History of Halloween

Let’s talk Halloween, since it is right around the corner!!!!

We celebrate it with such enthusiasm every year. Whether it is the thrill of being someone else for a few hours or the AMAZING candy, everyone has a reason why they love Halloween. But do you know how the holiday originated?

It turns out that Halloween’s origins dates back to the Celtic festival of Samhain. To the Celts, this was their celebration of the New Year. They believed that on the day before the New Year, the boundary between the living and the dead was blurred (spooky!). On October 31, the Celts celebrated Samhain for two main reasons; (1) to prevent the ‘ghosts of the dead’ from damaging their crops and (2) to make it easier for Druid, the Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. On Samhain, the Druids would build huge sacred bonfires where people would burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the deities. During their celebration, the Celts would wear costumes.

Around 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered to majority of the Celtic territory. Of course, when the Roman Empire conquered an area, they took the best of the conquered culture and mixed it with their own. The Romans had a celebration in late October called Feralia to commemorate the passing of the dead. The Romans also dedicated a day in October to the Roman goddess of fruit and trees called Pomona. Pomona’s symbol is the apple. Can anyone guess how that is reflected in our Halloween celebration today? Think of a huge bucket, filled with water and topped off with a few apples.

Then, around 1000 A.D., the Catholic Church made November 2 All Souls’ Day. The Catholic Church wanted to get rid of Samhain by providing another holiday that would celebrate a similar cause and be sanctioned by the church. The All Souls’ Day soon became the All Saint’s Day which was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas. They got these names from the Middle English translation of All Saints’ Day, Alholowmesse. The night before the celebration eventually became all-hallows eve and then Halloween.

So there you have it! Halloween History in less than a page. If you would like to read more into the history of Halloween, checkout the History Channel's website.