What is the history of halloween?

By HotBotUpdated: August 22, 2024

Origins of Halloween: Samhain

Halloween's roots trace back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated over 2,000 years ago in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France. The Celts, who lived during the Iron Age, marked November 1st as their New Year. They celebrated Samhain on the night of October 31st, which was believed to be a time when the boundary between the living and the dead became blurred. On this night, it was thought that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

Roman Influence

By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. During the course of their 400-year rule, two Roman festivals were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which may explain the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

Christian Adaptation: All Saints' Day

With the spread of Christianity, the Church sought to replace pagan festivals with Christian holidays. In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1st as All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day), and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

Halloween in Colonial America

The celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing.

Evolution in the 19th Century

By the middle of the 19th century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country. In the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing the Irish Potato Famine, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. By combining their Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition.

Modern Halloween Traditions

As Halloween evolved in the 20th century, it became more centered on community and child-friendly activities. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parades and town-wide Halloween parties were common ways to celebrate the holiday. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second-largest commercial holiday after Christmas.

Costumes and Trick-or-Treating

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low, and, for many people, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Jack-o'-Lanterns

The tradition of carving jack-o'-lanterns originated from an Irish myth about a man named "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Eventually, Jack freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. Soon after, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

When Jack died, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the tricks Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way.

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