Speaker : John Hammond
30 Oct 2024 | 7.00pm | Rausing Building
£15 (includes a mug of warm spiced apple drink)
Tickets available online and in the Athelstan Museum shop
John Hammond will talk about the origins and real meaning of Halloween.
He says that in recent decades, thanks to American cultural influences, Halloween has become little more than an evening of spooky ‘trick-or-treat’ fun for children. The real meaning has been all but lost. Even the Catholic Church’s All Saint’s Day, which has been marked on November 1st every year since 835CE, thus making October 31 “All Hallow’s Eve”, is not where it all began. The true origins are far more ancient. We need to delve deep into western prehistory and look to the heavens for clues as to how this mysterious otherworldly annual celebration began.
John Hammond has a PhD in European Prehistory and is a Member of the Prehistoric Society and the Chartered Institute for Archaeology. He taught at the University of Kent and in 2005 was awarded its Alumni Research Scholarship. In 2010 the university made him an Honorary Research Fellow and around the same time he was invited to become a member of the €1.7 million European Union funded “Boat 1550 BC” research team. This involved working with colleagues from France, Belgium and the Netherlands on the reconstruction of a unique Bronze Age sewn-plank boat. Also, in 2010, John was appointed Director of Operations for The Canterbury Archaeological Trust. His research interests centre on ritual and belief during the time of Stonehenge – the late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. He moved to Malmesbury after retiring in 2019.