The Halloween season is upon us! It is time to start looking
for your Halloween outfits, stocking up on sweets and carving out your
pumpkins. Although here in the UK we might not celebrate Halloween as enthusiastically
as in the USA, it is still as much a part of the autumn season. But many don’t
know about the origins of Halloween, celebrations which go back to Celtic
traditions.
What is Halloween?
Halloween or Hallowe’en (a contraction of All Hallows’
Evening) is also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve and
is a spooky celebration observed every year in a number of countries on 31st
October – the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day also known
as All Saints’ Day.
Halloween as we know and experience it today has originated
in the Celtic fringes of Britain and was adapted over the years by Christian
traditions and immigrants’ conventions.
What is the story
behind celebrating Halloween?
The origin of Halloween is disputed. There are both Pagan
and Christian practices, which have impacted the celebrations and allowed it to
evolve into what it is today.
Some believe Halloween originates from Samhain, a Celtic
pagan festival meaning ‘Summer’s End’ which celebrated the end of harvest
season.
Gaels believed this was a time when the walls between our
world and the next became thin allowing spirits to pass, come back to life on
the day and damage their crops. Therefore during a feast they set places at the
dinner table to appease and welcome the spirits. Gaels would also offer food
and drink as well as light bonfires to ward off the evil spirits.
Trick or treating and dressing up came from the 16th
century in Ireland, Scotland and Wales where people went door-to-door in
costume asking for food in exchange for a poem or song. Many people dressed up
as souls of the dead and were understood to be protecting themselves from the
spirits by impersonating them.
Christian origins of the holiday are connected to the feast
of All Hallows on the 1st November, which was set in the eighth
century in the efforts of the Church to stamp out pagan celebrations.
Christians honour saints and pray for souls of their relatives who passed away
and those who have not yet reached heaven.
Where does
trick-or-treating come from?
The original phrase was first used in America in 1972. The
traditions were brought over to America by immigrants while guising gave way to
pranks in exchange for sweet treats.
During World War II there was a short supply of sweets and
sugar therefore after the war ended Halloween became a widespread holiday
revolving around kids with newly built suburban areas being a safe place for
children to roam free.
The costumes people wore became a lot more adventurous in
Victorian times influenced by literature and in particular the gothic themes –
dressing as bats and ghosts or what seemed as exotic and different like an
Egyptian pharaoh. As times moved on, costumes became influenced by pop culture.
What has Halloween
got to do with dressing up?
The tradition of dressing up again has to do with the Celts,
they dressed up in white with blackened faces during Samhain to trick the evil
spirits which they believed would be roaming the earth before All Saints’ Day
on November 1st.
By the 11th century this had been adapted by the
Church, again in order to stamp out pagan celebrations. The Church introduced a
tradition called ‘souling’ which is seen
as being the origin of trick-or-treating as children would go door-to-door
asking for soul cakes in exchange for praying for the souls of friends
and relatives. Traditionally children went dressed up as angels, demons or
saints. The soul cakes given to the children were sweet, with a cross marked on
top and when they were eaten by the children they represented a soul being
freed from purgatory.
A historian at York University, Nicholas Rogers says that when
people prayed for the dead at Hallow Mass, they dressed up. In particular when
praying for fertile marriages "the
boy choristers in the churches dressed up as virgins. So there was a certain
degree of cross dressing in the actual ceremony of All Hallow’s Eve.”
In the 19th century
souling became guising or mumming where children would offer songs, poems or
jokes instead of prayer for money or fruit.
What do pumpkins have to do with all of this?
This is another Celt tradition
originating from the Samhain festival. Gaels would carve turnips in order to
ward off spirits and stop fairies from settling in their houses.
The influx of Irish immigrants to
North America in the 1840s couldn’t find any turnips to carve, as was the
tradition, so they used the more readily available pumpkin, carving into it
scary faces.
By the 1920s the pumpkin carving
was widespread across America and Halloween was a big holiday with dressing up
and trick-or-treating. The modern American name Jack O’Lantern on the other
hand comes from the folkloric story of Stingy Jack who fooled the devil into
buying him a drink. He was not let into heaven or hell and when he passed away
the devil threw him a burning ember which he kept in a turnip.
Ireland – the tradition
of barmbrack, a fruitcake featuring muslin-wrapped treats inside that is said
to predict the future of the eater. If the cloth contains a ring, it means
romance is in the cards. A coin indicates wealth is on its way. A thimble means
you're doomed to never marry.
Austria - you are
expected to leave bread and water out and keep the lights on after you go to
bed during the full week of All Saint’s Week between 30th October
and 8th November to happily welcome dead souls back to Earth during
the one time of the year they can visit the mortal world.
Germany - this
tradition is also about believing spirits return on Halloween night. Rather
than leaving out bread and water like in Austria, Germans put away any knives
so the spirits don’t hurt themselves.
Czechoslovakia –
chairs are left out for each deceased family member by the fire on Halloween
night alongside chairs for each living one.
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