Nowadays, Halloween is a huge holiday cherished and celebrated by children all over the world. However, the question still stands, how did the Halloween we know and love today come about? Through the years different people, places, and groups have all contributed and helped shape Halloween for all that it is.
The Original Halloween in Celtic Culture
This spooky celebration dates all the way back to over 2,000 years ago, in what is now modern-day Ireland. This is where the Celtic people celebrated Samhain. Samhain would take place on the evening of October 31st
For the Celts, this tradition lasted for three days before and three days after the 31st. They would celebrate a new year on the 1st of November. It may seem a little odd, especially because most of us know New Year’s as January 1st. However many cultures split the year into two halves, a light one and a dark one. November 1st was recognized as the first day of the dark half, the cold half, what we know as winter. Following the Celtic New Year’s would be the Feast of All Souls. Samhain’s bolder, brighter counterpart was the holiday known as Bealtaine. Bealtaine was celebrated in May and was often called “May Day,” to show a warm welcome to the Summer and light half of the year. It was also called “First Bright Day.”
Together, Samhain and Bealtaine were the two most important and crucial days of the Celtic year. The main difference is that Bealtaine was a holiday more centered around agriculture, and preparing for the new harvest season to come. During both Samhain and Bealtaine the gateways between the living and supernatural worlds were said to be open. The Celts called it the “otherworld.” Samhain, however, opened their two worlds more than any other Celtic holiday, including Bealtaine. As the underworld was to the Greeks, the “otherworld” is comparable to Irish mythology’s version of heaven. For those unaware, it is often a misconception that the Greek underworld only consisted of hell; the Greek underworld was actually a land for all of the unliving: good and bad. The Celts did not believe in hell, but they did believe in reincarnation in the afterlife, and that every mortal soul was reincarnated. This mysterious realm was also home to the Irish gods, as well as all of the mortal souls (before reincarnation).
There is not much recorded about Samhain. The Celts were big fans of oral recording when it came to actual festivities occurring during those 6 days of celebration. The first person to physically write down anything about Samhain was a monk. Over time, historians have begun to speculate about what was actually going on during Samhain, which if often skewed by old Christian explanations. As stated before, Samhain was seen as a welcoming to the winter. The Celts were very into agriculture and farming to say the least. As you can imagine, the coldness and brutality of winter weather doesn’t always go over well with harvesting and livestock. This is why it is believed that one of the many festivities of Samhain was killing their livestock. Surprisingly, this tradition of killing livestock would carry on in Britain for a few more years to come. They also brought in the last of that year’s harvest for the winter months. Lastly, Samhain traditions also included Celtic folklore. One myth featured a young hero, Finn McCumal, who finds the law stating that during Samhain, no one is allowed to hold bitterness or hatred against one another. In other words, Samhain was supposed to be a relatively happy and positive time for the Celts.
It was a common theory amongst historians that this holiday was celebrated by the Celts to worship the god of death. This is mostly due to Charles Vallancey, who spent most of his life studying Irish culture during the 18th century. Vallancey firmly believed that Samhain was indeed a translation for the death god. Historians later proved that Vallencey was wrong about this translation, however this rumor had already gotten out to most people by then. In 1934, a Halloween book was published stating that Samhain translates to “Lord of Death ” but the author also translates it to “patron of the field.” The second makes a little sense considering most, if not every, Celtic holiday centered around agriculture and livestock such as Imbolc and Bealtaine. The first however was proven incorrect later on of course.
How Our Halloween Came to Be
Slowly and over the course of many years, this original tradition of Samhain would evolve into the modern Americanized holiday we refer to as Halloween.
A part of this transition lies in the roots of Catholicism. Early Christian officials began their own holiday celebration on November 1st as a way to compete and prevent their converts from partaking in Celtic and non-Christian festivals. This new holiday became known as All Saints’ Day, which celebrated centuries of Christian saints and martyrs. Over time, All Saints’ Day became more commonly referred to as All Hallows’ Day. For those who are not aware, hallow is a Catholic-derived word meaning to honor as holy. The day before this holiday, October 31st, became signified as All Hallows’ Eve. All Hallows’ Eve is simply another way of saying the holidays’ latest evolution: Halloween.
Early Christians carried over these tales and traditions and thus the holiday of Halloween became settled right alongside the gradual making of America. Early settlers even began the timeless practice of pumpkin carving, in which one carves into a pumpkin and places a lit candle inside. Originally, however, this custom was done with the use of a turnip, not a pumpkin, and its intended purpose was to ward off malicious and foul spirits.
In the year 1820, one of the first great distinctly American ghost stories titled The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving was published and saw mass popularity for its uncommon eerie nature.
Much of Halloween’s history can be dedicated to more recent times. Large candy, costume, and decoration manufacturers have made great profit off of the widespread American commercialization of Halloween. Hollywood is a massive contributor to this as well, with executives pumping out horror movies and Halloween specials that only further add to the naturally spooky atmosphere hovering the month of October.
Any fan of horror has almost certainly seen the original 1978 classic Halloween directed by John Carpenter. This film provided a form of polarity to the holiday, with it now sharing both the youthful joy of children dressing up to earn sweet treats, as well as the haunting nightmare-inducing horrific tales that have the capacity to traumatize a young child.
In conclusion, take out those fresh turnip pies and be grateful this year that American capitalism, greedy corporations, and the Catholic Church are all responsible for all those smiles you see on young children’s faces. Halloween has been around for nearly two thousand years, and yet survives to this day as a widely celebrated and culturally varied holiday all across the globe. Just in how Christmas is synonymous with family and gift-giving, Halloween is adjacent to jumping out from behind a corner in order to scare your sibling and steal all their candy.
Halloween Traditions
When thinking of Halloween, what comes to mind? It might be the great costumes, or maybe it’s the tradition of trick or treating. Is it the decorations you create with friends and family? Or is it the scary things you heard about when you were a child? A lot of the common Halloween traditions we love and enjoy date back far in history.
Trick or treating is a fun way for everyone of all ages to go out to get some sweet treats; it has been a tradition in America as well as other countries for over a century. In the ninth century, England had taken inspiration from the Celtic celebrations. Poor people would visit the houses of the wealthy and receive a pastry called a soul cake. In return, they would promise to pray for the dead relatives of that household. Later, children took on the tradition and went door to door asking for food, money, or ale. In Scotland and Ireland, children would dress up and perform a song, poem, or tell a joke as a “trick” and in return, get a treat. By the early 20th century, Scotland and Ireland communities brought the ancient traditions to the United States. Trick or treating took its place among other Halloween rituals and evolved into the Halloween we know and love today.
Another traditional Halloween symbol is the black cat. Today, we often associate black cats with bad luck, but in the early civilization of ancient Egypt, the felines were viewed as divine symbols. Later, they were also connected to the witches and witchcraft in medieval Europe and it was believed that the devil and witches could take on the form of a black cat. During the middle ages, the cats were blamed for spreading the plague. The plan of getting rid of these felines only further made the plague worse. It was believed that if you were passed by a black cat, a witch was after you. Many took this omen very seriously and the notion that black cats cause bad luck is still believed today in parts of the world.
Costumes are a great way to be something different for a night and to have fun with friends while enjoying the Halloween spirit. Halloween costumes have grown and changed depending on the current trends of the time period and are the main costume holiday in the United States. In the early 20th century, people dressed up for many different holidays around the year. During this time, Halloween costumes were based on spooky themes and were meant to mask your identity. In addition to costumes, mischief has become a part of Halloween traditions. Children and teens would play tricks such as throwing flour, stealing fences, and even stealing dead bodies! After 1933, it got out of hand when teenage boys started to flip cars, saw telephone poles, and would execute other acts of vandalism. Adults in the neighborhood got concerned and organized parties and trick-or-treating events to try and prevent this. Around the 1950s, the nation started to buy costumes and dressed up as things we see today such as princesses and clowns. In the 1970s, adults started to wear masks depicting presidents. Over time, the costumes evolved and changed to things in pop culture and trends of that year.
Halloween is such a pleasant time for family and friends to bond over delicious treats and other activities. The holiday we know today is derived from a ton of different traditions from all over the world. This year, view Halloween not as a cheap milking of cultural traditions by greedy business executives, but rather as a celebration of what once was and the opportunity to simply enjoy some candy and fear-inducing tales with your friends and family. Happy Halloween!
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