By: Penny Fishburn
Halloween is something we’ve all experienced. That rush of exhilaration as we pull on our costumes, then that satisfied feeling as we retrieve candy from all of our kindly neighbors. But Halloween hasn’t always been that way. This holiday we celebrate with such merriness now is still a bit of a mystery, but likely included rituals in celebration of everything from the harvest to souls in the afterlife. In this article you will get to experience the history of Halloween for yourself, and hopefully be able to pick your own theory to believe in.
Though two main theories are believed to cover the origin of Halloween (Celtic mythology, and Christianity), they both have their overlaps and differences. However, to start we will cover the more widely believed story which is that of Samhain. Samhain was a Celtic festival celebrating the harvest and wishing goodbye to the summer, and historically was celebrated on the night of November 1st, and into the 2nd. They served offerings to dead relatives and lit candles in remembrance.
However, some accounts of the holiday’s origin say that it originated purely as a form of celebrating the Christian holiday All Saint’s Day, which takes place on November 1st, and is also to remember the dead. Beyond even that, a more common version of this particular theory is that it sprang from the holiday All Hallow’s Eve, a festival celebrated similarly to Samhain and that did occur on October 31st. These two holidays (All Saint’s Day and All Hallow’s Eve), are both part of the three day Christian celebration of Allhallowtide, from October 31st to November 2nd..
Though both of these theories could be true, it is definitely true that those holidays have been heavily influenced by Celtic and Irish customs to become Halloween. Modern traditions like dressing up, asking for candy, and carving jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins are all representations of this. Halloween was also celebrated less in the UK after 1605, when the celebration of Guy Fawkes Night commenced, a holiday of national pride that occurs on November 5th.
To sum it up, Halloween is a holiday steeped in rich tradition from all across Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, and then changed and influenced by modern times to become what it is today. I hope you learned something from this article and will look at Halloween (or All Saint’s Day, or All Hallow’s Eve, or Samhain) in a new light when you celebrate this year.
