Lawrence Hall of Science
University of California, Berkeley
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Lawrence Hall of Science University of California, Berkeley |
| Planetarium Activities for Student Success PASS |
News and Articles on Constellations (PASS Volume 5) |
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Halloween observing and the Pleiades Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 18:13:28 -0400 From: "Laurent Pellerin" To: "The dome-l mailing list" I also had a great time handing out candy and looks through the telescope, and a Halloween story. I meant to post it earlier, but didn't get time. I don't remember exactly where I came across this story anymore, but it one that I use in my "Myths in the Night!" series. I'll post it now, since it is not one of the "cursed" topics on Dome-L... Thousands of years ago, the Pleiades would reach their highest point in the sky at Midnight on October 31st. (If there is time you can discuss diurnal, annual, and precessional motions.) Many cultures around the world based their calendars upon this event, including an ancient culture in Great Britain. For them October 31st was New Year Eve, and...the Night of the Dead. They believed that when a person died, their soul was trapped with their body until the last night of the year, October 31st. (Obviously, it was best to plan your death for the end of the year, not the beginning.) On that night, all of the fires throughout the land were put out so that the souls of the dead could travel peaceably into the west where they would pass into the afterlife. If someone had a family member die during the year, they would put packets of food outside their doorsteps to fortify the soul on their journey. In order to prevent the souls from stopping to tarry with the living (if you had given Uncle Harry a hard time during the year before, you probably didn't want him coming in to address the issue,) people would also carve gourds and squashes (like pumpkins) to scare the souls away from their doors. Then at Midnight, when all of the souls who had died during the year had passed on into the afterlife, a new sacred fire would be lit in the holiest site in the land to begin the new year. Runners would carry torches from this fire to all of the villages in the land so that everyone could start the new year with the sacred flame. This tradition became of course, Halloween. The souls leaving their bodies became the tradition of having graves, skeletons, and ghosts at Halloween, the carved gourds became connected with the flame to produce Jack O' Lanterns, and the packets of food for the souls of the dead became Trick or Treat. LP>People love the story, especially high schoolers for some reason, and every Halloween for years to come, or every time they see the Pleiades, they'll remember the story.
Laurent Pellerin |
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