From Samhain to Spooky Season: Halloween’s History

Oct. 31 has been marked as a day in which jack-o-lanterns glow and children disguise themselves as their favorite characters,but behind the candy and costumes lies a holiday with roots far older and darker than its current modern sparkle. Halloween has hadmany names such as All Saints Eve, Allhalloween and All Hollows Eve. This holiday once held a different meaning for generations before us.  

“Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death,”according to history.com. 

 (History.com). Druids (Celtic priests) were responsible for building bonfires in which people would offer sacrifices to Celtic deities in exchange for protection during the winter season. Costumes were a sacred part of this ritual; things like animal heads and animal skins were worn during the bonfire festivities. Eventually the Celtic world fell, and the Romans merged two of their own traditions along with the festival of Samhain. Feralia was a day in late October that paid respect to the dead while another day was assigned to pay respect to Pomona, the Roman Goddess of fruit and trees. After colonialism began in the United States, groups of ethnic settlers as well as Native Americans began to blend together their beliefs and subsequently created what Halloween means to us today.  

Modern day Halloween began with ghost stories, festivals and celebrations of the harvest season. It wasn’t until new immigrants began populating the United States that the tradition of trick or treating began. Vogue says, “We can thank Ireland’s Great Potato Famine for modern-day Halloween in the United States. The late 1840’s brought a mass migration of Irish people to the shores of America. 1.5 million people arrived, bringing with them the spiritual and mythic traditions that eventually blossomed into modern Halloween.” 

 (Vogue.com). During the end of the 19th century, most religious and spiritual undertones of the holiday were removed, making it a completely secular celebration while still maintaining some early traditions from centuries past. Efforts were made in the early 20th century to make Halloween a family-friendly holiday due to the “juvenile delinquency” that was ensuing during the early years of secularization.  

By the 1950s, Halloween had become fully commercialized with films and TV shows surrounding the holiday being introduced for the very first time, such as “Casper The Friendly Ghost” (1950). If you are participating in a pumpkin carving contest with family and friends this year, you are participating in the same traditions the Irish did but instead of pumpkins, it was with things like turnips and other root vegetables. Halloween’s origins have always held a symbolic meaning for the change of seasons and respect for the dead. When you are giving out candy to trick or treaters this year, remember that you are offering your sacrifice to protect yourself from evil spirits for the year to come. Happy Halloween!