Halloween is an annual celebration in many countries. People usually celebrate Halloween by dressing in costume, and by carving a pumpkin. Most children enjoy going to their neighbor’s house to collect all flavors of sweet and sour candies, while mischievous children sneak out to smash pumpkins. Only a complete snob would avoid such simple fun. How did this custom originate? Fortunately, the riddle of Halloween is easy to solve, for its history is known to span thousands of years.
The word itself, “Halloween,” actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contraction of All Hallows Eve. “All Hollows Day”, is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints happening on November 1. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, autumn officially ended on the solar equinox, around October 31. The holiday was called Samhain, the Celtic New Year.
Samhain, like the Halloween of today, was not a sober occasion. The Celts believed that on this day, lost and solitary souls of the dead in sore need of a living body to possess could come back to Earth. On this day alone, they could soar into the world of the living and snatch living bodies to possess.
Naturally, the living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, a villager would extinguish even the most little spark of fire in his house, making it a cold and undesirable pace. They would then dress up in some sort of ghoulish costumes and noisily parade around the neighborhood, creating as mush sound as possible in order to frighten away spirits. The practices also changed over time to become more sophisticated and more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession wanted, and a Catholic influence began to soak into the Celtic people, the name of the holiday changed, and the practice of dress up like, ghosts, and witches took on a more social role.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840’s by Irish immigrants fleeing their country due to a potato famine affecting their native soil. A ninth-century European custom called souling was to sow the custom of trick-or-treating into the other Halloween traditions. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for spare bits of hard cookies called “soul cakes”. Getting many soul cakes was a way to bring about a smooth afterlife. So, although Halloween is a modern tradition, it has solid roots in ancient traditions.
The word itself, “Halloween,” actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contraction of All Hallows Eve. “All Hollows Day”, is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints happening on November 1. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, autumn officially ended on the solar equinox, around October 31. The holiday was called Samhain, the Celtic New Year.
Samhain, like the Halloween of today, was not a sober occasion. The Celts believed that on this day, lost and solitary souls of the dead in sore need of a living body to possess could come back to Earth. On this day alone, they could soar into the world of the living and snatch living bodies to possess.
Naturally, the living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, a villager would extinguish even the most little spark of fire in his house, making it a cold and undesirable pace. They would then dress up in some sort of ghoulish costumes and noisily parade around the neighborhood, creating as mush sound as possible in order to frighten away spirits. The practices also changed over time to become more sophisticated and more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession wanted, and a Catholic influence began to soak into the Celtic people, the name of the holiday changed, and the practice of dress up like, ghosts, and witches took on a more social role.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840’s by Irish immigrants fleeing their country due to a potato famine affecting their native soil. A ninth-century European custom called souling was to sow the custom of trick-or-treating into the other Halloween traditions. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for spare bits of hard cookies called “soul cakes”. Getting many soul cakes was a way to bring about a smooth afterlife. So, although Halloween is a modern tradition, it has solid roots in ancient traditions.