A Brief History Of Halloween

While today the holiday is revered by children as a day to dress up in a costume and to go door-to-door and get free candy, the actual holiday has religious significance to many individuals, and the practices of the holiday have evolved over time.

History Of Halloween And Its Pagan Roots

Halloween was first practiced by the Celtics as Samhain and is therefore a Gaelic festival that involves the celebration of the harvest.  This holiday was directly opposite the pagan holiday Beltane: a celebration marking the arrival of Spring, and was commonly celebrated on October 31st.  The ancient Celtics divided the year into two parts: the season of light and the season of dark.  Samhain was a time that marked part of the dark season, the coming of winter, and it was therefore a celebration associated with mystery and death.

In the late nineteenth century, Samhain became identified as the Celtic New Year and today many pagans consider Samhain a day marking the New Year and a time for celebration.  Samhain is a holiday that marks the ending of the season of light and the coming of darkness; the days will become increasingly shorter and the night is longer, until the longest night occurs on Yule in December.  The day was celebrated with the lighting of bonfires, ritual cleansings, of readying for the winter, and of taking stock of grain and herd supplies.  Any animals that were slaughtered during that time had their bones cast into the great bonfires.  In Gaelic traditions, some individuals wore costumes as a way of appeasing evil spirits or as a method of confusing the spirits so that they could not be discovered by spirits with mal-intent.  Turnips were carved out and turned into lanterns; this is where the modern day jack-o-lantern carving practices are derived.  The light that came forth from the carved turnips was supposed to frighten off evil spirits and to keep them at bay.  For more information visit http://www.holidayinsights.com/halloween/facts.htm.

History Of Halloween And Its Christian Roots

When Christianity began to become a dominant world religion, many pagan holidays were intentionally transmogrified into Christian celebrations.  The act of making pagan holidays Christian allowed for the easier conversion of those that practiced pagan practices or that adhered to pagan religions.  In Christian traditions, Halloween stems back to All Saints’ Day and is a transmogrification of Samhain.  The holiday was at one time called “All Hallows Eve” or “All Hallow E’en.”  Later, the name became known as “Halloween.”  This day would fall a day prior to “All Saints' Day on November 1st.  In Christian traditions, the “Hallow” in “Halloween” comes to represented “saints” that are honored or revered as holy.  The day, as an ancient Christian practice involved a feast celebrating all saints and martyrs; the celebration commonly occurred on November 1st and was first celebrated by Christians during the eight century.  Pope Gregory IV made the day an official Christian holiday for Catholics in the year 837 BCE.  Two centuries later, the holiday was known as “All Souls’ Day.”

All Souls’ Day was celebrated during the second day in the month of November.  In Christian practices it is a day that is used to offer prayers for the deceased; these prayers were believed to not only comfort those that had passed on, but the prayers offered up by the living were believed to help the deceased transcend the confines of Purgatory.  Observances of All Souls’ Day actually began on the first day of November and carried on into the second day of the month.  When Protestantism become popular in England, the ringing of church bells on All Soul’s Day was banned and the holiday was not practiced in the Church.  Nevertheless, well into the sixteenth century people continued to offer prayers for the deceased, sometimes holding to the traditions in open fields at night: fields alit by bonfires and torches. 

Christians adhering to All Souls’ Day practices commonly used soul cakes; these cakes were giving to those individuals that were poor so that the poor would, in turn, offer up prayers for the deceased.  This tradition also stems back to ancient pagan practices were foods would be left out to the deceased to either satiate “hungry ghosts” or to appease and/or honor the deceased that would return on Samhain when the veil was thinnest to visit their living relatives.  In addition, poor people would practice the tradition of “souling” where they would go door-to-door in wealthy neighborhoods in order to get soul cakes, alms, and fruit.  This is where the modern day practice of going around neighborhoods to get candies actually began.  For more information visit http://www.infoplease.com/spot/halloween1.html#ixzz1Li4ssTTA.

Traditions And The History Of Halloween

Halloween became widely practiced in the United States during the nineteen and twentieth centuries.  Traditions included the carving of pumpkins into Jack-o’-lanterns, going door-to-door guising or trick-or-treating in costume, and many superstitions about the holiday continue to prevail. In some instances people also carved out Rutabagas and potatoes instead of turnips.  Later, after many Irish people immigrated to the states ,they soon found that pumpkins were far easier in terms of carving.  Coming in a close second to Christmas in terms of recognition and spending, Halloween is a major commercial holiday in the United States today.  People spend well-over 2.5 billion dollars every year on candy, costumes, and decorations for the holiday annually.

Other cultures celebrate similar holidays around the world.  Cultures embracing the concept of “death” as a new beginning and a form of rebirth have holidays similar to Samhain and Halloween.  The Mexicans commonly celebrate “Dia De Los Muertos,” otherwise known as “The Day of the Dead,” for example.   While in pagan traditions, casting bones into the bonfire might be sited for the popularity of skeleton motifs on this holiday, this holiday has long been associated with death, the deceased, the bones of the dead, and spirits.  For more information visit http://www.thedomesticpagan.com/2010/10/traditions-symbols-and-superstitions-of.html.