The History of Halloween

While many think that Halloween is a uniquely American holiday, the truth is that the celebration of this day reaches further back into the mists of history and begins further away than the shores of this young nation of ours.

The day has been celebrated in many fashions down through the ages. The Celts, ancient inhabitants of Britain (or as it would have been known back then, Albion), celebrated the date of October 31st as the final day of Samhain or as we know it, Summer. The Catholic religion has designated November 1st as All Saints Day, and the day before was known as All Hallows eve, or Halloween.

The Celts believed that on October 31st the dead would rise from the earth and that their restless spirits would wander the earth, playing tricks on the living. Some believed that the more malevolent spirits were capable of kidnapping and murdering the innocent, or worse, that they were able to drag the unsuspecting into the very bowels of Hell itself.

So, in order to protect themselves from the attentions of these wandering evil spirits, the ancients believed that if they took on the appearance of the dead then the truly dead would mistake them for one of their own and leave them be.

As the years passed and civilizations merged into one another, other beliefs and superstitions became absorbed into the Halloween mythos. As Rome expanded across the Europe, conquering the lands of the Druids, their game of bobbing for apples, a celebration of the Roman’s God of the harvest, became incorporated into the festivities of that day. 

Irish folklore would be responsible for the incorporation of witches into the superstition, as they would be for the ubiquitous Jack-O-Lantern, until, with the addition of  Trick-or-Treating, you arrive at the modern day version that we all know and love.

But the simple act of Trick-or-Treating has its own interesting history, too. Derived from a form of begging in which the poor would go from door to door asking for what was known as Soul Cakes, these cakes would be used to protect the lowly beggar from the evil influences that would seek to capture their souls. Quite how it became associated with Halloween is lost to time, but the tradition of walking from house to house and asking for candy has become the one part of this pagan holiday that every kid enjoys.

The true origin of the holiday is itself long forgotten and when you consider the fact that many of the ancient religions were quite fond of offering human sacrifice to their particular god, it may be for the best.

Regardless of its true origin and past practices, Halloween celebrates kid in each of us.