“On Halloween, you get to become anything that you want to be.” As the author of Love Letters to the Dead Ava Dellaira has said, every year we are given the chance to dress as whoever we want to be and express ourselves in such a creative way. Halloween is an event most of us celebrate every year, but do most of us know how Halloween started? Now you must be asking yourself, “Why should I know this? I literally do this for the free candy.”
To be honest, I would ask myself that too, but I believe that knowing the history of events we celebrate helps us appreciate and enjoy them more, and maybe it could even be a conversation starter with your Halloween date.
Its origin starts back to this ancient festival called the Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts lived 2,000 years ago in the area we now know as Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France. They celebrated their new year on November 1 and considered this the end of summer and the beginning of the dark, cold winter which they associated with human death. The Celts believed that the night before November 1 was when the border between the world of the living and the dead thinned. Hence, a celebration on the night of October 31 was created and was called Samhain, the night the Celts believed that the ghosts of the departed return to earth.
Do you believe in fortune-telling? Well, the Celts really did. They believed that the presence of these spirits made it easier for the Celtic priests to see the future. Who wouldn’t want to be comforted, during the somber winter by knowing what Fate had in store for them? These priests built sacred bonfires where people gathered to burn crops and animals as their sacrifice to the Celtic gods. They also wore costumes which were mostly animal heads and skins and even attempted to predict each other’s fortunes.
Years after, the Roman Empire took over most of the Celtic territory and during the 400 years they ruled the lands, two Roman festivals were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. These two festivals were Feralia, which was when the Romans honored the passing of the departed, and a day to honor Pomona, a Roman goddess of fruit trees. Pomona’s symbol was the apple and the combination of this celebration with Samhain is said to be the reason why the tradition of apple bobbing persists to this day.
Because of Protestantism, Halloween was limited in colonial New England, or the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut in America. However, as the beliefs of different European settlers and Native Americans combined, a uniquely American version of Halloween arose. Their celebrations included “play parties” that were public events to celebrate the harvest where people would share stories about the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance, and sing.
During the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with new immigrants as millions from Ireland fled their homeland due to the Irish Potato Famine. With the descendants of the Celts flocking to America, this helped popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. The Americans embraced the celebration of Halloween and latched on to the traditions of the Celts or Irish.
So, where exactly did the name “Halloween” come from? The word means “hallowed evening”, and was known as All Hallows’ Eve, the evening when people paid homage to saints. Since it seemed too long to others, the name was eventually shortened to “Halloween”.
Halloween is an interesting event, don’t you think? We’ve come a long way from burning crops and animals to planning parties and sharing horror stories with our friends and family. Can you imagine October without Halloween? Let’s thank the Celts for giving us something we could look forward to at the end of the year other than Christmas 一 but that’s a whole other discussion.
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