Think Halloween and you probably think of trick-or-treating, jack-o’-lanterns, or which everyday concept you can make sexy. The contemporary image of Halloween, however, with its mass-made plastic masks and bulk boxes of candy has little to do with the ancient origins of the holiday.
Pre-Christian traditions
The traditions of Halloween initially date back to over 2,000 years ago, when the Celts would celebrate the end of summer and the harvest, and the beginning of winter. The festival was called Samhain, and was meant to mark the new year. The evening of Oct. 31 was believed to be when the souls of the dead returned to earth. These souls were thought to have made it easier for the Druids to tell the future — a very important aspect of Celtic culture.
Their traditions involved bonfires and animal sacrifices; they also wore costumes made of animal heads and skins, the origin of the Halloween costumes. To this day, black cats are a recurring Halloween theme. This is partly due to the superstition of black cats being bad luck, but Celtic druids were also said to throw cats into the bonfires as part of their rituals, which played a part in the presence of cats in Halloween imagery.
Growing Christian influence
At this time, the Roman Empire was quickly expanding, and by 43 A.D., most previously Celtic land had fallen to the Romans. As tends to be the case in history, the traditions of the two cultures integrated over time. The Romans had two festivals in October that soon assimilated with the Celts’ Samhain: Feralia — a day of the dead — and the celebration of Pomona, who was the Roman goddess of trees and fruit. The contemporary idea of bobbing for apples on Halloween emerged from the latter.
The Roman Empire collapsed in 479 A.D., and over the next several centuries, there was a growing Christian influence. In 609 A.D., the pope dedicated the Roman Pantheon to Christian martyrs; at the same time, the western church recognized the All Martyrs Day feast. By 1000 A.D., the Christian influence in Celtic areas was so strong that the latter’s traditions had more or less aligned with those of Christianity. The church established All Soul’s Day (also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas) on Nov. 2, and celebrated it in much the same way as the Celtic Samhain. The idea was to celebrate the passing of the dead, much in the same way that Samhain had, but in a church-sanctioned environment. The name comes from Alholowmesse — the Middle English word for All Saints’ Day, which developed into All-hallows Eve and eventually into the holiday we now know as Halloween.
Halloween comes to North America
Though the Celts and the Christians both essentially celebrated the same idea, All Saints’ Day put a negative twist on the souls and other supernatural beings that were believed to come out on the eve before the All Saints’ Day. As an appeasement to the evil spirits, the tradition of setting out food was established — does trick-or-treating ring a bell?
The Irish potato famine in 1846 helped to cause a flood of immigration into the United States, and with the influx of English and Irish immigrants came a raised awareness and acceptance of some of their traditions, such as Halloween. People began going door-to-door in costume, asking for food and money. The origins of this tradition had initially come from England and the All Souls’ Day parades that were often held for the occasion. The practice was called “going a-souling,” named after the pastries (called “soul cakes”)that those from lower classes would beg for. In exchange, they would promise to pray for the families’ dead relatives. Eventually, this tradition became specific to children, and developed into the trick-or-treating of our childhoods.
Modern day Halloween
At the turn of the 20th century, communities began to take a more family-friendly approach to Halloween celebrations, and many of the religious superstitions that had initially surrounded the holiday were deemed too gruesome for such an occasion. It was around this time that Halloween started developing into a more secular holiday. By the 1920s, Halloween had become almost entirely secular — much like the holiday today.
