As today is the 31st of October, we celebrate All-Hallows Eve, or more commonly known as Halloween. The holiday is one that, today, we celebrate with costumes, candy, scary movies, and so much more, but have you ever wondered how the day started or how celebrations have changed over the years? Together, let us take a deep dive into the history of this spooky holiday!
How Far Back Does Halloween Go?
The first celebration many believe that led to modern-day Halloween was celebrated by the Celts, dating back 2,000 years ago. They had a Celtic festival known as Samhain. This festival was to celebrate their harvest, ending summer and bringing in winter. The time of year was culturally associated with human death. They believed that the evening before a new year began (which was at the end of October), boundaries were blurred between the dead and the living.
The Celts believed ghosts walked the earth on October 31st, when they celebrated Samhain. At this time, the Celts believed the ghostly presence on their land would damage crops and Druids, Celtic priests, could make stronger predictions for future life. To celebrate this and try and appease the spirits, they held bonfires in which they would sacrifice crops and animals to their Gods. During this, they wore costumes, much like we do on modern Halloween.
The Roman Empire later conquered Celtic land, and two Roman festivals merged with Samhain.
As time went on and Christianity spread, more cultural mergers occurred. Pope Boniface IV formed All Martyrs Day, celebrated in mid-May. Pope Gregory III expanded the day to All Saints’ Day and moved its celebration to November 1st. Eventually, All Souls’ Day was formed and celebrated on November 2nd. The celebrations of All Souls’ Day looked extremely similar to Samhain’s celebrations, featuring bonfires and costumes. Around this time, people began referring to All Saints’ Day as All-Hallows, referring to the night before it as All-Hallows Eve.
How Did Halloween Reach America?
As European colonial settlers came to what is now the United States, they brought with them their culture and celebrations. The celebrations of All-Hallows Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls Day combined with Indigenous celebrations after years of both living on the land. When this happened, “play parties” began, which were public celebrations of the harvest, in which people would share stories of their dead family, dance, and sing.
As time went on, trick-or-treating essentially formed based on European traditions of dressing up. There was then a push to take the scary and trickery aspect out of Halloween which led to Halloween parties growing in popularity. Trick-or-treating eventually came back by the 1950s as an inexpensive way for communities to celebrate the holiday. Since, the celebrations have only expanded to be bigger and bigger!
