Origins Of Modern Halloween

The original source of what has evolved into our modern Halloween holiday can be traced back over 2000 years to the Celts that lived in and around Ireland and England. They celebrated their new year on November 1st as they regarded this to be the end of summer and the beginning of the cold dark winter period, a time that to the Celtic people was strongly associated with death.

They believed that the night before the new year the boundaries between the living and the dead realm was at its weakest, and the spirits of the dead could roam the land of the living. On this night they held the pagan celebration Samhain pronounced sow-in, it literally means summers end.

During this celebration they would gather together in fields and build large fires called bon fires that were supposed to ward away the spirits of the dead. They would also dress up in animal skins and wear animal masks and tell each others fortunes. At the end of the night each would take embers from the fire to light their homes fire grate, they believed that a fire lit from the Samhain bon fire would keep them safe from death throughout the winter period.

When the Romans came to Britain in 40AD they occupied the Celtic lands, and over the next 400 years of their rule the roman festivals of Feralia, when Romans celebrated the passing of the dead, and Pomona a celebration for the goddess of the same name, grew to replace Samhain. The goddess Pomona is the roman goddess of fruit and trees often associated with apples, the incorporation of this into Samhain is thought to be why the tradition of bobbing for apples has become associated with the Halloween celebration.

By the 7th century Christianity had spread to the Celtic lands and it was during this time that Pope Boniface IV founded all saints day, to be held on the 1st day of November. It was a day that celebrated all the saints that didn't already have a day associated with them. The choice of day was no accident and is widely believed to be an attempt by the church to replace the pagan holiday with a christian one, much as they did with Easter (pagan festival of Ostara/Eostre), and Christmas (pagan festival of Yule). In the language of the time all saints day was called Alholowmesse, this evolved over time into all - hallowmas and then finally all hallows. The evening before this celebration was called all hallows eve which became Halloween.

Many of the customs we practice to celebrate Halloween today have deep seeded roots in the traditions of ancient times.

Trick-or-treating for example, most probably originated from All Soul's Day parades that were held in England many years ago. Reason being is that during these parades, destitute peoples would plead for something to eat as they could not afford to buy this sustenance Other families in turn would present them with special pastries deemed "soul cakes" as a promise to pray for those in the family that had passed on to the afterlife.

Not to be forgotten, many families would also leave items of food and drink outside during All Hallows Eve and All Saint's Day to keep wandering spirits at bay. Some would say that this tradition could be where children dressing up as ghouls and goblins represent the wandering spirits and the candy/food given would coincide with that custom.

Which brings us to why we dress up in costumes today for both parties and the act of trick-or-treating. Long ago, during Celtic times, special ceremonies were held to signify the ending of Summer and the beginning of winter. This was called Samhain.

During these ancient festivities, Celts would wear costumes made from animal skins. The Celts believed that on this night, October 31st, the dead could cross over from their world back in to ours. To keep the spirits from recognizing them, they would dress in costumes to hide their true identities from the wandering spirits.

They believed that by wearing masks, that this would conceal them and make the roaming spirits think they were other kindred spirits simply wandering about and leave them at peace.

By incorporating the disguises and leaving food offerings outside their homes, people of the past believed it would keep restless wandering spirits distracted protecting themselves and their homes from becoming infested with unwanted spirt guests.

Obviously today, there are many other types of costumes we don on Halloween. Not just the traditional witches, goblins, and ghosts of the past.

All of this explains why in current times we wear costumes, throw parties, and go out trick-or-treating on Halloween.