Halloween for the Ages: A History of Celebration

On October 31st, amidst spewn lawn decor and hastily applied facepaint, one might notice the remnants of the past fragmented into a night where costumes are donned and candy is happily consumed. Since the age of the Victorians, ancient Romans, and our nomadic ancestors, there has been a need to answer the unexplainable natural phenomenon that coincides with the fall solstice. A trait that Hollywood and pop culture have sensationalized, virtually hijacking the essence of the once hallowed night, given into the mystery, macabre, or horror aspects of it instead. Halloween is a holiday now closely associated with increased candy sales, Party City, sweater weather, pumpkin patches, the paranormal, trick-or-treating, and heighted supernatural activity. 

However, Pagan religions have practiced personifications of harvest, rituals of abundance, feasts, or ceremonies for millennia. In its origins, Halloween derived from the Celtic celebration of Samhain, Sam meaning summer, Fuin meaning end. Historically, vestiges of the Celtic culture scarcely remain, if their relics were not appropriated or removed through Roman colonization. Samhain is a Gaelic festival which originated in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man following the completion of agricultural work, warfare, and trade. To commemorate the beginning of cereal harvest, local kings gathered for outdoor festivity including activities such as the sharing of Irish tales, games, feats, entertainment, and amusements. While it was a time of revelry and merriment, it was a time of remembrance, transformation, gratitude, and nature.

Furthermore, the festival was observed midway between the autumn equinox and winter solstice from sunset, October 31 to November 1 during the final harvest, marking the transition of pastoral year and start of the Celtic New Year. In this belief, Samhain heralded the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Samhain marks the time of year that surrounds autumn, where natural decay starts to set in, and the death that follows in winter's cold. The dreaded season lacked sunlight, nonexistence in the far northern regions which brought on harsh conditions that killed people, crops, and morale. Thus, the veil between the dead and living is the thinnest in this time of year, allowing spirits to cross over. Acting as a liminal state when perceived divisions between the ordinary world and the spirit world fall apart, allowing creatures of the Otherworld to return to Earth. Celtic priests, called Druids, practiced divinatory and purificatory rituals using spirits to predict the future, prophecies giving comfort in the long dark winter. 

Thereby, ghosts and witches became associated with Halloween as “practitioners of dark magic.” The evil spirits used as an anecdote to explain the damaging of crops in winter through the partaking of pranks and mischief. To ward them off, Celts lit bonfires and wore costumes and masks of animal heads and skin to hide identities and confuse wandering spirits. Common symbols of Halloween include black cats believed to have the ability to travel in between realms, bats that were attracted by insects, and jack-o-lanterns derived from carved faces in beets, potatoes and other root vegetables with candles inside to ward off Stingy Jack, a malevolent spirit. The practice of souling when poor people went door to door asking for soul cakes in exchange for prayers for the dead. 

However, in the 8th century, Pope Gregory III established the Feast of All Saints, honoring all saints and martyrs. The night before All Saints’ day became known as All Hallows’ Eve which extrapolated Christian influence and preserved pre-Christian practices. Christian reinvention incorporation of traditional Christian and Celtic custom became universally practiced in the western church by the 13th century.  

 In the late 19th century, the Great Famine and Highland Clearances forced the expulsion of many Irish and Scottish people from their homeland, some of whom reallocated to America. As the immigrants settled stateside, native pumpkins eventually replaced root vegetables, and rowdy mischief and pranks turned into communal festivity. Over the years, these practices developed into what is known as Halloween today.  

So, before you set out trick-or-treating in neighborhoods clad in Spirit Halloween, or hunker down for your next horror movie marathon, remember that the celebrations and mayhem that transpire on the last night of October are odes to customs that have withstood time for thousands of years. Call in mind our predecessors, who lit fires, shared stories, and bore costumes just as we. Taking part in Halloween memorializes our active role in the continuation of uplifting history into the centuries to come.