The History Of Halloween

The origins of Halloween

Far from being evil or purely commercial, Halloween celebrates both life and death and shows us that there is nothing in this world or the next for us to be scared of. In modern times the idea behind “trick or treating” is not just about getting the most candy. It is about overcoming your fears. Children get the chance to meet older grown ups in their neighbourhood who they have maybe never even spoken to before and see with their own eyes that they are really just people after all. In order to overcome their fears we allow the children to dress up so that they themselves feel scary and can hide behind their mask In a similar way those people in the community who never get a chance to meet children during the rest of the year beyond telling them off also get a chance to overcome their fears and see that behind the scary mask is a small child just like they once were and that underneath that scary exterior the children are not that bad after all. As a reward for the courage of these young people in overcoming their fear and pretending that we too can be scared of their disguise we give them candy as a token of our thanks for showing us that things are not that bad after all. Halloween actually has its origins going back thousands of years. The holiday we now know as Halloween has had many influences from many cultures over the centuries. From the Romans Pomona Day through the Celtic festival of Samhain to the Christian holiday of All Saints and All Souls Day.

Samhain festival

The Celts, who lived mainly in Scotland and Ireland celebrated their New Year on November the 1 st. This date marked the end of the season of the Sun and the beginning of the season of Cold. On the eve of their new year it was believed that all the dead people were called together for a meeting. The dead people taking many different forms with the bad spirits taking the form of animals, the most evil taking the form of a cat. During this time Druids would make offerings from the harvest of fruits, berry and corn an animals to a huge bonfire they made from sacred oak trees. Embers from this fire were taken to all the houses in the area so that their fire during the cold winter would be pure and help protect the house and its occupants from evil spirits.

The November the 1 st festival was named after Samhain who they believed was the God who ruled the dead and who managed to capture the Sun God and keep him prisoner during the Winter months. This festival honoured both Samhain and the Sun God, During this festival people would parade in costumes made from animal skins and the heads of animals to disguise themselves and scare off the evil spirits roaming around

Pomona Day

During the first century, the Romans invaded Britain and brought many of their customs and festivals with them. One of these was Pomona Day, named after the Goddess of fruits and gardens. It was also celebrated of November the 1 st and over the years of Roman rule, the customs of the Celtic Samhain festival and the Roman Pomona festival gradually became mixed.

All Hallows Eve

The next influence came with the spread of Christian religion throughout Europe. In the year 835AD the Roman Catholic Church made November the 1 st a Church holiday to honour all the Saints, this holiday was called Hallowmass. Years later the church would make November the 2 nd a holy day. It was called All Souls Day and was to honour the dead. It was celebrated with huge bonfires, parades and people dressing up as saints, angels and devils.

Halloween

The spread of Christianity did not make people forget their early traditional customs. On the eve of All Hallows, October the 31 st, people continued to celebrate the festival of Samhain and Pomona Day. Over the years the customs from all these holidays mixed. October the 31 st became known as All Hallow Even and eventually All Hallows Eve, Hallowe’en and finally of course Halloween. The Halloween we celebrate today includes all of these influences, Pomona Days’ apples, nuts and harvest, Samhains’ beliefs about Black cats, magic, evil spirits and death and the ghosts, skeletons and skulls from All Saints Day and All Souls Day.