The Story Of Halloween

[ The Story of ] Halloween is second only to Christmas in popularity and is known to be one of the oldest holidays in North America.  It definitely has the most varied assemblage of reasons for “why” it is celebrated on October 31^st of each year. Those reasons run the gamut from its superstitious aspect, a connection to those who have passed, a time for fun and friends, for children to dress in costume and collect candy from neighbors….no matter your reason – it is contagious to all for their own special reasons. There are few who know the entire story of its origins and that is the main reason for this article.

It matters not what age you are…as the last night of October approaches…many of us prepare for a celebration of some sort. There will be innumerable kids on the streets in all stages of dress and costume…families and friends will gather as they now have an excuse to celebrate and visit. But, it must be stated, the night of October 31^st was not always the celebratory occasion that we know it to be today.

The story of Halloween begins over 2,000 years ago in one area that today comprises the United Kingdom, Ireland, and a section of France where a group of people known as Celts celebrated Samhain on November 1 – their New Year. This celebration also denoted the commencement of Winter with its cold and blackness coupled with the termination of Summer and its warmth and sunshine. The Winter season in their belief was related to death and, most importantly for us, the night before Samhain – the separations between the living and the dead became intermingled.

Crops were burned and animals were sacrificed to their Gods over huge bonfires that were built by their clergy – the Druids.                                          Animal skins and heads were utilized as costumes as their Priests forecast the futures of the individual Celts.  The Druid prophecies were looked upon as a source of solace in the coming desolate months of Winter.  At the end of the evening of celebration – the Celts lit their small torches, took them home, and used them to light their fires that would last through the entire Winter season. It was on the night of October 31^st that they believed the dead might return to damage the community food supply and create havoc.

After the Romans conquered the Celtic territories they combined two of their festivals with Samhain. One commemorated those that had passed away and the other was related to a celebration of fruits and trees. The focused fruit of this festival was the apple which explains the custom of ‘bobbing’ for apples to this day.

In the first millennium AD…the Pope of the day, Boniface IV decreed that November 1st would be known as All Saints Day in honor of all martyrs and saints. It is today understood that this designation was an attempt to replace the Celtic celebration with one that was sanctioned by the Church. It is not so well-known that the Mid-English translation of All Saints Day was All-Hallows or All-Hallowmas…starting to make some sense ? It became comfortable for the night before All Saints Day to be called All-Hallows Eve which soon became Halloween – as it remains to this day.

In the mid-1800s…utilizing Irish and English traditions…the story of Halloween began with Americans by creating and wearing costumes of their choice and going from door-to-door of their neighbors. This practice was then and is now known as ‘trick-or-treating’.  Within 50 years this night became one about tricks, ghosts, apparitions, and parties for all ages thus divesting itself of any remaining ties to its religious or supernatural foundations.

Moving toward the middle of the 20^th century – Halloween found itself in a revived mode due to the baby boom of the 40s and trick-or-treating realized a huge resurgence which helped create a brand new North American tradition. It is estimated that more than $7.4 Billion was spent in 2009 on this holiday -  ranking it second in importance of all holidays – only behind Christmas and the all-important….retail revenues.

Traditions play heavily when celebrating Halloween. Those that wear costumes are giving respect to its European and Celtic roots while our Native Americans believe in evil spirits and the descendants of African slaves adhere to the tradition of black magic.                                                                                        

The British wear nuts as charms to ward off the Devil who was believed to be a nut gatherer and the Welsh believed that if you sneezed on that day you blew your soul out of your body. We must not forget the belief that children born on this day can visualize and carry on conversations with a wide variety of supernatural beings.

Many countries celebrate a varied amount of Holidays near or at the same time as Halloween.  Several examples of these are – Great Britain has Guy Fawkes Day  and Mexico celebrates with The Day Of The Dead.

One cannot describe the story of Halloween without making reference to the importance of costumes to disguise one’s features. This originated with the ancient belief that by disguising a person’s normal appearance with masks, makeup, and varied types of clothing – evil and supernatural confrontations would be avoided. To this very day, costumes and Halloween are intertwined to the point that the celebration becomes stilted without the costume. There are many variations of the true story of Halloween….but, history confirms this edition as being the truest of all.

In closing it deserves to be noted that our celebration of Halloween has invented new traditions in costuming and donations of money. The costumes are showing a resurgence of traditional types known as vintage plus those of movie stars, pop art performers, athletes and politicians. It appears as if the door-to-door approach is becoming the venue of younger children who are accompanied by one parent, at minimum. The older youths tend to gravitate to house parties or costume parties where prizes reward them for their costuming efforts.

This is the story of Halloween as it has been written in many, many publications that are found online or in your local public library. I trust that I have done a credible job in assembling it for you and that it is easily understandable for everyone.

Thank You

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