The True History Behind Halloween

Halloween is a global favorite holiday for children and adults alike, and why shouldn’t it be? It’s perhaps the only time of the year where one can dress up as someone they’re not and adorn their house in all black décor and spiders and skeletons. Children love it because they have the opportunity to collect all the candy that’s humanly possible and as an added bonus—get a free pass to eat most of it. But where did the tradition of celebrating Halloween come from? Most people know that the holiday has some deep pagan roots, but what are the specifics? In this article, we’ll divulge into the spooky history of Halloween.

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Origin

About three thousand years ago, the Gaelic culture of Scotland and Ireland began celebrating a festival that lasted only one who twenty-four hour period--from October 31 to November 1. The festival was called Samhain, and it marked the beginning of the winter as well as the end of the harvesting season. It was a time of great celebration, and the Gaelic people demonstrated this by having enormous bonfires that were blessed and had protective spells spoken over them. This was to ensure that they would be able to last through the “dark period” of the year with an adequate amount of food, shelter, water, and warmth. Most of the livestock that had roamed the pastures all summer long were taken to the slaughterhouse, and the meat and warm fur hides was then dispersed to families evenly to store away so as to last for the entirety of the winter.

On October 31, feasts were put on by those who could afford it, and a part of the Samhain celebration was that the needier families would get dressed up in costumes and go door to door where they would recite verses from either the bible or famed literature at the time in exchange for food to go. The purpose of people dressing up in costumes was a type of protective superstition. The purpose of dressing up in a costume was to scare off the spirits that were surely conjuring in celebration of All Saints Day on the following day, November 1. While the spirits that were being celebrated on All Saints Day were those of loved ones and friends, many believed that souls of killers or other types of criminals would also undoubtedly sneak their way up into the atmosphere to join the celebration.

How did Samhain Metamorphose into the Type of Halloween that we Celebrate Today?

Samhain is actually still celebrated within types of Neopagan religions such as Wiccan and Celtic Reconstructionist Pagans. However, with regard to how Halloween became so widely celebrated in other cultures besides simply the Gaelic and eventually evolved into children going door to door for candy happened almost overnight. As soon as the Europeans came to North America, they, too, began celebrating Samhain, but the fervently religious Protestants who colonized the area at the time made it pretty difficult to engage in the festivities. However, the more Irish immigrants began to add to the population of the first thirteen colonies, the more Samhain was celebrated. They eventually changed the name to Halloween to sound more like All Hallows Eve. Hallow meant “sacred”, and it wasn’t far from the truth as the next day was All Saint’s Day. Needless to say, the name Halloween served as a type of disguise from religious authorities at the time. Some of the traditions were changed and mostly children and teenagers began to indulge in the Halloween festivities. They enjoyed making their own costumes and going door to door for sweet breads and other goodies; sometimes, even money. Teenaged girls believed that October 31-November 1 was a time to be able to predict who their future husbands would be or what they would look like when they aged. Eventually, Halloween proved to be a fun time for all, and as religion separated from the law, it became more and more popular. The costumes became more elaborate, and sweet breads evolved into candy. Since it was a time of new beginnings, many people loved the idea of Halloween simply because it involved entire villages and gave others an opportunity to get to know someone else that they otherwise would not have met from down the lane and around the corner.

All in all, Halloween isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It took quite some time to get here, and in repeated surveys, it still stands as the most favorited holiday—not even second to Christmas. Halloween’s origins are as unique as the fun and spooky decorations to be found. It’s also wonderful that Samhain is still celebrated in some areas so we can always remember the community-centered and otherwise wholesome origins.