Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the Target Christmas Magic Tree lighting switch event and it was truly a magical experience. The event took place at a local Target store and was filled with holiday spirit and excitement. As I entered the store, I was greeted by festive decorations and the sound of holiday music playing in the background. There was a sense of anticipation in the air as everyone eagerly awaited the lighting of the Christmas tree. The main attraction of the event was the giant Christmas tree placed in the center of the store. It was beautifully decorated with colorful ornaments and twinkling lights.
It was beautifully decorated with colorful ornaments and twinkling lights. The tree itself was a sight to behold and created a sense of wonder and awe. The highlight of the event was undoubtedly the moment when the Christmas tree was finally lit up.
How the mythology of Halloween and witches has shifted throughout history
On All Hallows’ Eve, Christians in some parts of the world visit cemeteries to pray and place flowers and candles on the graves of their loved ones. The photograph shows Lutheran Christians praying and lighting candles in front of the central crucifix of a graveyard.
Clowns, zombies, witches and various cinematic characters can be seen roaming around the streets on Oct. 31. Halloween has been celebrated throughout history in a variety of different ways with a variety of different myths and legends.
The tradition of Halloween originates from All Saint’s Day, but it is most famously associated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.
People would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts, according to the History Channel. Celts believed during the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead become blurred. During the night of Oct. 31, they believed the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
“What it is is a harvest festival,” said Michael D. Bailey, a professor of history and author of a variety of books on witchcraft including “Magic: The Basics” and “The A to Z of Witchcraft.”
“The Romans had things like that too, lots of pre-Christian cultures and non-Christian cultures have the festival,” Bailey said.
Bailey said it is a natural time to have a festival because it is the middle of autumn and it’s the time of the harvest.
“What happens is Christianity layers that over,” Bailey said.
Pope Gregory III designated a festival to honor saints and martyrs between May 13 to Nov. 1. In 1000 A.D., the church made Nov. 2 All Soul’s Day to honor the dead which incorporated aspects of Samhain.
The night before All Saints’ Day was known was Hallow’s Eve and, later, Halloween.
As time has progressed, beliefs surrounding witchcraft and the supernatural have shifted and changed. In western culture, there is a divide between what is seen as the medieval and the modern.
“Modern western society is rational and scientific and does not believe in magic,” Bailey said. “Whereas there is this period where we consider premodern and in too many ways we still see them as primitive […] because they believed in magic.”
Bailey said, realistically, there is not as large of a divide as we may believe.
There are people who say explicitly they believe in magic and there are others who believe in ghosts and other supernatural entities.
Magical beliefs in the middle ages were potions, summoning demons, but it was also beliefs in ghosts and demons but in modern times beliefs are more focused on ghosts and supernatural.
“One of the things that has happened as you move towards ‘the modern’ and the more scientific is portions of magic get pushed away if they can be easily disproved or explained away by science,” Bailey said.
Witches
The origin of the label of ‘witch’ and people who practice witchcraft is unknown.
“The terms witchcraft and witch derive from Old English wiccecraeft: from wicca (masculine) or wicce (feminine), pronounced ‘witchah’ and ‘witchuh,’ respectively, denoting someone who practices sorcery; and from craeft meaning ‘craft’ or ‘skill,’” according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
The earliest record of a witch is in the Bible, in the Book of Samuel, according to the History Channel.
“It tells the story of when King Saul sought the Witch of Endor to summon the dead prophet Samuel’s spirit to help him defeat the Philistine army,” according to the History Channel.
Some of the beliefs surrounding witches is they’re all women, they’re involved with the devil and they wear pointy hats.
Despite the belief all witches are women, during the height of the witch hunts in the 1500s and 1600s, Bailey said across all of Europe about 25 percent of those accused were men.
Bailey said there are two possible reasons why more women were persecuted as witches than men; a legal argument and a homemaking argument.
Throughout most of the witch hunts, and into antiquities, women had much less of a legal status than men, making them “easier targets” for legal accusations.
“In witch accusations, the women who get targeted are most often women who don’t have men around them in some way,” Bailey said. “They’re not married, they don’t have a father anymore, they don’t have male relatives of some kind.”
Without these male relatives, there is no one to act as legal protection for them.
Another reason why women were disproportionately seen as witches and persecuted is because the magic is associated with witches tends to be related to the traditional feminine sphere.
“It’s magic that has to do with fertility […] even things like brewing potions and making potions in the sense that it has some relation to cooking,” Bailey said.
Bailey said witches being involved with the Devil comes from the Christian understanding of what magic is.
“Magic is always, historically speaking, kind of risque and elicit in a lot of cases, it’s what approved of religion isn’t,” Bailey said.
When moving into western Europe when Christianity is dominant, Bailey said historically Christianity has been seen as a montheistic religion with one good deity with angels and saints compared to other religious with multiple deities. Because of this, Christians believed everything else was of the devil.
“Anyone who is caught performing a ritual that they may be thinking of magical, they may be thinking of as religious, but Christian authorities think of as not appropriately Christian, it has to become demonic,” Bailey said.
The black pointy hat many witches are depicted wearing is believed to originate from “The Wizard of Oz.”
“Before that historically, you have a lot of images of witches in headgear of various kinds, and it’s not that that particular type of headgear was associated with witches, it was that if you were in the time of the Puritan people wore hats like that,” Bailey said.
For those who study these myths and legends, it can be difficult to differentiate what was fictional during that period and what was truly believed.
“Even in a world where people believe [in magic] there are also plays and poems and stories about witches coded in literature, it gets used for entertainment purposes,” Bailey said.
Bailey said looking at historical beliefs is different than modern times where people can say “I like the Harry Potter movies, I don’t believe there are schools of magic in the world,” but when looking at medieval times it is more difficult.
Bailey said so many of European Middle Ages, notions of what a witch could be was framed by famous ancient Greek and Roman depictions such as Circe and Medea. Ancient Grecians knew what witches were part of entertainment and which were real within their beliefs.
“By the time you get to the Middles Ages people are not clear on the difference between a mythological witch, but it very much informs their idea of what a real witch is,” Bailey said.
The tradition of Halloween originates from All Saint’s Day, but it is most famously associated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.
The crowd gathered around the tree as the countdown began. With each passing second, the excitement grew until finally, the switch was flipped and the tree burst to life with a dazzling display of lights. The moment was truly magical, with the tree serving as a symbol of the holiday season and bringing joy to everyone in attendance. It was a spectacle that filled the hearts of all present with warmth and wonder. In addition to the tree lighting, the event also included various activities for children and families to enjoy. There were crafts stations set up where kids could create their own ornaments and decorations. There was also a photo booth where families could capture their holiday memories. Overall, the Target Christmas Magic Tree lighting switch event was a wonderful celebration of the holiday season. It brought together people of all ages to embrace the spirit of Christmas and create lasting memories. It was a reminder of the magic and joy that this time of year brings. Attending this event was a truly special experience, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it. It served as a valuable reminder of the importance of coming together as a community and embracing the magic of the holiday season..
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