Halloween night is the scariest night of the year, a time when people take the opportunity to go out dressed up as monsters, nightmarish creatures and, curiously, animals too.
Some sectors of the Church view this celebration and the practice of dressing up in costumes with disapproval, advising against it, especially among the faithful, as they consider it a festival that glorifies darkness.
This rejection is not something new; in fact, we can trace these concerns back to Visigothic Hispania. During the celebration of the Calends of January, it was a very popular custom to dress up as animals, including deer, the famous “ceruulum facere” (playing the deer). Although these costumes were nothing more than entertainment for the participants, they were banned and severely punished by the ecclesiastical authorities, who considered them to be superstitious and idolatrous rituals (Jiménez Sánchez, 2017).
But why the deer? This custom of dressing up in antlers and skins can be traced back much further, to the ancient Celtic cult of the god Cernunnos. Characterised by his deer antlers, he was sometimes depicted as three-headed, accompanied by a snake-ram, deer, wild boars or dogs.
Cernunnos was known as the “Lord of the Animals”, a deity who ruled over nature, but who also represented prosperity, regeneration, death and life beyond this world (Reboreda Morillo and Castro Pérez, 2003-2004).
Pilier des Nautes
Aspects of this cult survived in rural areas as fertility rituals, while in cities they took the form of masquerades, defying ecclesiastical prohibitions (Jiménez Sánchez, 2017).
Roman relief, Corinium Museum
So tonight, if you see someone wearing antler headdresses, remember that their attire may be much more than just a fancy dress costume. You may be witnessing a remnant of ancient cults that worshipped nature and life, even if that person is unaware of it.
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Alfonso García Sánchez
