[This interview was originally conducted in Spanish. If you would like to read it in Spanish, click here to view the original post]

What is the Santa Compaña (Holy Company)? How did this tradition begin in Galicia?

Actually the name should only be Compaña [instead of Santa Compaña], and it refers to a procession of pained souls that cannot access heaven, who wander at night through the parish where they are buried.

It is a cultural phenomenon, a tradition. It's not about dressing up and going out, but rather the belief itself. The tradition isn't about putting on a costume, but the belief it comes from. At the Museum of Melide, we decided to create a theatrical representation of this belief because we consider it an opportunity for teaching. Nowadays, our knowledge of this Galician tradition is being lost, and we believed it was necessary to bring it out onto the street so that people would remember it and learn more about it. We thought that if people were to participate in this type of event, they may become more interested in it and learn about their own traditions. We did it in order for our neighbors to remember and value their own traditional beliefs.

It is a mixture of Catholic and Celtic practices, right?

This tradition comes from very ancient times, and it’s similar to other processions of souls that happen throughout Europe, although in each region the procession presents itself with different characteristics.

Its origins go back to a time before Christianity, since those villages already had the spirits and souls of people who could not be absolved of their sins in life, a cultural phenomena. The name Santa Compaña thus comes from a way of Christianizing a phenomenon that already existed previously. An example of this tradition is in "The Lord of the Rings." In the third film (which has a very graphic example), when they ask for help from an army of ghosts that dwell in the mountains, they are the spirits of the men who committed crimes in life and cannot leave this world. The army that inspired Tolkien for that scene is none other than the Cacería Salvaje (Wild Hunt), which tells us that this phenomenon is common to all European peoples. I do not know if it can be directly associated with the Celtic people, since it also exists in non-Celtic areas. However, it's true that it is more frequent in the regions that are traditionally associated with the Celtic people.

Does it only exist in Galicia? Or is it also present in Spain's other autonomous regions?

This tradition in Spain is not exclusive to Galicia--in Asturias, the Basque Country, Cantabria, areas of Castilla such as Zamora, León and Salamanca, they also have a procession of souls very similar to ours.

In Galicia, the tradition of Santa Compaña can be traced back to the Middle Ages. There was a belief that the souls of the deceased rose from their graves at night to haunt the parish. They were always guided by a living person who accompanied them and who could not stop doing it, for even though this task would end up ultimately costing him his life, the souls were, little by little, making him ill. He [the living person] could always give up his position to another living person that he encountered along the way, as long as the replacement hadn't performed any of the rituals that would save him from this penance, such as making the sign of the cross, climbing onto a cross, lying on the ground face down ...

On many occasions it was said that the procession of the Santa Compaña would announce the death of a neighbor of the parish, and a procession would leave their graves to visit the home of the next deceased.

In reality, this tradition is somewhat gloomy and terrifying if we stop to analyze it in detail, but it was in response to a series of ancient beliefs that tried to explain the afterlife, and later with Christianity, because these beliefs were so ingrained in people's minds, they became Christianized, with the goal of intimidating the faithful.

Are there similarities between Santa Compaña and Halloween?

This tradition has nothing to do with Halloween or the recently popular Samhain. They coincidentally occur on the same day because Santa Compaña, even though it can happen any night of the year, is always celebrated on All Saints' Night (the night of October 31st), and so these phenomena were adapted to it. Halloween is still a tradition of the deceased, which Irish emigrants took to North America. It is true that originally, in Ireland, it was something very similar to the Galician Santa Compaña, since it was about the souls of the deceased who came out of their graves, but in the United States, it merged with other traditions from other places, giving rise to what we all know as Halloween.

Everything that comes from the United States triumphs culturally, and so Halloween returned to Europe transformed into what it is today, but people wanted to give it a local character and at the same time go back to its European roots. Samhain, a celebration of the change of season (with Celtic or pre-Roman origins), cannot be directly connected to the Santa Compaña, at least in Galicia, since it is completely unknown what type of celebrations the Pre-Roman or Celtic peoples here had, since there are no texts that tell us, and these traditions have stopped being practiced in Galicia.

Is Santa Compaña still practiced in Galician cities and villages today?

The truth is that here, in Galicia, the tradition of Santa Compaña can only be traced back to the Middle Ages, when texts and manifestations of this phenomenon begin to appear, and the worship of souls begins to become popular in churches (in fact, in many places there are petos de ánimas (shrines / altars), similar to cruceiros (typical Galician stone crosses) in which alms are given to save souls from purgatory).

Unfortunately, in today's society this deeply rooted belief has been fading away until recently (in the mid-twentieth century it was still believed to be a real thing), and is being replaced by carnival-like celebrations, (which, as I said before, have nothing to do with the original meaning). Truthfully, the Santa Compaña is not a celebration but a tradition, a belief. Because of this, the theatrical representation of the procession of souls is not something that is generally practiced in Galician towns and cities, since it was never done historically -- that wasn't its purpose. But, I think that in all towns and cities it should begin to be practiced, so that this ancient belief is not forgotten. It is both traditionally and historically interesting, but can also be just as scary and fun as Halloween, with its zombies and vampires.

Thank you Cris for your time and your profound knowledge of the Santa Compaña!

~M