History of Halloween and Halloween Traditions
Origins of Halloween and Related Activities Explained
Oct 9, 2009
Also known as All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve, Halloween, originally Samhain, marked the end of summer and the harvest season in the Gaelic and Brythonic cultures. The festival is recorded in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic.
Some scholars believe that Samhain marked the beginning of the calendar year.
A Brief History of Halloween
Samhain, pronounced “sa-vun,” marked the end of the summer and the season of plenty, and it was celebrated after harvest was done.
- The term Samhain derives from the name of a month in the Celtic Calendar, in particular the first three nights.
- On these three nights, a festival would take place marking the end of summer and the harvest season.
- It came to be traditionally celebrated on 31 October, and the Catholic Church, wanting to get a foothold into the Pagan roots of the festival, made 1 November All Souls’ Day or All Saints’ Day.
Thus, the several different and correct terms for Halloween: Hallowe’en, All Hallow’s Eve, or All Saints’ or Souls’ Eve.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, Halloween has become much more of a commercial affair and less of a Pagan celebration, except amongst Neopaganist groups.
The Story Behind Costumes
The wearing of costumes at Halloween dates back to Celtic traditions of attempting to copy or placate evil spirits.
- These evil spirits were supposed to have the time during Samhain to walk free upon the earth, and costumes also were a way to protect oneself and hopefully confuse the wicked spirits.
- In Scotland, for example, the dead were represented by young men who were masked, veiled, or had blackened their faces and dressed in white.
- Halloween costumes, even today, are set apart from costumes of other celebrations, due to their nature.
- Costumes for Halloween are designed to imitate supernatural and frightening entities, such as vampires, ghosts, devils, witches, and skeletons.
Costumes were designed to both placate and confuse evil spirits who were allowed to walk the earth during Samhain, in order to protect the living.
After this period, the holy took their place on All Saints’ or All Souls’ Day when the Catholics developed the holiday to offset the Paganism of Samhain.
The Gist on Jack-o-Lanterns
Jack-o-Lanterns, also spelled Jack O’ Lantern or Jack-o’-Lantern, today traditionally is a carved pumpkin that was named for the phenomenon of flickering light over peat bogs, called will o’ the wisps.
The original usage meant “night watchman” or “man with lantern.”
- Throughout Britain and Ireland, there was long a tradition of carving lanterns from root vegetables such as turnips, members of the beet family, and swedes or rutabagas.
- An old Irish folk tale talks of Stingy Jack, but there are various versions of the myth, where a man named Jack tricks or has dealings with the devil, or in some cases, is helped by God.
- He is a thief, so heaven is closed to him, and he tricks the devil or gets a promise from the devil that he will not go to hell for eternity.
- Therefore, he has no place to go for rest when he dies, and so he carves a turnip (his favourite food) into a lantern and gets a spark of the devil’s burning flames to light his way on his eternal wanderings.
Jack-o-Lanterns serve as guideposts to lost spirits so they will continue on their journey, and they therefore protect the living from the presence of lost spirits.
This is a fascinating story behind the long tradition of carving out root vegetables as sources of light. The ever-resourceful Celts found ways of surviving and telling stories, with great enthusiasm, of the myth behind daily practices.
Halloween is thought of today as just another day, for children perhaps more special than for most adults, when they can dress up and get candy simply by saying three words: “Trick or treat,” a commercial venture that really began to take off in America in the 1930s.
Some adults look forward to donning costumes, perhaps even racy ones, that let them take on a sexier persona than they feel comfortable living with in daily life.
But originally, this holiday was rooted in Paganism and represented the ending of summer and the harvest season, and was taken quite seriously by those who sought protection from evil spirits said to walk the earth during Samhain.
Masks were imperative, not just a jolly decoration to be worn carelessly, then tossed in the closet for, perhaps, next year’s Halloween party.
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