Origin of Halloween

How, Where and Why Did Halloween Begin?

The yearly holiday of Halloween is one of the most anticipated holidays of the year for children worldwide; however, this candy filled holiday was not always the holiday it is today. It was not always that children dressed like demons and posed the well known question “trick or treat”, it was not always that houses displayed decorations and families came together to walk through neighborhoods. The holiday we know as Halloween today did not begin with any of the commonly known traditions of today’s celebrations, in fact the holiday had much more peculiar and mixed beginnings.

The Origin of Halloween

The actual origin of Halloween has been argued by various historians with some who believe that Halloween found its roots in the Roman Pomona feasts that celebrated the Roman goddess of fruit and seeds and some believe that Halloween found its roots in Parentalia, the festival of the dead. While these two festivals seem to give something to the story of Halloween; however, it is the belief of the majority that the holiday of Halloween actually derives from Samhain, the Celtic festival which celebrates the end of the summer and the beginning of the darker days of the year. The superstitious Celts believed that during the latter half of the year as the days became darker much more quickly that the boundary between the other world and ours became so thin that spirits were able to move through to our world and cause havoc.

The Celtic Festival of Samhain

During the Celtic festival of Samhain people would dress in costume in an attempt to scare away the evil spirits. During this time when spirits were believed to pass between worlds families would invite their ancestors in to their homes but do everything they could to ward off the more harmful spirits including wearing the costumes mentioned above as well as masks.

Also utilized to scare away the harmful spirits of Samhain were large turnips, which were carved much like today’s Halloween pumpkins. These jack-o-lantern turnips would be placed in the windows of homes in an attempt to frighten away any evil spirits. It was the belief of the Celts that if they or their turnips resembled scary spirits then the spirits that crossed from the other world would avoid them and their homes in the belief that they had already been tagged by a spirit.

When is Halloween Celebrated?

The actual celebration of Halloween occurs every year on October 31st, also referred to as All Hallows Eve. In many religious sects the day following all hallows eve, All Saints Day, is a day dedicated to the celebration of all of the saints both known and unknown. A few days following All Saints Day comes All Soul’s Day, a day dedicated to all the souls of those who believed who have now departed.

Where Does the Name Halloween Come From?

All Hallows Eve is actually the base of the origin of the name “Halloween” after the more commonly used phrase “All Hallows Eve” became “All Hallows Even” and then later it was shortened to Halloween in the 16th century. Throughout the years this holiday known as Halloween came to be something of a melting pot of ideas contributed by various cultures and belief systems. Europeans came together and meshed Celtic ideas, Catholic ideas and the Roman religious rituals in to one day of celebration that fell around the time that the Celtic tradition of Samhain fell, the turning of the seasons when the world became a darker place by virtue of the sun’s position in the sky. Combining the Celtic idea of Samhain, the Catholic beliefs of All Saints Eve and All Souls Day, and the traditional Roman celebration of Parentalia created the holiday we now know as Halloween.

Cultural Halloween Traditions

While these days the celebration of Halloween has become much more commercialized many of the traditions that remain today hail from older cultural traditions. While commonly today individuals do not necessarily understand the reason for certain Halloween traditions, their roots almost always return to the mesh of cultural traditions that were celebrated centuries ago by a wide variety of cultural groups.

Wearing Costumes and Masks

One such example of this is the wearing of costumes and scary masks during the night of Halloween. While many, particularly children, believe that the wearing of costumes is done in order to get candy and the “best” costume is the one that yields the most candy, very few actually understand the roots of wearing a costume on Halloween. Wearing costumes hailed from the Celtic tradition of Samhain and was done to scare away evil spirits that were thought to be able to pass through to our world during a time when the boundary between their world and ours became thinner due to the changing times of sun fall.

Carving of Jack-O-Lanterns

Among other Halloween traditions that hailed from older cultural traditions are the carving of jack-o-lanterns as mentioned above. Although the Celts used turnips to carve their jack-o-lanterns to scare away spirits because turnips were more readily available, traditionally more modern societies utilize pumpkins due to their availability at the time of the year as well as the fact that they create much larger carving surfaces. Part of the Jack-o-Lantern tradition arises from the fact that during this time of the year harvests are generally brought in and stockpiled to prevent damage from frost and provide food through the winter time. It is likely that since harvests were being brought in around the time of Halloween that the Celts spotted the opportunity to utilize some of their harvest to scare away the spirits that they were so superstitiously afraid of.

Monsters, Ghosts, and Demons - Oh My!

One of the biggest factors of Halloween that many people often question is the concept of monsters, ghosts and demons. While these factors generally have their roots in the theory of the Celts that evil spirits would cross in to the world during the latter half of the year, much of the imagery connected with Halloween these days comes from popular monster movies, books and artists. Where evil spirits used to be connected with spirituality for the Celts the idea of monsters and ghosts became much more appealing to the societies of today that vary widely in their religious beliefs and cultural traditions. Over the years the idea of Halloween began to focus not on the religious aspect of lost souls and evil spirits but more on the media portrayal of evil spirits, ghosts and monsters. The tradition of scaring away the evil spirits became a tradition of dressing up like the most evil spirit and rather than trying to scare away spirits, today’s trick or treaters are more often than not trying to scare each other.

Where Did Trick or Treating Originate?

So what about trick or treating? As one of the biggest focal points of the Halloween holiday in today’s society where exactly did the idea of trick or treating come from? Well trick or treating actually dates all the way back to the middle ages. During the middle ages in Ireland and England before All Souls Day poor people would seek money by knocking on the door of the rich and offering prayers for the dead on All Souls Day in return for money or food.

It was the combination of this tradition and the Celtic tradition of dressing to ward off evil spirits that resulted in trick or treating. Over the years trick or treating went from being a way to provide sustenance to a family who could not afford food to being a way for children to obtain candy in return for their efforts at dressing in fearful Halloween costumes. It is believed that trick or treating of this sort made its appearance in the 1930’s.

The Evolution of Trick or Treating

While the tradition of begging for money or food changed over the years so too did the tradition of wearing ghostly costumes. While the concept of wearing costumes on Halloween began as a way to scare away evil spirits, in modern day society it has become a mish mash of a variety of ideas. For many Halloween costumes have become focused on the elaborate as these individuals believe that the more effort put in to their costume the more candy they will receive. For others, Halloween costumes are all about the gore as it is the only time of year when something so gory would be socially accepted and may even garner extra reward from those passing out candy. The most recent trend in Halloween costumes; however, is that of the sexy and skimpy Halloween costumes which seem geared more toward pushing the limits of social acceptance rather than the actual concept of Halloween. In the tradition of becoming a nation focused on sex and revealing as much as possible of the human body while pushing all the limits, many of today’s Halloween costumes completely abandon the idea of scaring away anything and instead focus on the sex factor.

Traditional Halloween Games

While the trick or treating and the costumes aspects of Halloween have certainly changed over the year’s one thing that has not changed all that much is the variety of games played on Halloween at Halloween parties. Games such as bobbing for apples, which began with the first blooms of Halloween in the 1930’s, are still around today and are often played not only at Halloween parties but also at birthday parties and family gatherings as well. Also in the tradition of Halloween groups of party goers would traditionally come together to take part in some sort of divining game. Whereas in the 1930’s these games would generally involve gazing in to a mirror in a darkened room to visualize a future spouse, these days games have taken a slightly more serious turn with the appearance of the Ouija board and attempts to séance with the dead.

The Commercialization of Halloween

All of these games are not only intended to create a fun activity to keep party goers busy – as with bobbing for apples, but also to bring a hint of the spiritual in to the party and hopefully scare guests…after all the point of Halloween has always centered around being scared, no matter what the tradition or cultural belief.

As the holiday of Halloween unraveled from a tightly wound religious tradition done in the spirit of maintaining a happy and healthy life as well as a good relationship with the spirit world things certainly began to change. Halloween, over the decades became a holiday centered around greed for candy and expensive costumes and very few individuals actually remember what the holiday of Halloween is truly about or how it began. While Halloween certainly began as something of a melting pot of ideas based around a variety of beliefs all of these ideas seem to have somehow been lost in translation as we became a society based around greed and possessions rather than a society that focuses on religion and cultural beliefs.

Halloween is Good for the Economy

Still, while the tradition and understanding of Halloween may have dissipated over time the spirit and energy going in to the holiday certainly have not. From the variety of costumes to the elaborate nature of Halloween attractions there are very few people who do not put forth an effort to celebrate this holiday in some way or another. With haunted Halloween houses that bring in around $400 million dollars each year in America alone it can’t be said that there is no belief in Halloween anymore. While today’s believers in the holiday may believe in something entirely different, perhaps it isn’t such a bad thing?

Halloween is Fun and Brings People Together

For a holiday that can generate so many squeals of delight as well as so much revenue and so many jobs throughout the holiday season, Halloween can’t possibly be condemned. It may be that the beliefs of today are different from those of yesteryear and it may be that the traditions of today are slightly different from those of yesteryear but when it all comes down to it, the people of today are quite different as well. The times are changing and with them so too are the people that live in this world and the core belief systems which they cling to. Halloween may not be the spirit scaring holiday that it used to be but it is certainly a holiday that brings together families all over neighborhoods for a little bit of fun and yes, perhaps even a scare or two!