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Anyone know more about this? Was this man crazy? 
W.J, Bethancourt III has an online essay which traces the God Samhain myth back to the year 1770 when Col. Charles Vallency wrote a 6 volume set of books which attempted to prove that the Irish people once came from Armenia. (http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_sa.htm)
The idea that Samhain was a festival honoring a Celtic God of the Dead who was also named Samhain has been propagated by many conservative Christian writers who are critical of Halloween and its pagan roots. This myth among conservative Christians goes back to a man named Colonel Charles Vallency, who wrote a six-volume set of books in 1770 which attempted to prove (for some strange purpose) that the Irish people once came from Armenia. In actuality, there is no evidence that any such god was recognized among the ancient Celts. The closest thing to a supernatural being that was specifically associated with the festival of Samhain was not a god, but a wicked faery known as the Samhanach. Not much is known about this obscure figure in Celtic folklore, but it is known that it had a taste for abducting small children (most likely for the purposes of eating them), that it could perhaps be appeased by the giving of offerings (perhaps an ancient origin of our modern day custom of "trick-or-treat", which first appeared in print in 1939), and that it only came out on November Eve. But evidently this entity was never actually worshiped as a god, much less a god of the dead. (http://www.theisticsatanism.com/geifodd/halloween.html)
W.J, Bethancourt III has an online essay which traces the God Samhain myth back to the year 1770 when Col. Charles Vallency wrote a 6 volume set of books which attempted to prove that the Irish people once came from Armenia. (http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_sa.htm)
The idea that Samhain was a festival honoring a Celtic God of the Dead who was also named Samhain has been propagated by many conservative Christian writers who are critical of Halloween and its pagan roots. This myth among conservative Christians goes back to a man named Colonel Charles Vallency, who wrote a six-volume set of books in 1770 which attempted to prove (for some strange purpose) that the Irish people once came from Armenia. In actuality, there is no evidence that any such god was recognized among the ancient Celts. The closest thing to a supernatural being that was specifically associated with the festival of Samhain was not a god, but a wicked faery known as the Samhanach. Not much is known about this obscure figure in Celtic folklore, but it is known that it had a taste for abducting small children (most likely for the purposes of eating them), that it could perhaps be appeased by the giving of offerings (perhaps an ancient origin of our modern day custom of "trick-or-treat", which first appeared in print in 1939), and that it only came out on November Eve. But evidently this entity was never actually worshiped as a god, much less a god of the dead. (http://www.theisticsatanism.com/geifodd/halloween.html)
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