The Origin of Halloween 2002_09 The origins of Halloween date back over 2,000 years to a popular Celtic festival called Samhain. At this time, the New Year was on November 1st and it marked the end of summer and the beginning of the long, cold, dark winter. Winter was a dangerous and uncertain time, and the presence of death lingered. The Celts would celebrate on the eve of the New Year. They believed that on the eve of the New Year the boundary between the world of the dead and the world of the living became blurred and spirits would mingle with the living. Spirits would return to the land of the living causing trouble, damaging crops, and searching for bodies to possess. If a spirit took control of a living body, they could enter the afterlife. To avoid being possessed by these roaming spirits the living would extinguish fires in their homes to make it uninviting and later relight their hearth fires from the common source of Druid fire located at Usinach (in the middle of Ireland). The living would also wear ghoulish costumes and parade noisily around the neighbourhood to try to confuse the spirits. This was meant to make it hard for the spirits to distinguish between who was dead and who was alive. By 43 A.D. the Romans had conquered much of the Celtic territory. During the 400 years that they ruled, two Roman festivals were combined with the Celtic celebration of Samhain. These Roman festivals were Feralia and Pomona. Feralia was a festival held in late October when the Romans would commemorate the passing of the dead. Pomona, was a festival to honour the goddess of fruit and trees during a time of plenty - the harvest. The symbol of this goddess was the apple (it has been speculated that this may be the origin of the 'bobbing for apples' custom associated with Halloween today). The Roman culture slowly faded away during the next few hundred years and the Catholic Church absorbed their power and influence over the society. By the 4th century, many individuals had been converted to Christianity under direction from Pope Gregory. By the 7th century, his successor, Pope Boniface IV wanted to eliminate all pagan rituals that still plagued the church's control over society. People were still celebrating the old festivals and Boniface knew that he could not merely ban the festivals for fear of societal chaos. Instead, he decided to replace the old Samhain festival with All Saint's Day, a special holy day to honour saints and martyrs. All Saint's Day was also known as 'All-Hallows' or 'All-hollowmas' and the celebration the night before became known as 'All-Hallows' Eve. The church would create another holiday in the 11th century called All Soul's Day held on November 2nd, a day to honour the dead. A popular belief today is that the Catholic Church was trying to replace the Celtic festival with a church approved holiday. The problem was this distinction. The church holidays were merely holy days and didn't generally mean a festival or celebrations would be held. Those with Celtic origins continued to celebrate their own festival but also participated in the holy days. With Samhain and All Saint's Day occurring on the same day (not to mention All Soul's Day), by the 1500s the festival and the holy days had melded into one entity. The day had evolved and was now known as All Hallows' Day and the night before was known as All Hallows' Eve (English slang corrupted the name to All Hallows' Evening to Hallow Evening to Halloween). The essence of Halloween travelled to North America via the hearts and minds of Irish immigrants fleeing the blight in their homeland - The Potato Famine. Millions immigrated to North America during the mid 1840s seeking a better life and these immigrants helped popularize the custom of Halloween in the New World. However, it was not just the Irish that formed the traditions of Halloween in North America because English immigrants also brought their old customs with them and between the two backgrounds, a merge of customs occurred creating the popular holiday we celebrate today. Trick-or-treating is thought to have originated during the 9th century in England. In this century, the custom was called 'going souling'. On All Souls Day (November 2nd) Christians would beg for 'soul cakes' (bread made with currants). The impoverished participated as beggars and they would collect cakes from various families by going door to door singing and begging. The donors of the cakes believed that they were helping their dead relatives. The beggar would promise to say a prayer on behalf of the donor's dead relatives and it was hoped by the families that these prayers would help to speed up their relative's soul's passage to heaven. The jack-o-lantern is a custom that originates in Irish folklore. As the story goes, a man named Jack was known for his trickery and drunkenness. Jack even tricked Satan into climbing into a tree and while in the tree, he carved a cross onto the tree trapping Satan in the tree. Jack agreed to let Satan go but he had to promise not to tempt him again. Jack did not anticipate the problem he would encounter after death because he was denied access to both Heaven and Hell. The Devil gave Jack a single ember to light his way through the darkness as he wandered the earth for eternity. Jack placed this ember into a hollowed out turnip to keep it glowing and to light his way. These hollowed turnips became known as 'jack lanterns'. In North America, Irish immigrants realized that pumpkins were more plentiful than turnips and so the custom changed. Dressing up in costumes remained a popular custom that originated during the Celtic period when people would dress up to fool spirits and parade around town nosily to confuse the spirits in hopes that they would not be mistaken for a human that could be possessed. During the 19th century, witches became associated with Halloween as it was thought that their most important meeting was held on this day. The witches would fly to the meeting riding their broomsticks accompanied by black cats. At the meeting, the witches would perform magical spells and ceremonies. (Also, those with Celtic ancestry maintain that cats were thought to be human beings that had been changed as punishment for their evil deeds). In North America during the late 1800s, Halloween became a holiday that was more about community and neighbourhood gatherings. Autumn Play Parties became the popular way to celebrate Halloween. These events were where people played games, enjoyed food, and dressed in festive costumes. Community leaders and the media (newspapers) encouraged parents to disassociate frightening customs from Halloween and by the 20th century, much of the superstitious and religious overtones had been lost from this holiday. A new campaign began. Trick or treating was revived between the 1920s and 1950s, as it was an inexpensive way for the community to celebrate. In the 1950s, the baby boom generation exploded and Halloween became focused on children. This revival revitalized old customs and today is a testimony to society's love of the day. Currently, Halloween is the second largest commercial holiday of the year! Tanya Mackinnon tanyamackinnon@frymybacon.com