The History of Halloween

Welcome to the relaunch of the History in Context blog and to the spookiest night of the year.  A night when the spirits of the ancestors, ghosts, goblins, witches, and horrors abound.   The history of Halloween, or All Hallows Eve as it was once called, has enchanted, and frightened us for more than 2,000 years.

The history of Halloween has its roots in Celtic culture and dates to over 2000 years ago.  The Celts were a warrior tribal group which inhabited the areas of Ireland, Scotland, and Northern France.  Prior to the arrival of the Romans, much of what we know about the Celts comes from oral tradition. However, with the meeting of the two cultures, written records began to document Celtic traditions, religion, and festivals.  The Celtic festivals were traditionally tied to nature and the changing seasons, with many of their festivals coinciding with the equinoxes and solstices.  Many of their rituals are seen today in our modern holidays, with some examples being Yule during Christmas, Beltane on May Day and Samhain on Halloween.   

The festival of Samhain was a late Autumn festival traditionally held on November 1^st. The ritual marked the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter.  In Celtic culture, the movement from darkness to light marked the daily passage of time and is mirrored in the seasons, moving from Winter which marks the New Year through Spring, Summer, and Autumn.  In essence this ritual marked the Celtic New Year and with it brought celebrations that began the night prior on the Eve of Samhain (October 31^st).   

Like any good New Years celebration, the ritual was the most significant of the Celtic calendar.  The observance included the practical agrarian based rites of preparing livestock for the colder winter months, bringing in and securing the last harvest of the year, as well as preparing food for storage during the long cold winters.  They also settled all judicial issues and paid off debts.  They dealt with the very real issues of life, death and ultimately survival.  This concern over life, naturally led to the spiritual components of the celebration.  In considering one’s own mortality, the Celts believed the boundaries between the human, dead, and magical worlds thinned.   

To commemorate the dead intermingling with the living and the spirits of the recently departed moving into the otherworld, the Celts built large bonfires to both honor the dead and keep evil spirits away. Tradition holds that people often dressed in ugly masks and clothing made of animal skins, as well as laying out food and drink to ward off evil spirits.  Lastly, they would make loud noises to trick the spirits and drive them away from their homes.  In the early morning, they would have relit the previously extinguished hearth fires for the incoming Winter months. 

With the rise of Christianity, the Catholic church attempted to assimilate festivals into the Holy Year.  The goal was to combine Church Holy Days with pagan festivals.  Samhain became intertwined with the Christian calendar by moving the Feast of All Saint’s Day to November 1^st.  When the move did not discourage the pagan aspects of the celebrations, the Church added All Soul’s Day on November 2^nd, which honored the dead and encouraged those in Purgatory to transition on.  All Saint’s Day was known as All Hallows’ Day with the evening prior known as All Hallows’ Eve (Hallow meaning Holy), with people continuing the more pagan traditions, only now the Church combined them, with the concept of the Devil.  All Hallows’ Eve becomes Halloween.   

In later centuries, the English tradition of an All-Souls’ Day parade and the selling of soul cakes would morph into the American concept of trick or treating.  The poor would beg for food and families would provide pastries known as soul cakes in exchange for prayers for dead family members.   This gifting of cakes was again encouraged by the church to replace leaving food and drink for wandering spirits. Eventually this would evolve into children going form house to house being given food, drinks and in some cases money.  Today, especially int eh United States we hear the echoes of this ritual in the concept of Trick or Treating. 

The tradition of carving a pumpkin and creating Jack O’ Lanterns begins with an old Irish folktale of Stingy Jack.  Jack begins by extracting a promise from the Devil to never take him to Hell.  However, Jack leads a life that is less than stellar and ends up dying from alcoholism.  Due to his bargain he can’t go to Hell and Heaven doesn’t want him either.  After approaching the Devil again, Jack is gifted a coal from the fires of Hell.  Carving out a turnip, He carefully places the coal inside and uses it as a lantern to guide his path and he wanders in the otherworld searching for eternal rest. Jack is ultimately able to trick the Devil with bad bargains. His success would lead to our modern-day tradition of carving pumpkins and placing a candle inside to light the way of trick or treaters.   

Lastly, we find syncretism between Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day and Dia De Los Muertos in Latin America.  Dia De Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, is a direct result of Latin America’s Catholic beliefs being interwoven into personal rituals honoring the dead. The celebration lasts for approximately three days. During this celebration, families welcome back souls of deceased relatives for reunion, food, and drink.   The Gates of Heaven are said to open at midnight October 31^st for 24 hours for the spirits of deceased children.  Then from midnight on November 1^st until November 2^nd, the spirits of deceased adults are said to return.  This three-day festival is filled with symbols of the dead, including a similar offering to that of soul cakes, combined with vibrantly colored flowers, decorated skulls, and altars honoring loved ones.  Halloween has captured our imaginations, entranced, and illuminated our thoughts of dead ancestors and loved ones, all while ushering in the darkest and coldest part of the year.  I hope you enjoy that spookiest parts of this holiday while remembering to view history in context…