But how did this spooky holiday come to
be? To answer that, we
have to travel back 2,000 years when the Celts ruled over what is
now Ireland, the UK and Northern France.
The Celts
celebrated New Years on November 1st, and believed that on the night before the
new year (called Samhain), the boundary between the worlds of the
living and the dead became blurred, and the ghosts of the dead
returned to earth. It
was believed that these ghosts often caused mischief, or damaged
crops, but also made it easier for Druids (Celtic spiritual
leaders) to see the future. To protect themselves from these dead
spirits families would crave lanterns out of turnips as these
'head' vegetables were believed to have to power to ward off the
trouble causing spirits. In North America, pumpkins were more easily
available then turnips, which is we today carve
pumpkins!
To mark Samhain
and the new year, Celtic homes extinguished their hearth fires,
dressed in costumes of animals heads and skins and visited a sacred
bonfire built by the Druids. Crops and animals would be sacrificed to
the Celtic deities, and when the people returned home, they would
re-light their hearth fires using a torch from the sacred
fire. It was believed bringing the sacred fire
into the home would protect the family during the harsh winter
months.As the Romans conquered the Celts territory, they brought
with the festivals of Feralia (which honours the dead) and Pomona
(which honours the Roman goddess of fruit and
trees). As was very common with cultures conquered
by the Romans, the new festivals were merged into the existing
culture and it is believed that this is wear the tradition of
bobbing for apples comes from, as Pomona's symbol is the
apple.
As the influence of
Christianity spread into the land, the Catholic Church sought ways
to replace the Pagan festivals with a church sanctioned
holiday. In 800 CE, November 1st was declared All
Saints' Day (or Alholowmesse in Middle English) and so Samhain
began to be called All-hallows Eve, and eventually Halloween.
Two hundred years later the church declared November 2nd
All Souls Day, which was celebrated in much the same was as Samhain
had been, with bonfires, and communal gatherings - although by now
the animals costumes had been replaced by angels and devils.
As North America filled up with European
immigrants, they brought their various Halloween traditions to the
new world, and on Halloween people would dress in costume and go
door to door begging for food or money, which has become known
as 'trick - or - treating'
today. According to some beliefs you give a treat
as to avoid a trick being played on you, but others maintain you
must perform a trick at each house in order to get your
treat. In the early 1900s there
was a push to connect Halloween to community, and away from
religious traditions. Newspapers and community leaders urged
parents to remove anything considered frightening from the holiday
to make it more family friendly and as a result Halloween in North
America has become a secular holiday.Today however,
frightening has once again become synonymous with Halloween as
people decorate their homes and themselves in spooky trimmings and
attempt to share the trick-or-treaters that come
calling. Haunted house, ghost tours, and scary
movie screenings have been added to the ways that you can celebrate
the holiday.
Are you dressing up? Share you costume
with the community, or let us know what your dream costume would
be!
References:
Halloween: Ancient Origins
Halloween: Halloween Comes to America
Wikipedia: Halloween Symbols
