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The History of Halloween Night
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A
Most Bewitching Night
The History of Halloween
by
Random History
Known variously as Samhain, Summer? s End, All Hallow?s Eve, Witches Night, Lamswool, and Snap-Apple night, Halloween is among the world?s oldest holidays. Rooted in ancient pagan and Christian festivals that celebrated the inextricable link between seasonal and life cycles, Halloween has transcended its cultural roots and is currently celebrated in various forms all over the modern world. Halloween as it exists today is an exciting array of dichotomies as it delights both children and adults, prompts private religious observance as well as public exhibitionism, and blends personal imagination with mass marketing. A day full of magic and mystery, Halloween has not only survived, but it has thrived during epic cultural, religious, economic, and industrial changes throughout its long history.
Roots in Ancient Celtic Festivals
The essential elements of Halloween,
such as costuming, trick-or-treating, lighting bonfires, telling ghost stories, and attending community parties can be traced back 2000 years ago to the ancient Celtic festival called Samhain (SOW-in or SOW-an), which means ?summer?s end.? As the second major seasonal festival of the year (the first was called Beltain, celebrated around May 1st), Samhain marked the death of summer and the beginning of the Celtic New Year (Rogers 2002). As a moment of change, Samhain was viewed as a night of magic and power. In a time where there was little distinction between the diminishing sun and the possible extinction of life, Samhain was an intensely sacred festival that marked the boundaries between summer and winter and life and death (Skal 2002).
he Celts (which included people from northern France, Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, and Brittany) believed that on October 31st the Lord of Death, Saman, would call together all the souls that had died the
previous year to travel to afterlife during the Vigil of
Samhain. Ancestral ghosts and demons emerged from sidh
(ancient mounds or barrows of the countryside) and were free
to roam the earth, harm crops, and cause trouble (Bannatyne
1990). The living would often disguise themselves in
ghoulish costumes so the spirits of the dead would think
they were one of their own and pass by without incident. The
masked villagers would also form parades to lead the spirits
out to the town limits. In addition to masks and costumes
and, arguably, as a precursor to modern-day
trick-or-treating, the Celts would also offer food to Saman
to persuade him to more be temperate as he judged their
ancestors. Additionally, the Celts would lay out food for
their weary ancestors traveling to the other world or to
appease spirits who were looking for trouble (Rogers 2002).
Because these roaming spirits were thought to hold the secrets of the afterlife and the future, Celtic priests, or Druids, thought thatdivinations could be read
with more clarity on this particular day. The priests would
light large fires to both strengthen the Sun god and to make
divinations by throwing a horse or cat (sometimes in a
wicker cage) into the fire and watch the burning entrails.
At midnight, they would begin to worship Saman, who would be
the ruler of the earth for the next six months (Thompson
2003). Because the Celts were an oral culture, some
speculation remains whether the Druids actually practiced
human sacrifice and the Roman accounts (like Julius Caesar?s
reports) are accurate or just instances of Roman propaganda
(Skal 2002).
Roman Festival of Pomona
When the Romans conquered the Celtic lands just before the birth of Christ, they both assimilated and added to ancient Celtic Samhain symbols and rituals. For example, the festival of Pomona, which celebrated the Roman Goddess of the harvest Pomona (or Pomorum) on November 1st,
contributed the feast of nuts and fruits to Samhain?s own
autumn celebrations. Apples, in particular, were associated
with Pomona and were, for the Romans, a symbol of love and
fertility. The Druid belief that the eve of Samhain was the
most potent night for prognostication seems to have merged
with aspects of the festival of Pomona in that dozens of
Halloween divinations began to use apples (and nuts) to
predict one?s spouse (Thompson 2003). The Celtic and Roman
traditions not created a night devoted to the dead, but also
a night for divination and romance. With the dawn of the
first century A.D., these pagan traditions would encounter a
new, powerful religion: Christianity.
All Saints and All Souls Days
After Constantine officially declared Christianity legal in the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313, Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire. Realizing they would have more success in converting others by assimilating existing powerful pagan rites and symbols into
Christian rituals rather than obliterating them altogether,
shrewd Church leaders gradually appropriated Samhain and
Panoma celebrations into the Catholic rituals of All Saints
and All Souls Days. In fact, Pope Gregory III moved All
Saints Day (or All Hallow?s Day, in England) from May 1st to
November 1st to coincide with the pagan festivals. The eve
of All Saints Day, October 31st, became All Hallow Even,
then Hallowe?en, and then Halloween. In addition, a French
monastic order called the Cluniacs created All Soul?s Day to
commemorate all departed Christian souls (not just the
saints') on November 2nd (Rogers 2002). Taken together, the
three days were called Hallowmas, (?hallow? meaning
?sanctified? or ?holy?) (Thompson 2003).
In many respects, these Christian rituals
remained the same as their pagan counterparts with a few important derivations. For example, like the ancient pagans, the Church encouraged their congregation to remember the dead--but with prayers instead of sacrifice. In addition, instead of appeasing spirits through food and
wine, members of the congregation would go house to house
carrying a hollowed out turnip lantern whose candle
symbolized a soul trapped in purgatory and offering prayers
for the dead in exchange for ?Soul Cakes.? Poor churches
could not afford genuine relics of the saints and instead
held processions where parishioners dressed as saints,
angels, and devils, resembling the pagan custom of parading
ghosts to the town limits (Bannatyne 1990). Bonfires were
also lit, not in homage to the sun, but to keep the mortal
enemy of the new religion away: Satan, a concept arguably
incompatible with the polytheism of the ancient Celts. The
Druids were seen as witches (wiccas or ?wise ones?), and a
fourteenth-century text called Malleus Maleficarium (The
Witches Hammer) created a link between witchcraft and the
devil that produced a mythology so powerful it lasts even
today (Rogers 2002). By the end of the Middle Ages,
Hallowmas was among the most important liturgical movements
in the Christian year.
The Reformation and Halloween
It was on Halloween in 1517 when Martin Luther began a
reformation that would radically limit celebrations of
Halloween in Europe. As subsequent Protestant sects began
forming throughout Western Europe, many Catholic
rituals--including Hallowmas--were banned (Skal 2002). Yet,
just as the Celtic Samhain was assimilated with the Roman
festival of Ponoma and merged again with Catholic custom,
the English Protestants appropriated several elements of
Halloween in an autumn festival known as Guy Fawkes Day.
This day celebrated the Protestant triumph of a Catholic
plot led by Guy Fawkes to blow up the Protestant-sympathetic
House of Lords when Parliament met on Nov 5, 1605 (Rogers
2002). Guy Fawkes was publically hanged and then drawn and
quartered for his role in the plot, and it became popular to
re-enact his punishment through the festive parading of a
scarecrow figure through the streets (Rogers 2002). The eve
of Guy Fawkes Day became ?mischief night? and, instead of
begging for ?soul cakes? in commemoration of All Saints Day,
boys dressed up in costumes to beg for coal to burn their
effigies of Guy Fawkes, the Pope, or other unpopular
political figures. But in countries that maintained a strong
Catholic tradition, such as Ireland and Scotland, Halloween
rituals flourished largely untouched by the Protestant
Reformation (Skal 2002). Halloween in the New World
The existence of Hallowmas in the early American colonies
depended on the religious fabric of each emerging colony.
Whereas Maryland and Virginia were settled by Catholic and
Church of England followers who imported Hallowmas symbols
and feasts of the Old World, the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
New Hampshire, and Connecticut were populated by rigid
Puritans who viewed the Catholic and pagan overtones of
Hallowmas as anathema to Puritan philosophy (Bannatyne
1990). Ironically, while the Puritans felt praying for the
souls of the already predestined dead was redundant, they
held a fascination of witchcraft and divination, and their
witch-hunting zeal forever established one of Halloween?s
most enduring symbols. In addition, Puritan New England
practiced other remnants of Hallowmas such as
fortune-telling games (predicting future spouses) and the
celebration of Guy Fawkes Day (Rogers 2002).
The American Revolution created a society more tolerant of religious diversity
and, consequently, Halloween celebrations became
increasingly secular and centered in the community rather
than churches (Bannatyne 1990). While Halloween maintained
its association with the harvest and changing seasons, it
was also becoming more gendered. For example, while young
males were creating mischief such as blocking chimneys,
ruining cabbage patches, unhinging gates, and unstable-ing
horses, young women typically stayed close to home on
?San-Apple Night? to divine a future mate by bobbing for
apples or divining from apple peels (Thompson 2003). Still,
both genders enjoyed telling ghost stories, which likely
derived from both the Druid belief that the ancestral dead arise on this night and the Christian directive to honor the souls of the departed at Hallowmas (Rogers 2002).
Immigration in the Early Nineteenth Century Fledging Halloween festivities after the Revolutionary
War in America were given new life by an unprecedented
number of immigrants between 1820 and 1870, particularly the
Irish. Indeed, wherever the Irish went, their rich Halloween
folk beliefs were eagerly embraced by Americans. The Irish
reinvigorated embryonic American Halloween traditions and
added a renewed emphasis on masquerades, house-to-house
visits, and the symbol of Halloween itself, the Jack
O'Lantern. Though there are many renderings of its origin,
the Jack O? Lantern is most often said to have been named
after a man named Jack who trapped the devil in a tree. Jack
agreed to let the devil go if the devil guaranteed that Jack
would not go Hell after Jack died. When Jack died, he was
not allowed into heaven since he was a cruel and sinful man
in life, but Jack was also denied entrance into Hell because
of the pact he had made with the devil. However, the devil
gave Jack a burning ember from the fires of Hell which Jack
placed in a turnip or carrot to navigate the dark places of
the earth. When the Irish came to America, they found
pumpkins plentiful and better suited as lanterns (Thompson
2003). Other immigrant groups added their unique traditions
as well. For example, the Germans and Scots enriched
American witchcraft mythology , and African Americans
contributed elements of Voudon (sometimes called voodoo) to
American Halloween traditions.
Victorian Era Romanticization
The emergence of both the Victorian periodical and
postcard at the end of the nineteenth century helped create
homogeneity among the disparate ethnic Halloween
traditions--at least among the educated middle and upper
classes. However, while Victorian periodicals created a
synthesis of sorts, they also tended to romanticize
Halloween as a genteel holiday and as a night of romantic
divinations and parlor games (Rogers 2002). In addition,
Victorian ghost stories became less concerned with actual
ghosts and more concerned with romance and passion. As
Victorians attempted to throw better parties than their
neighbors, they added pomp to their celebrations that had
little to do with Halloween (Bannatyne 1990). Ancient
Halloween rites were all but lost as the focus became more
and more the province of children, matchmaking, and kissing
games.
Halloween in the Twentieth Century
As mass-marketed periodicals (such as The Ladies? Home
Journal) and other various mass media continued to advertise
the ?perfect Halloween party,? Halloween became a bona fide
North American holiday in the 1920s that was an economic
boon for businesses and candy manufacturers alike. As
commercialization continued in the early twentieth century,
civic groups such as high schools and rotary clubs began
taking over some of the domestic rituals of Halloween and
promoted it as an event for everyone. As cases of mischief
increased, particularly during the Depression, more
Halloween tricksters were being ?bought off? with candy. For
example, packaging for Ze Jumbo Jelly Beans contained the
message: ?Stop Halloween Pranksters.? In 1939, the magazine
American Homes was the first mass-marketed periodical in the
U.S. to use the term ?trick or treat? as a distinct
property-protection strategy (Skal 2002).
During WWII,
some Halloween celebrations were canceled due to sugar
rationing, but soon trick-or-treating would reach its
commercial heyday. Like the consumer post-war economy,
Halloween in the 1950s grew by leaps and bounds. Candy
companies, with plenty of sugar available again, launched
national advertising campaigns directly at Halloween, and
soon trick-or-treating became a national practice (Skal
2002). Americans continued to add a distinctly commercial
slant to Halloween with Hollywood scary movies, greeting
cards, and decorations. During the 1960s, however, rumors of
tainted treats and razor blades in candy, as well as a
cyanide-laced Tylenol scare in 1982, frightened both parents
and children. Though actual tampering of Halloween candy has
been extremely rare, fear still lingers today (Rogers 2002).
Yet, Halloween, as it tends to do, recovered, and today is
the second largest national holiday behind Christmas.
Halloween
is no stranger to controversy even in the twenty-first
century, but the energy of Halloween has always been Catholic church to the various political and religious
groups of today. Yet, Halloween has managed to achieve national status without federal sanction (such as July 4th and Christmas) because it?s a celebration of the potential of what humans want to be--and, if only for one night, what they would not otherwise be (Rogers 2002). Historically Halloween endures because it allows its participants to both embrace and defuse their fears (Thompson 2003). From the ancient Celts who worshipped the Lord of the Dead to help them visualize the afterlife to the little vampires and fairies trick-or-treating at your door, Halloween?s adaptability is the reason it remains?after nearly 2000 years?the most bewitching night of the year.References Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt. 1990. Halloween: An American Holiday, An American History. New York, New York: Facts on File, Inc.
Rogers, Nicholas. 2002. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. New York, New York: Oxford University Press.
Skal, David J. 2002. Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween. New York, New York: Bloomsbury.
Thompson, Sue Ellen. 2003. Holiday Symbols and Customs. 3rd Ed. Detroit, Michigan: Omnigraphics, Inc.
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HalloweenHistory Halloween (or Hallowe'en) is an annual holiday
observed on October 31, which commonly includes activities such as
trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns,
bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling
scary stories, and watching horror films.
Mens Napoleon Costume
from: Fun.com
Vikings Adult Bjorn Ironside Costume
from: Fun.com
Kids Paul Revere Costume
from: Fun.com |
