Spooky decorations line the streets and bags of sweets fill the grocery aisles during this time of year, while the children ponder over their costume of choice. Halloween is a spike of creativity for all and has a prominent impact on the fall season. However, the origins of this holiday do not begin with the incantations of “trick-or-treat,” they are found tracing back to the ancient Celtics.
As most cultures have traditions that celebrate the living and the dead, the story of Halloween is rooted back to the Samhain festival of the Celtics. This celebration occurred at the end of summer and the coming of winter, the time when the Celtics believed the barrier between the living and the dead was weak enough for the dead to cross-travel.
During the harvest period of Halloween, people would prepare supplies for the upcoming season, dispose of bones in bonfires, and hold community gatherings in which dead family members were supposedly present and expected. “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,” assistant professor of folklore and mythology at UCLA, Peter Tokofsky explains. “It is most likely this reason that the Druids (Celtic pagans) believed that the spirits of those who died the preceding year roamed the earth the night of Samhain.”
Ultimately, the reason that Halloween has experienced such drastic changes over the years falls in the hands of Christian organizations. The Celtic traditions were demonic in some Christian groups’ eyes. Pope Gregory IV over a thousand years ago even wanted to replace the Samhain festival with All Saints Day. “When local people converted to Christianity during the early Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church often incorporated modified versions of older religious traditions in order to win converts,” Tokofksy adds.
Today, the rituals and traditions of Halloween have strayed beyond what it was initially intended for. With America being a magnet for Irish immigrants in the 1800s and cultures engaging with each other, the holiday became less about remembrance for the dead and more about celebration of community. “Halloween came to the United States when European immigrants brought their varied Halloween customs with them,” explains Tokofsky. “By combining Irish and English traditions, Americans began the trick-or-treat tradition.”
People of all ages celebrate Halloween mainly in North America. It’s a season where people come together, expand their creativity, and desire to be frightened. Although nobody today marks the period where the barrier between the living and the dead is weak, populations look forward to their evolved forms of festivity. Writer and editor Caroline Picard notes, “By the end of the 1800s, more communities were partaking in a more secular (and safer) set of rituals. People started holding Halloween parties that included more harmless games, fall seasonal treats and fun costumes over witchcraft and mischievous troublemaking.”