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What If Halloween’s Origins Aren’t Pagan At All… But Hidden… Ancient “Flood Memories”
The Ark, the Flood, and The Day of The Dead
Halloween’s roots stretch much further back than modern trick-or-treating. Beneath the costumes and candy lies a deep memory repeated across cultures… a remembrance of death that always appears in autumn.
Looking closer, Halloween… and the “Day of the Dead” traditions around the world… might echo something far older than pagan Europe. Some scholars believe these customs trace all the way back to the Flood and humanity’s first great rebirth.
From Pagan Fires to Christian Holy Days
Across centuries and continents, autumn rituals echo humanity’s memory of the Flood—honoring ancestors, sacrifice, and hope rising from disaster.
When Christianity spread through Europe, believers wanted to distance themselves from pagan autumn festivals. Instead of honoring spirits and seasonal gods, they dedicated the season to something holier… remembering saints and martyrs.
All Saints’ Day became the focus, and the night before was known as “All Hallows’ Eve,” which eventually shortened into Halloween.
Later, the Roman Church added All Souls’ Day on November 2 to remember all believers who had died. It stayed on the calendar largely because ancient Celtic and northern European cultures had already kept a similar day for honoring the dead. Meanwhile, many Protestant Christians shifted their focus to October 31 as Reformation Day, remembering the spiritual “rebirth” sparked by Luther and Calvin.
A Worldwide Season of the Dead
What’s amazing is that Europe isn’t alone in this remembrance. Across the globe, from Asia to South America, cultures mark a day to honor the dead at the end of summer or in early fall. In Mexico, families bring food and candles to cemeteries for El Día de los Muertos.
In Belize, where I love to hang out, it’s Finados; in Bolivia, the Day of the Skulls. The Chinese Ghost Festival, Japan’s O-bon, Vietnam’s Tet Trung Nguyen, and Korea’s Chuseok all fall in the same season.
Even in the Philippines, families gather to clean tombs and repaint grave markers. Nepal observes Gia Jatra with a symbolic cow procession for lost loved ones. These patterns appear everywhere… different customs, but always around the same time of year, always tied to death and remembrance.
Even the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, though focused on repentance rather than ancestors, sits in the same season and carries a tone of spiritual reflection. Some scholars even connect its timing to events that reach back to the flood.
After the Flood and Before Babel
If all nations once lived together before the Tower of Babel, it makes sense that early memories would scatter with them. Archbishop Ussher calculated that the Flood ended in 2348 BC and the dispersion at Babel came around 2242 BC. That means Noah and his children were still alive as their descendants spread across the world.
So why do nearly all cultures remember the dead at this exact same time of year? Some believe a specific ancestor died during this season, but that seems unlikely across so many nations. Others say it began as a harvest ritual tied to the “death” of crops, but this doesn’t work in the southern hemisphere, where fall means spring and planting, not dying.
A more compelling idea is tied directly to Noah’s sacrifice after leaving the Ark. Genesis tells us that Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices when he stepped into a new world. Many ancient cultures kept seasonal sacrifices tied to the dead in the same season, often including fire, offerings, and remembrance.
Flood Memories Hidden in Festivals
Researchers like Alfred Rehwinkel and John Urquhart noted that nearly every civilization has both a flood legend and a “Day of the Dead” kept around late October or early November. They also pointed out something vital: many ancient calendars began their new year at this same time, mirroring Noah’s exit from the Ark and the start of a new world.
The Egyptian story of Osiris floating in a coffin, the Assyrian month of Arahsamna, Hindu India’s original November New Year tied to the Durga festival, and Persia’s Mordad-month linked to death—all mirror this pattern. Aboriginal Australians painted themselves like skeletons. Polynesians prayed for ancestors as their New Year began. In Peru, the Inca held Ayamarka, a feast of the dead with food placed on graves in November.
Again, Europe kept the same rhythm. All Souls’ Day lands on November 2. The French visit cemeteries for Le Jour des Morts. Anglo-Saxons called November “Blood-Month.” The ancient Celts believed their year began when the veil between the living and dead thinned at the start of November.
Ritual Fire, New Beginnings, and Judgment
When you line up the evidence, a clear pattern emerges. Bonfires, prayers, offerings on graves, lighting candles in the dark… all point to a moment of deep mourning mixed with the hope of a new beginning.
Rehwinkel wrote that the Flood began in the second month of the ancient year, around late October, which matches the global habit of ending the year with mourning, then starting fresh.
The Druids marked this time by extinguishing fires across their lands, then relighting one central flame… symbolizing death and rebirth after destruction, much like the world after the waters receded. It became a night of passing, judgment, and remembrance.
Sacrifice and the Cry of a Lost World
From Genesis onward, sacrifice marked moments of death, covering, and renewal. Noah’s offering after stepping out of the Ark was more than thanksgiving… it was an acknowledgment of judgment, loss, and mercy. When people scattered after Babel, they carried fragments of that memory. Legends of a great flood, a day of mourning, a New Year born out of death… these appear everywhere.
One Global Memory Across Time
Halloween, in its modern form, looks playful and strange… a night of costumes, candy, and ghost stories. But underneath, it carries the echoes of bonfires, offerings, grave visits, and silent prayers for the dead. Its roots appear in the ashes of a world washed clean, a family stepping off an Ark, and a sacrifice made in the cold air of a new autumn.
Maybe Halloween isn’t just about the dark side or even fun and shenanigans. Maybe it’s a distant echo of the first time humanity looked back at a world swept away… and forward to a second chance. If Rehwinkel was right, then Halloween may be the fading memory of “the awful cry of anguish” that once rose from the earth, still whispered each fall in customs we’ve nearly forgotten how to interpret.
It’s the grief of Noah, the loss of a world, and the spark of hope when a new year began on dry ground. So if you take the kids out trick-or-treating… say a prayer of thanks for humanity’s second chance.
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