Most people love and enjoy Halloween and with good reason. It is a holiday centered around fun, treats and costumes. In fact, Halloween is the second biggest holiday behind Christmas in terms of money spent on the holiday and anything surrounding it. But I think few people know the actual history of Halloween and the centuries of practices and traditions that lay behind it.
The history of Halloween begins over two thousand years ago in what is now called Ireland. Back then, of course, Ireland did not exist but was populated with a native group called Celts. The Celts had an annual festival at the end of October to signify the end of the growing season and the beginning of a cold and dark winter. They built bonfires and danced and celebrated in costumes to appease their gods.
When Christianity began to spread into the British Isles and Ireland, the history of Halloween changed. Around the year 1000 AD, the pope in Rome at the time began a new holiday, All Saint’s Day to commemorate the lives and deaths of various saints in the Christian tradition. He chose the date November First, in an attempt to re-invent the Celts’ pagan seasonal holiday to one of worship. It worked, a little, as many of the traditions remained all the way up to today, with the added approval and moderation of Christian thoughts.
With the great influx of Irish settlers in the middle of the 1800’s, America saw an increase in the number and depth of Irish practices and customs. The United States has always been fertile ground for adopting immigrant cultures and Halloween was no exception. America adopted the Irish and English habits of protecting themselves by mischievous youths by giving them treats to avoid tricks. As the 20th century began, American town leaders sought to turn Halloween into a more wholesome and community-centered event. Communities adopted the practice of handing a small bit of candy to the young people to foster a stronger sense of community and togetherness. Such traditions live on today with large costume parties and neighborhood trick-or-treating.
The history of Halloween has gone under several transformations from an ancient sacrificial festival, to a religious ceremony, to what it is today, a huge secular party. Knowing a little more about the history of Halloween might inspire you to dig deeper into this fascinating history – the history of Halloween.