As we all know, Halloween will soon be upon us. It is a night when children binge on candy, people host costume parties, and carved pumpkins decorate porches. A fourth of all candy sold is for Halloween, and it is the third largest commercial holiday.
But where does all this come from? Why do children go door to door for candy? Why do people dress up? Why do we carve pumpkins and put candles in them? And why is it called Halloween?
The name has changed over thousands of years. It began in ancient Ireland as the Celtic celebration of the New Year, and it was called Samhain (sow-in), which means “summers end.”
When the church came to the British Isles, they couldn’t destroy the old celebrations, so they gave them Christian meaning and names. November first became All Saints Day, and November second was changed to All Souls Day. In old Irish, the word for saint is “hallowe” so the night before all saints day was called All Hallowe’s Evening. This went through several changes, Hallowe’even, Hallowe’en, to become our modern name Halloween.
The holiday has evolved along with its name. Originally it was the Celtic New Year. People extinguished their cooking fires and relit them from the giant sacred fires the Druids lit. It was also considered the turning point between the light half and dark half of the year, the beginning of the difficult winter and the end of the time of plenty.
When Romans invaded the British Isles, Samhain mixed with two Roman festivals. One was the day of observation for dead souls, and the other was the day to celebrate the goddess of fruit, whose sacred plant was the apple. When the church came, it changed the holidays to give them Christian significance. All Saints Day was a day to observe the minor saints and martyrs who didn’t have their own days, and All Souls Day was a day to pray for the salvation of dead souls.
Dressing up on Halloween also has its roots in the old Celtic holiday. People believed that the barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead blurred on this night, so dead souls could pass back and forth. They believed there were souls who would come back looking for bodies to possess for the next year, so the disguised themselves as spirits and animals in the hope that these evil souls would think they were fellow spirits or animals and leave them alone. When the church came, it changed dressing up as spirits or animals into dressing up as saints or martyrs.
The ancient Celts had tried to guide good spirits to their homes by placing cakes and wine on their doorsteps, and they hoped that these same offerings would persuade evil spirits to leave their homes undisturbed. The church changed this into the tradition of “souling,” on All Souls Day children and beggars would go door to door asking for “soul cakes,” small, sweet current buns. In exchange, they would pray for the salvation of the dead spirits of the household.
When ever anything misfortunate happened on this night, the ancient people blamed it on the evil. The church changed the spirits of the ancient Celts into demons, and people shifted the blame from spirits to devils. When children went door to door for sweets and cakes, they would trick a house that didn’t give them any, knowing that whatever they did would be blamed on demons. This is where the tradition of trick or treating came from, although the phrase “trick or treat” wasn’t used until the holiday came to America.
Another tradition that had its final change in America was the jack-o-lantern. Originally, when the Celts relit their fires, they would carry the ember in a carved turnip, and leave it in their widow to guide dead souls to the spirit world. The church created a story to explain the tradition of displaying a lit turnip. Once, there was a man named Jack, he was a terrible sinner, and the devil tried to get his soul many times. One such time, jack trapped the devil in an apple tree, and in exchange for letting the devil down, the devil promised to never take his soul. When Jack died, he could not go to heaven, but the devil wouldn’t let him into hell because of their promise. So, Jack was left in limbo, cursed to wander the world forever, the devil took pity on him and gave him an ember to carry in a turnip to light his way. Thus, people displayed “jack’s lanterns” in their windows to trick demons into leaving them alone.
When the Irish immigrated to America, there were fewer turnips, but pumpkins were everywhere, so people carved those instead, and the modern Jack-o-lantern was born. The Irish brought all these traditions with them to America, and they changed and evolved here too. At first, people would host giant harvest parties, celebrating the bountiful harvest and telling stories of the dead. As more Irish came, they popularized the tradition of dressing up, and children would go door to door for sweets, and play tricks on people who didn’t give them any, so the phrase “trick or treat” was created. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties became popular, and since they focused less on the fear and superstition of the holiday, it slowly disappeared.
In the 1920s and 1930s, communities would host autumn fairs and parades, but as vandalism increased around these celebrations, they began to loose their popularity. In the 50s, to control that vandalism, people started to encourage children to trick-or-treat, since it was a way to keep an eye on them and make sure they didn’t cause trouble. This trick or treating made Halloween the big commercial holiday it is today.
Now, children trick or treat and people host costume parties, few remember why this holiday exists, or what it originally was. We carve pumpkins and light candles in them, and few wonder why. The holiday seems to have lost it’s significance, but there is one tradition making a comeback, fortune telling. Just like the ancient Celts, and often calling on those same ancient spirits, we try to figure out what the future holds for us. With this rebirth, and with the thoughts of death and darkness that occupy us during this time of year, perhaps the boundary between our world and the next still blurs a little, and perhaps those ancient traditions are not as lost as we think.
