato described.

However, he believes the mysterious objects were made by "a wonderful culture of metal-crafting by people we call the Celts."


"You don't find them in the Mediterranean at the core of the Roman empire, and you don't find them in the unconquered Celtic lands.

"I think the Romans influenced the native metal-crafters."

A dodecahedron found in Switzerland in 1982 also listed the names of the zodiac on each of the faces, Dr Foyle said.

"That's what makes me think that's what it is."Hear more from Dr Jonathan Foyle on BBC Sounds


The mysterious objects date back as far as the 1st Century. Some experts believe they were possibly linked to Roman rituals or religion, but there are no references to them in any Roman texts.

Richard Parker, secretary of the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group, said the group planned to return to the dig site later this year in the hope of unearthing more clues.

In the meantime, history sleuths will be able to see the object on display at Lincoln Museum until September.

 The Origins and Traditions of May Day

I wrote the Origins and Traditions of Mayday in 1997. Yes way back then, it was one of my first web postings. It was used to launch MayDay on the Web and the Edmonton May Week celebrations that have continued since.

Here it is again and the original web page is here.

An Australian labour historian used it as the basis for his article on May Day which expands on my points.

THE ORIGINS AND TRADITIONS OF MAYDAY

By Eugene W. Plawiuk

The international working class holiday; Mayday,
originated in pagan Europe. It was a festive holy day
celebrating the first spring planting. The ancient
Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane or the
day of fire. Bel was the Celtic god of the sun.

The Saxons began their May day celebrations on the eve
of May, April 30. It was an evening of games and
feasting celebrating the end of winter and the return
of the sun and fertility of the soil. Torch bearing
peasants and villager would wind their way up paths to
the top of tall hills or mountain crags and then
ignite wooden wheels which they would roll down into
the fields

The May eve celebrations were eventually outlawed by
the Catholic church, but were still celebrated by
peasants until the late 1700's. While good church
going folk would shy away from joining in the
celebrations, those less afraid of papal authority
would don animal masks and various costumes, not
unlike our modern Halloween. The revelers, lead by the
Goddess of the Hunt; Diana (sometimes played by a
pagan-priest in women's clothing) and the Horned God;
Herne, would travel up the hill shouting, chanting and
singing, while blowing hunting horns. This night
became known in Europe as Walpurgisnacht, or night of
the witches

The Celtic tradition of Mayday in the British isles
continued to be celebrated through-out the middle ages
by rural and village folk. Here the traditions were
similar with a goddess and god of the hunt.

As European peasants moved away from hunting gathering
societies their gods and goddesses changed to reflect
a more agrarian society. Thus Diana and Herne came to
be seen by medieval villagers as fertility deities of
the crops and fields. Diana became the Queen of the
May and Herne became Robin Goodfellow (a predecessor
of Robin Hood) or the Green Man.

The Queen of the May reflected the life of the fields
and Robin reflected the hunting traditions of the
woods. The rites of mayday were part and parcel of
pagan celebrations of the seasons. Many of these pagan
rites were later absorbed by the Christian church in
order to win over converts from the 'Old Religion'.

Mayday celebrations in Europe varied according to
locality, however they were immensely popular with
artisans and villagers until the 19th Century. The
Christian church could not eliminate many of the
traditional feast and holy days of the Old Religion so
they were transformed into Saint days.

During the middle ages the various trade guilds
celebrated feast days for the patron saints of their
craft. The shoemakers guild honored St. Crispin, the
tailors guild celebrated Adam and Eve. As late as the
18th century various trade societies and early
craft-unions would enter floats in local parades still
depicting Adam and Eve being clothed by the Tailors
and St. Crispin blessing the shoemaker.

The two most popular feast days for Medieval craft
guilds were the Feast of St. John, or the Summer
Solstice and Mayday. Mayday was a raucous and fun
time, electing a queen of the May from the eligible
young women of the village, to rule the crops until
harbest. Our tradition of beauty pagents may have
evolved , albeit in a very bastardized form, from the
May Queen.

Besides the selection of the May Queen was the raising
of the phallic Maypole, around which the young single
men and women of the village would dance holding on to
the ribbons until they became entwined, with their (
hoped for) new love.

And of course there was Robin Goodfellow, or the Green
Man who was the Lord of Misrule for this day. Mayday
was a celebration of the common people, and Robin
would be the King/Priest/Fool for a day. Priests and
Lords were the butt of many jokes, and the Green Man
and his supporters; mummers would make jokes and poke
fun of the local authorities. This tradition of satire
is still conducted today in Newfoundland, with the
Christmas Mummery.

The church and state did not take kindly to these
celebrations, especially during times of popular
rebellion. Mayday and the Maypole were outlawed in the
1600's. Yet the tradition still carried on in many
rural areas of England. The trade societies still
celebrated Mayday until the 18th Century.

As trade societies evolved from guilds, to friendly
societies and eventually into unions, the craft
traditions remained strong into the early 19th
century. In North America Dominion Day celebrations in
Canada and July 4th celebrations in the United States
would be celebrated by tradesmen still decorating
floats depicting their ancient saints such as St.
Crispin.

Our modern celebration of Mayday as a working class
holiday evolved from the struggle for the eight hour
day in 1886. May 1, 1886 saw national strikes in the
United States and Canada for an eight hour day called
by the Knights of Labour. In Chicago police attacked
striking workers killing six.
The next day at a demonstration in Haymarket Square to
protest the police brutality a bomb exploded in the
middle of a crowd of police killing eight of them. The
police arrested eight anarchist trade unionists
claiming they threw the bombs. To this day the subject
is still one of controversy. The question remains
whether the bomb was thrown by the workers at the
police or whether one of the police's own agent
provocateurs dropped it in their haste to retreat from
charging workers.

In what was to become one of the most infamous show
trials in America in the 19th century, but certainly
not to be the last of such trials against radical
workers, the State of Illinois tried the anarchist
workingmen for fighting for their rights as much as
being the actual bomb throwers. Whether the anarchist
workers were guilty or innocent was irrelevant. They
were agitators, fomenting revolution and stirring up
the working class, and they had to be taught a lesson.

Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engle and Adolph
Fischer were found guilty and executed by the State of
Illinois.

In Paris in 1889 the International Working Men's
Association (the First International) declared May 1st
an international working class holiday in
commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs. The red flag
became the symbol of the blood of working class
martyrs in their battle for workers rights.

Mayday, which had been banned for being a holiday of
the common people, had been reclaimed once again for
the common people.

 

Monday, May 01, 2006

Tax Time and Walpurgisnacht

Tax Time and Walpurgisnacht

There is something sinister about the Canadian Tax system. It is declared that we must file taxes by Midnight April 30. This is Walpurgisnacht, or night of the witches, the ancient pagan festival of fire; Beltane, and consumption of the last of the salted meat from harvest in celebration of the new life of spring.

Death and Taxes as they say. Leads to rebirth new life.

Walpurgisnacht,night of the witches the celebration of the end of darkness and the fire rituals of spring. We pays our taxes and hopes we gets some back from the tax man. A sacrifice, even if it is in coin, as the season demands.

Goethe and Mendelssohn express this Euroean pagan tradition in verse and song.
Mendelssohn's Choral arrangement is a modernist paenan to paganism. But damn we still must give unto Caesar; the real meaning of the festival of fools........

Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht
Conductor : Valérie Fayet
Walpurgis Night, based on a work by Goethe, celebrates the popular tradition which talks about pagan gatherings taking place on the “witches' mountain” during the night of May 1 st.
Mendelssohn's work is admirably clear, colourful and full of energy.

Die erste Walpurgisnacht Op. 60: So weit gebracht, dass wir bei Nacht

Listen

Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, cantata for chorus & orchestra, Op. 60 So weit gebracht, daß wir bei Nacht
Composed by Felix Mendelssohn
Performed by Chamber Orchestra Europe
Conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt

A period of travel and concert-giving introduced Mendelssohn to England, Scotland (1829) and Italy (1830-31); after return visits to Paris (1831) and London (1832, 1833) he took up a conducting post at Düsseldorf (1833-5), concentrating on Handel's oratorios. Among the chief products of this time were The Hebrides (first performed in London, 1832), the g Minor Piano Concerto, Die erste Walpurgisnacht, the Italian Symphony (1833, London)

5. Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60: Ouverture: 1. Das schlechte 2. Der Ubergang zum Fruhling -
6. Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60: I Es lacht der Mai! -
7. Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60: II Konnt ihr so verwegen handeln? -
8. Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60: III Wer Opfer heut' zu bringen scheut -
9. Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60: IV Verteilt euch hier -
10. Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60: V Diese dumpfen Pfaffenchristen - Kommt mit Zacken und mit Gabeln -
11. Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60: VII So weit gebracht - VIII Hilf, ach hilf mir, Kriegsgeselle - IX Die Flamme reinigt sich vom Rauch -

O+1+2.nwc:	0: Overture
:	1: Now may again
:	2: Know ye not a deed so daring?
3+4.nwc :	3: The man who flies
:	4: Disperse, ye gallant men
5+6+7+8+9.nwc:	5: Should our Christian foes assail us
:	6: Come with torches brightly flashing
:	7: Restrain'd by might
:	8: Help, my comrades
:	9: Unclouded now, the flame is bright

"...don't you think this could become a new kind of cantata?" Rituality, Authenticity and Staging in Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht

Assuming a potential analogy between art and ritual, or between art and the interpretation of ritual as a Gesamtkunstwerk, the question arises as to what degree boundaries or transitions between aesthetic presentation, staging and identification with ritual can be determined in art. This topic could be discussed in terms of reception-aesthetics, with the question of the participation of an implicit or exclusive audience in ritual or in art. On the other hand, the perspective of this question can also be developed, as in this article, in terms of production-aesthetics, using the model of a musical composition based on a preexisting literary text. In Goethe's and Mendelssohn's texts,' not only their cultic-religious rituality will be investigated, but also the problem of how far beyond the cultic subject the immanent formative principles of ritual in terms of music are effective. Although in his early ballad Die erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night) of 1799 Goethe distinguished the pagan Walpurgis night from the classical and romantic in both stages of Faust, in his own way Mendelssohn related these three forms of ritual directly to one another within one work.

Cantata - LoveToKnow 1911

In modern times the term cantata is applied almost exclusively to choral, as distinguished from solo vocal music. There has, perhaps, been only one kind of cantata since Bach which can be recognized as an art form and not as a mere title for works otherwise impossible to classify. It is just possible to recognize as a distinct artistic type that kind of early r9th-century cantata in which the chorus is the vehicle for music more lyric and songlike than the oratorio style, though at the same time not exclude ing the possibility of a brilliant climax in the shape of a light order of fugue. Beethoven's Glorreiche Augenblick is a brilliant "pot-boiler" in this style; Weber's Jubel Cantata is a typical specimen, and Mendelssohn's Walpurgisnacht is the classic.

The Jews seem fated to wanDer forever among other nations and be faced perpetually with minority status and a legitimate pressure to acculturate and assimilate. If one compares the ending of The Eternal Road to Felix Mendelssohn's setting of Goethe's Die erste Walpurgisnacht, one is struck by a vital difference. Mendelssohn, although bearing the most celebrated name in early nineteenth-century German-Jewish history, had been converted and become a devout Protestant. Nevertheless through his music he celebrated with empathy and pride the courageous resistance of the Druids to the siege on their traditions and beliefs laid by violent Christian attackers. In contrast, The Eternal Road ends much more ambiguously with a vague hope for a return to Zion among a defeated and divided community, bowing to a fate of perpetual exclusion, persecution, and powerlessness.


Mendelssohn, Goethe, and the Walpurgis Night
The Heathen Muse in European Culture, 1700-1850
John Michael Cooper


Mendelssohn, Goethe, and the Walpurgis Night is a book about tolerance and acceptance in the face of cultural, political, and religious strife. Its point of departure is the Walpurgis Night. The Night, also known as Beltane or May Eve, was supposedly an annual witches' Sabbath that centered around the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz Mountains.
After exploring how a notoriously pagan celebration came to be named after the Christian missionary St. Walpurgis (ca. 710-79), John Michael Cooper discusses the Night's treatments in several closely interwoven works by Goethe and Mendelssohn. His book situates those works in their immediate personal and professional contexts, as well as among treatments by a wide array of other artists, philosophers, and political thinkers, including Voltaire, Lessing, Shelley, Heine, Delacroix, and Berlioz.
In an age of decisive political and religious conflict, Walpurgis Night became a heathen muse: a source of spiritual inspiration that was neither specifically Christian, nor Jewish, nor Muslim. And Mendelssohn's and Goethe's engagements with it offer new insights into its role in European cultural history, as well as into issues of political, religious, and social identity -- and the relations between cultural groups -- in today's world.

Among some of his (Goethe’s) most engaging/compelling musical experiences of his late maturity were the visits of Felix Mendelssohn, who was 12 years old in 1821 and had been introduced to Goethe personally in Weimar by his (Mendelssohn’s) teacher, Zelter. Further visits took place in 1822, 1825, and 1830. Goethe had Mendelssohn play for him and explain to him technical matters concerning music and music history. This relationship became one of tender devotion on the part of Goethe towards Mendelssohn: in 1822 Goethe said to Mendelssohn: “I am Saul and you are my David,” and in his last letter to Mendelssohn, Goethe began with “My dear son.” Mendelssohn dedicated his Piano Quartet in B minor, opus 3 to Goethe and composed music for “Die erste Walpurgisnacht” (1^st version in 1832)…. Goethe was eager to hear instrumental music which was played by Reichardt, Kayser, Zelter, Eberwein, Hummel, Spohr, Beethoven, Baron Oliva, Szymanowska (female pianist), J. H. F. Schütz, and finally by Mendelssohn whom he repeatedly asked to play something for him.”]


Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht, one of his greatest cantatas, was based on Goethe's Faust, and on Goethe's personal interpretation of the scene (Grove Dictionary 146). Mendelssohn's friendship with the poet lasted for a great many years, up until Goethe's death in 1832.

The first Walpurgisnacht

The Ouverture represents the transition from the winter to spring. The beginning in A-Moll is overwritten with “the bad weather”, while with the idiom into the Dur variant approaching the Walpurgisnacht in spring is announced. It is described in the following, as the priests and Druiden of the Celts meet secretly in the inhospitable mountains of the resin, in order to address after old custom with fire their prayer to the all father of the sky and the earth. Since their rites are forbidden by the Christian gentlemen however, everything must happen in the secret one. With cheat and to linings the soldiers of the Christians were frightened in such a manner that the Celts in peace can celebrate their Walpurgisnacht.
There are two Walpurgisnächte in Goethe's work. Admits is above all that from that fist I, in which a typical Hexensabbat is sworn to in visionär grotesque way. On the other hand Goethe takes poem the first Walpurgisnacht a heidnisches victim celebration developed to 1799 in that during thunderstorm eight to the cause to confront two incompatible ways of thinking and being LV each other.
Whole 19. Through century the romantic composers let themselves fist be inspired again and again from the picture world of the I and fist II, while the first Walpurgisnacht remained almost unknown. Only Carl Friedrich Zelter, Goethe friend and musical advisor, have try, the poem tone. It kept full fifteen years it under its papers, before it took distance finally from a project, which exceeded its imagination.
That was introduced by Zelter at that time twelve-year-old boy Mendelssohn with around sixty years the older Olympier Goethe, whom time and fame had coined/shaped. By Beethoven and Schubert to judge, understood the old gentleman not much about music. In its youth he had heard some of the Mozarts' works, whose clarity and harmony it zollte still at the age attention and acknowledgment; and it found favours to feel with the citizen of Berlin miracle child from good family the aftereffect of those melodies in those the ideal of its own youth lived. It would be inaccurate to speak of a co-operation between Goethe and Mendelssohn. The first important piece, to which the poet energized the young musician, was the Ouvertüre sea silence and lucky travel, which arrived only in the year 1832, Goethe's death year, at the public performance. That Goethe would have known to appreciate a music, so clearly under Beethovens the influence is to be doubted. Just as little it the score of the first Walpurgisnacht would have probably behagt. The work, in which orchestras and voices verwoben closely into one another are, becomes not completely fair the central thought of the artist Philosphen. From its “Faible for witches” seduced, Mendelssohn stated little interest in the deeper meaning of the poem: the always-lasting conflict between the instinktiven natural forces on the one hand and the mental clarity of a thought world coined/shaped by the clearing-up on the other hand. With the primarily romantic treatment of the article it remains on the level of a descriptive poem and tears us in tumbles uncontrolled thunderstorm eight.
The 1831 completed first minute of the score experienced substantial changes, before she arrived to 1842 at the premiere. Goethe did not experience no more, which regulation to his verses assign became, whose Vertonung lends a fascinating juvenile fire to them. Mendelssohn proves here as genuine romantics. It uses a pallet of magnificent tone qualities, lets the horns from the supple fabric of the Streicher step out and gives to the Holzbläsern a most personal note. The choirs are from a Schlichtheit, which lends occasionally the serious character of a Volksliedes to them, while proper large airs are assigned to the soloist.
The whole wealth of the romantic opera is united in this musical illustration of a poem, which reminds at the Feenzauber of shakespearscher scenes. The choir of the Druiden (No. 6 of the score) is from an imaginativeness, which only the late Verdi in the last act of its Falstaff reaches again. The composer, at whom Goethe estimated the causing its own youth, somehow not completely up-to-date one, appears here surprisingly as one of the prophets of the music 19. Century. With deciveness it secures the transition from Beethoven to the large rhapsodies of Brahms.

Jean Francois Labie
(Translation: Ingrid trusting man)

G O E T H E ' S   P A G A N   P O E T R Y

Goethe, a genius with unmistakable Pagan sympathies,
excelled as a poet, dramatist, novelist, essayist,
philosopher and scientist (his works occupy 140
volumes!).  Here are several of his Pagan poems,
including his ballade "The First Walpurgis-Night," in
which the Pagans score a Discordian victory over their
oppressors.  (I'm sure Goethe now dwells happily among
the Pagan Gods.)  The ballade has been set to music by
Mendelssohn (Die Erste Walpurgisnacht), which is quite
good, but not suitable for small group performance.
Perhaps the Muses will help some modern Pagan to
compose a version for contemporary witches' sabbats.
Although only the God (Allvater) is mentioned, I've
left Goethe's text unchanged; it's easy to substitute
"Mother" for some or all of the "Father"s if you like.
           -- John Opsopaus


THE FIRST WALPURGIS-NIGHT
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A DRUID.

Sweet smiles the May!
The forest gay
From frost and ice is freed;
No snow is found,
Glad songs resound
Across the verdant mead.
Upon the height
The snow lies light,
Yet thither now we go,
There to extol our Father's name,
Whom we for ages know.
Amid the smoke shall gleam the flame;
Thus pure the heart will grow.

THE DRUIDS.

Amid the smoke shall gleam the flame;
Extol we now our Father's name,
Whom we for ages know!
Up, up, then, let us go!

ONE OF THE PEOPLE.

Would ye, then, so rashly act?
Would ye instant death attract?
Know ye not the cruel threats
Of the victors we obey?
Round about are placed their nets
In the sinful Heathen's way.
Ah! upon the lofty wall
Wife and children slaughter they;
And we all
Hasten to a certain fall.

CHORUS OF WOMEN.

Ay, upon the camp's high wall
All our children loved they slay.
Ah, what cruel victors they!
And we all
Hasten to a certain fall.

A DRUID.

Who fears to-day
His rites to pay,
Deserves his chains to wear.
The forest's free!
This wood take we,
And straight a pile prepare!
Yet in the wood
To stay 'tis good
By day till all is still,
With watchers all around us placed
Protecting you from ill.
With courage fresh, then, let us haste
Our duties to fulfil.

CHORUS OF WATCHERS.

Ye valiant watchers now divide
Your numbers through the forest wide,
And see that all is still,
While they their rites fulfil.

A WATCHER.

Let us in a cunning wise,
Yon dull Christian priests surprise!
With the devil of their talk
We'll those very priests confound.
Come with prong and come with fork,
Raise a wild and rattling sound
Through the livelong night, and prowl
All the rocky passes round.
Screech-owl, owl,
Join in chorus with our howl!

CHORUS OF WATCHERS.

Come with prong, and come with fork,
Like the devil of their talk,
And with wildly rattling sound,
Prowl the desert rocks around!
Screech owl, owl,
Join in chorus with our howl!

A DRUID.

This far 'tis right,
That we by night
Our Father's praises sing;
Yet when 'tis day,
To Thee we may
A heart unsullied bring.
'Tis true that now,
And often, Thou
Favorest the foe in fight.
As from the smoke is freed the blaze,
So let our faith burn bright!
And if they crush our olden ways,
Who e'er can crush Thy light?

A CHRISTIAN WATCHER.

Comrades, quick!  your aid afford!
All the brood of hell's abroad:
See how their enchanted forms
Through and through with flames are glowing!
Dragon-women, men-wolf swarms,
On in quick succession going!
Let us, let us haste to fly!
Wilder yet the sounds are growing,
And the arch fiend roars on high;
From the ground
Hellish vapors rise around.

CHORUS OF CHRISTIAN WATCHERS.

Terrible enchanted forms,
Dragon-women, men-wolf swarms!
Wilder yet the sounds are growing!
See, the arch fiend comes, all-glowing!
From the ground
Hellish vapors rise around.

CHORUS OF DRUIDS

As from the smoke is freed the blaze,
So let our faith burn bright!
And if they crush our olden ways,
Whoe'er can crush Thy light?

[Bowring translation]


THE CONSECRATED SPOT

When in the dance of the Nymphs, in the
moonlight so holy assembled,
Mingle the Graces, down from Olympus in secret
descending,
Here doth the minstrel hide, and list to their
numbers enthralling,
Here doth he watch their silent dances'
mysterious measure.
[tr. Bowring]


[All selections from "The Poems of Goethe," New York:
John D. Williams, 1882.]

   finis

The Romantic Mendelssohn: The Composition of Die erste Walpurgisnacht

THE FAUST LEGEND IN MUSIC

Monday, April 30, 2007