History of Halloween

By Abby Traxler 

Ever wondered how the creatures of the night came to be or why, as rumor has it, they come out especially for one night in the year, October 31st. What does it really mean to go trick-or-treat? Why is one night filled with so much mystic and how did Halloween become an American tradition. Read and find out or are you too scared. Origins

Originally Halloween was a Celtic festival known as Samhain. Samhain was a celebration of the Celt’s new year which began on November 1st. This time signified the change from summer and the harvest to winter and it’s cold harsh ways. The night between was believed to be special. The Celts believed on this night the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnest and the ghosts of the dead returned to the Earth. The spirits were said to cause trouble and damage crops, however there presence made Celtic priests, also known as Druids, make predictions of the future easier. With winter as cruel as it was these predictions provided hope to the Celtic people for winter to end. Because of these fortune telling adventures the celebration and festival on Samhain happened. Druids would set up enormous sacred bonfires and people would preform sacrifices and dress up. Then, after the celebration draw to an end people would relight their own smaller fires using flames of the sacred one and hope for protection. However the by 43 A.D. the Roman Empire controlled majority of Celtic territory, and would eventually merge Samhain with two Roman festivals: Feralia and Pomona. Feralia is a day towards the end of October meant to honor the passing of the dead. Pomona is Roman goddess in control of some of nature’s aspects such as trees and fruit. Her symbol, an apple, incorporation into Samhain most likely created the modern tradition of bobbing for apples. Eventually Christianity joined the band wagon because in 609 A.D. on May 13 Pope Bonivace IV dedicated the Roman Pantheon to honor Christian martyrs, and a similar celebration was created for Catholics called All Martyrs Day. Later the holiday was moved to November 1st and included all saints as well as martyrs by Pope Gregory III. Christianity spread its influence through the Celtic lands, and by the 9th century began blending with older Celtic rites. The Church is believed to have tried to replace the Celtic holiday with its own in 1000 A.D. known as All Soul’s Day on November 1st. The two celebrations have many clear parallels such as how they are celebrated with the huge bonfires and costumes. All Soul’s Day later became referred to as Allhallows and the night before, traditionally known as Samhain, became All Hallows Eve before eventually becoming modern day’s Halloween. Hello America

Halloween came to America while it was still just the colonies. However, due to Protestant beliefs Halloween was mainly celebrated by the South and Maryland. These first American celebrations combined many old and new world customs. Public celebrations, called play parties, involved celebrating the harvest and tell stories of the dead, practice fortune telling, sing and dance. These events feature telling ghost stories and causing mischief. While Halloween has yet to gain popularity it was common by the mid 1800’s to hold annual autumn festivals. With greater immigration, especially from the Irish due to the Irish Potato Famine, helped popularize Halloween as a national celebration. Taking ideas off the Irish and English, Americans began dressing up in costume and asked for treats or money. This later becomes modern day’s trick-or-treat. Eventually in the late 1800’s the media began to portray Halloween as more of a community event and stripping away the stigma about ghosts, witches, and especially tricks. By the 1900’s Halloween no longer holding many superstitious and religious overtones. Despite the valiant efforts of schools and communities in 1920’s and 1930’s to make Halloween a community centered holiday, vandalism began to plague some celebrations. By the 50’s they were able to rectify that, and shift the focus towards children. This was due to the emergence of modern day’s trick-or-treat. If you give the neighborhood kids candy, then no pranks are played on you.

Combined with other legends and lore gathered throughout the years Halloween became the holiday mass majority celebrate today.

Information was taken from History.com and fact checked by various other sources.