Halloween is a holiday filled with terror, unusual costumes and candy, but where did this all begin? It’s kind of unusual when you really think about it… kids dressing up and going around to houses at night to ask for candy. So what started this holiday in the first place?
Junior Tucker Wojdowski said, “I know pretty much nothing about the history behind Halloween. Aside from trick or treating and pumpkin carving, I don’t know of the traditions that started Halloween in the first place.” It seems that the origins of Halloween aren’t as famous as that of Christmas or Thanksgiving.
The history of Halloween seems to be a mix of all kinds of cultures. According to the History Channel, the tradition of Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, where people would light bonfires and dress up in costumes to scare off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a day to honor all saints. This All Saints Day included some of the traditions of Samhain; it marked the end of summer and the harvest and the start of winter, a time that was often associated with death (history.com).
The night before All Saints Day was named All Hallows’ Eve, later called Halloween. Celts believed that the night before the new year was when the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On this night, October 31, Samhain was celebrated, and for that night, people believed that ghosts returned to earth. The Celts thought that the presence of the dead spirits made it easier for Druids, Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. To celebrate the event, Druids would build huge bonfires for people to gather and burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During this celebration, people wore costumes, typically made of animal heads and skins (iso.mit.edu).
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] website, American colonists are actually responsible for Halloween being initially brought to the U.S. These colonists primarily came from England, where Samhain was traditionally celebrated. As the American Colonies were influenced by various cultures, so were the traditions surrounding Halloween. Through the years, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. All Hallows’ Eve became a time for “play parties,” private parties thrown to celebrate the harvest, where people would dress up in costume, read people’s fortunes, and tell scary stories. These are historically known as the first Halloween parties! As the years passed, Halloween traditions evolved to include activities of trick or treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, wearing costumes, and eating Halloween treats (iso.mit.edu).
One website says that the central tradition of Halloween, trick or treating, began in America among Irish and English immigrants, combining their traditions. Going into the late 1800s, the holiday became more focused on neighborhood activities, and in the 1920s and ‘30s, Halloween was cemented as a community-centered holiday. In the 1950, Halloween was rebranded as a holiday aimed at young children to limit vandalism in the name of the holiday (alban.edu).
Wojdowski said, “I think Halloween is a fairly weird holiday when you get down to it. It is unlike any of the other holidays we celebrate.” Halloween comes from festivals not commonly celebrated today, so the thought of Halloween traditions and what they stem from seems quite out of the ordinary compared to other holidays.
Halloween is quite a mix of cultures, spanning from the Celts to English and Irish immigrants. From its start two thousand years ago with Samhain to now, Halloween has remained a prominent holiday with all kinds of unusual traditions.