The History of Halloween

The History of Halloween may not be what you think.

The History of HalloweenEvery October 31st a favorite night for children and people from all over celebrate Halloween. Halloween is a day to dress up in a costume and for many adults is a time to tap into their inner child. The history of Halloween is not just about handing out candy to the neighborhood children and to frighten everyone with spooky stories and scary decorations. The history of Halloween did not start of in this manner like many holidays that we celebrated today, Halloweens origins have a history that started a long time ago.

 

Around 2000 years ago it was the Celtics celebrated November 1st as a New Year. November is the beginning of winter and colder, darker days, it was more closely associated with death. The ancient Celts in Ireland, Great Britain, and Northern France, believed that it was at this time that the souls of the dead traveled into the other world. It was at this time that the Celtics believed that the dead were more likely to move among the living. The festival called Samhain was held to help the dead along their journey and keep the living from being affected by those of the dead who were evil. At this festival the Celtics would dress up in costumes of animal skins and heads, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes they would also sacrifice animals, vegetables, and fruits and light bonfires in honor of the dead.

The Roman Empire and the History of Halloween

 

The Celtics were conquered by the Roman Empire and with that was the influence of Christianity. This influence started to change the Celtic rituals and beliefs. With the influence of Christianity and the higher Roman Catholic officials declared the festival to be evil, and looked for ways to change the festival to become more Christian-oriented and started to change the history of halloween. Pope Boniface IV in the 7th century, proclaimed November 1st as “All Saints Day”, which was also known as “All Hallows” or “All Hallowmas”. It was this name “All Hallows” that the name Halloween came from.

 

The ancient traditions of the Celtics were hard to completely change. As a compromise, the Roman Catholic Church eventually created “All Souls Day”, to be celebrated on November 2nd, and deemed it a day to pray for and honor the dead, but many of the native Celts still celebrated that time in the way that they always had. The evening prior to “All Saints Day” or also known as “All Souls Day” was celebrated by many Celts by leaving gifts of food outside their doors to satisfy the spirits. Most Americans don’t realize, this is the tradition they follow when they give candy to the children “and sometime adults” that come knocking on their doors on Halloween night.

 

The History of Halloween and Stingy Jack

The History of Halloween and Stingy JackThe tradition Jack-O-Lantern or the carving pumpkins for Halloween decoration originated from the ancient Irish story of Stingy Jack. Stingy Jack changed the history of Halloween by tricking the devil into promising that he would not take Jack’s soul to hell when he died. Upon Jacks death, he was unable to enter heaven due to the life of cruelty and selfishness, and was also unable to enter hell due to the devil’s promise. Forced to walk between heaven and hell in the darkness, Jack took an ember from hell and placed it inside a hollowed-out turnip to use as a lamp. Thus was born the “Jack-o-Lantern”. Soon people found that it was easier to carve out pumpkins instead of Turnips for their Jack-o-Lanterns on Halloween.

 

 

The History of Halloween around the world

 

Halloween night is celebrated in Czechoslovakia by placing chairs around the fireplace. There is one chair for each living family member, and one chair for the spirit of each deceased family member. In Mexico, Halloween is celebrated as “El Dia de los Muertos”, or “The Day of the Dead”. A festive and happy celebration, El Dia de los Muertos goes on for 3 days, and altars decorated with food, flowers, and photographs are constructed for deceased family members who are believed to return to earth on Halloween.

But for most none of this matters because for most Americans the history of Halloween is what we learned from our parents. To many people Halloween just simply is a time to dress up and hand out candy and that’s it.

So celebrate your own personal remembrance of the history of Halloween and pass it down to your children.

 

Happy Halloween

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Chief Inspiration Officer
Vincent St.Louis
Fighting the forces of Mediocrity

 

 

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