The Origins of Halloween
From Celtic Roots, Roman and Christian Influences, to Irish Refining
It’s getting to be that time of year. Decorations go up, pumpkins become jack-o-lanterns and mothers dig deeply in their closets for that perfect touch to the must-have costume, at least for this year. But where do the traditions celebrated on October 31st come from? Just how long have people been celebrating Halloween?
It turns out, a very long time! The first traces of the holiday come from the Celts who occupied Ireland, the United Kingdom and parts of northern France. Their new year was celebrated not on January first, but on the first of November, as it was this day that they recognized as the end of the harvest. The festival, Samhain, which took place the day of their new years eve, was celebrated by burning large bonfires in an effort to encourage the sun, dimming into winter, not to burn out.
Superstitions Surrounding Halloween Created by the Celts
As with later Halloween beliefs, the Celts were very superstitious regarding Samhain. Because the boundary between the living world and that of the dead were blurred, the Celts believed that ghosts of the dead returned to earth on that day. In an effort to keep the evil spirits from possessing their bodies, the Celts dressed up in costume, either as animals or as evil entities to trick the spirits. Paradoxically, they left the front doors of their homes open to invite ghosts of their relatives into the family home.
The Celts also held the belief that Druids, or priests, could make better predictions about the future on Samhain than any other day. It was a time for fortune-telling and predicting marriages.
Roman Influence on Halloween
Around A.D. 43, a time when the Romans had conquered most of the Celtic lands, Samhain was modified for the first time known to historians. The Romans meshed two of their autumn festivals into one and celebrated it on October 31st. Samhain was replaced by Feralia, the Roman day of the dead, and the festival celebrating Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. It has been suggested that because her symbol was the apple, the practice of bobbing for apples became associated with Halloween.
Christianity and the Catholic Church’s Influence on Halloween
By the 800s, Christianity had migrated into the traditional Celtic territories and in A.D. 7th century, Pope Boniface IV declared November 1st to be All Saints’ Day to honor Catholic saints and martyrs. November 1 became known as All-hallowmas and All-hallows, thus making October 31st All-hallows Eve, which in turn came to be known as Halloween. In A.D. 1000, the Catholic Church expanded the holiday by dubbing November 2nd All Souls’ Day – a day to honor all of the dead.
Halloween’s Roots in America
Initially in America, Puritan Protestants kept the celebrations of Halloween to a minimum and the holiday was not widely observed north of Maryland. In the southern colonies, “play parties” were more common in which participants told ghost stories, told fortunes and generally celebrated the harvest. By the mid-nineteenth century, autumn festivals were quite common, but Halloween was not observed as it is today.
Modern Halloween has the Irish immigrants, victims of the 1846 potato famine, to thank for its foundation. English and Irish traditions such as trick-or-treating accompanied the individuals to the American continent. During the late 1800s, Halloween lost most of its religious roots with a movement to remove the focus from occult activities and promote the day as a family-friendly, neighborhood celebration.
Today, Halloween is honored as the second largest commercial holiday in the United States. So when digging through your candy bucket this Halloween, remember who you have to thank for all that chocolate!
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