Halloween happens to be my favorite holiday. Fall, the colors of the changing trees, the smell of Autumn in the air, the little nip of chill in my skin, fall just makes it so magical. Halloween is the holiday with the least expectation. You dress up, you trick-or-treat, you hand out candy, you have fun. It is a fun holiday, however; so many resent Halloween, and why? There is a lot of folklore associated with Halloween. Most of it follows on the lines of witchcraft, however; times were different way back in the early days, and what seems odd to us, was actually very normal for them. Here is some history behind my favorite holiday.
Halloween actually originated with the Celts approximately 2000 years ago in the are we now know as Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Northern France. The Celts celebrated New Years on November 1st. Making October 31 their New Years Eve. They celebrated October 31, as the end of harvest season and the start of winter. It was also associated with human death. As long winters would bring on many deaths due to climate and lack of food, the Celts took this day October 31 to celebrate and give honor to those who had deceased in the past year. They felt that the night of October 31, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On October 31, the Celts celebrated Samhain, believing that the ghosts of the dead returned to walk the earth, to cause damage to crops and just cause trouble. On this night the Celt would build a huge sacred bonfires, and burn crops and animals to please the Celtic deities. They then would dress in animal skins and try to predict each others future. When the celebration was over, they would re-light their hearth fires with fire from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
The Romans conquered most of the Celtic territory by A.D. 43, and during the course of their rein the Romans they combined two of their Roman festivals with the Celtic celebration of Samhain. One holiday was called Feralia, the second day was called Pomona. Pomona's symbol is an apple, once this festivity was included in the Celtic celebration of Samhain, it is how bobbing for apples started. Later in the 800's Christianity began it's way through the Celtic lands, and so Pope Boniface IV, designation November 1 All Saint's Day, also called All-hallows, or All-hallowmans, a time to honor saints and martyrs. They tried to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a church-sanctioned holiday, however, it didn't take and so the Celtic holiday survived. And thus the Samhain began the name All-Hallows Eve, and eventually Halloween in 1000 A.D. Also during that year November 2 was named all Souls day. So recap, October 31, Celtic Samhain holiday became Halloween, November 1, Roman Feralia holiday became All Saint's Day, and November 2, Roman holiday Pomona became All Soul's Day.
Halloween customs came to America much as most things came to America, through immigration. Though it was more common in Maryland and Southern Colonies the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as American Indians meshed and so started our American version of Halloween. Public events were held to celebrate the harvest, and neighbors would get together to share stories of the dead, and try to tell each others fortunes, sing, and dance. During the second half of the nineteenth century an influx of new immigrants were flooding America, and most of the immigrants were of Irish decent, escaping Ireland's potato famine of 1846. Taking the Irish traditions and mixing with America's traditions, people began dressing up and going door to door where they would receive "soul-cakes" in return for prayers for the persons dead relative. People also asked for food or money during their tricks-or-treats.
Young women believed that on Halloween they would find their future husband by doing "tricks" with items such as yarn, apple parings, or mirrors. In those days, it was important to find a husband and be married, so they though by throwing apple peels over their should it would spell out the name of their husband, or by going into a dark room, looking in a mirror with a candle, their husbands face would appear behind them.
By the late 1800's Halloween evolved into a more community and neighborly get together, where whole towns would come out join in an celebrate the end of the harvest season. At the turn of the century, Halloween became more for children than adults. Newspapers asked adults to take any scary or grotesque things out of Halloween celebrations. By the 20's and 30's Halloween became secular, and community centered, by the 50's vandal's had ruined many communities and so it became a celebration for just children. Due to a high number of births in the 50's celebrations moved to civic centers, the classroom, or home where they could be easily accommodated. Trick-or-Treating became an inexpensive way for a community to celebrate Halloween together even though the community was growing much larger. So now it has turned into a $6.9 Billion dollar holiday. And what do you think most of that money is spent on, Tricks-or-Treats?
The tradition of wearing costumes goes all the way back to the Celtics, since they believed the souls of the dead walked the earth on those nights, you didn't want the ghosts to recognize you were living, so they wore masks and left bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from entering. They also carved turnips into faces to scare any ghosts away. So that is why today, we dress up, Trick-or-treat, and carve pumpkins to celebrate Halloween..
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