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