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In the Spirit of Halloween
By ManishaVerma in Law Review
October 28, 2010

With Halloween right around the corner and Americans getting their costumes ready and planning parties, you might be wondering where this yearly tradition originated from.

The History of Halloween, similar to any other festival is inspired through traditions that have been passed down from one generation to another. However, Halloween wasn’t always the same celebration we practice today.

Halloween originally dates back thousands of years ago to an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain, pronounced sow-in. The people of the Celtic civilization, Celts lived about 2,000 years ago in the area that is currently called United Kingdom, Ireland, and northern France. Samhains celebrated their new year on November 1st, which for them this was the end of summer and harvest period, the beginning of winter.

The Celts tied together with the season, death. They strongly believed the night before Samhain the boundary between the living and the dead would be unclear. The Celts celebrated the night of October 31, the time when souls of the dead were believed to return to Earth causing chaos and damaging the community’s food supply. During this cold and dark time period Celtic priests, called Druids thought that this would be the easiest time to make predictions.

The Celts practiced the event by burning crops and sacrificing animals to the Celtic Gods in bonfires made by the druids. They wore costumes, typically of animal skin, to tell each others’ fortunes. This was their source of comfort. However when the celebration was over, the Celts lit their fireplace from the sacred bonfire, they believed this would protect them during the coming months.

Romans soon later conquered the Celtic territory and ruled the land for over 400 years, over that time Roman festivals were combined with Samhain, one known as Feralia, intended to give rest and peace to the departed. The second festival honored Pomona, the Roman Goddess of fruit and trees. Pomona’s symbol is the apple and was combined with the celebration of Samhain. This must explain the modern day tradition of bobbing for apples, observed on Halloween.

The Christian influence soon spread into the Celtic lands by the year 800. About this time, Pope Boniface IV recalled November 1st as All Saint’s Day, a time to honor saints and Martyrs. Current belief states that the pope was striving to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a church-like holiday. The celebration was referred to as All-Hallowmas, which was Middle English for All Saints' Day. However, this name evolved to Halloween. In the year 1000, the church would make November 2nd All Souls’ Day to honor the dead. The holiday was celebrated similarly to Samhain with bonfires, parades and costumes such as angels, and of course, saints and devils.

Halloween arrived in America, as Europeans immigrants came to our country, they bought their varied Halloween traditions with them. However, because of the protestant system Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited. It became much more common in Maryland and the other southern colonies. But as the beliefs and customs of different ethnic groups, as well as the Americans Indians, mixed an American version of Halloween became the outcome. This was the time when people would have parties, public events held to celebrate the harvest where the neighbors would share stories of the dead, speak each others’ prophecies, dance, and sing. By the middle of the nineteenth century annual autumn festivals were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated in all places of the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America became flooded with immigrants. These new immigrants, especially of Irish decent fleeing from Ireland’s potato famine of 1846 helped bring up Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English previous customs, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house-to-house asking for food or money, a practice that evolved to our modern day “trick-or-treat” tradition.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community get-togethers, than about ghosts and pranks. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties were meant for games and food and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take out anything they thought was “frightening” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of this movement, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious over tones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween became a secular. However vandalism began in Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved to be focused only on the young.

Between 1920s and 1950, the centuries old ‘trick or treating’ revived. Trick-or Treating was an inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also limit tricks being played on them by handing out small treats. A new American tradition had begun that continues to grow today. Did you know, Americans spend an estimated 6.9 billion annually on Halloween? Making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday, right after Christmas.

Have a Happy Halloween!

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