Halloween: History of the Holiday
Halloween, which falls each year on October 31st, is a holiday rich with tradition. In modern times, the celebration has come to include lots of frightening fun, like touring haunted houses, attending costume parties, and watching horror movies. Kids can be seen each and every Halloween donning costumes of Dracula, werewolves, witches, ghosts, and the like, trick-or-treating from door to door for candy and other goodies.
Originally a Celtic festival, Halloween arrived in North America when Irish, Welsh, and Scottish immigrants whose ancestors had celebrated Halloween continued the tradition in America. From there, Halloween has spread into most Western countries where English is spoken, including Western Europe. This is partly due to Halloween’s synthesis into American pop culture.
Originally Halloween was a pagan festival, around the idea of linking the living with the dead, when contact became possible between the spirits and the physical world, and magical things were more likely to happen. Like most pagan festivals, long ago it was absorbed into the festivals of the expanding Christian church, and became associated with All Hallows Day, or All Saints Day, which eventually fell on November 1 under the Gregorian calendar.
On the evening of October 31, All Hallows Evening, a vigil was held for the following day’s celebrations. All Hallows Evening was eventually referred to as Hallowe’en and finally the Halloween that is celebrated throughout the world.
Ireland is where traditional Halloween celebrations have remained the strongest. There, children would traditionally dress as supernatural creatures, getting stores of nuts, fruit, and sweets from neighbors that would be used in the celebrations. Each town celebrated the end of summer by getting together and setting a large bonfire in order to protect them all from evil spirits.
Foods that the children collected were made a part of games like bobbing for apples and other assorted items or eating apples on a string. Turnips were used to hold candles after having scary ghostly faces carved into them. This lead to the pumpkin carving that has become so popular in America. Kids were also dusted with salt in order to protect them from wicked spirits.
The trick aspect to trick or treating as it emerged in North America seems to have more obscure origins. It may be a merging of the collection of treats with another separate old tradition, especially in Ireland, where children would sometimes engage in secretive mischief at Halloween. The original intention was for the activities of mischievous Halloween spirits to be blamed.
Usually the mischief consisted of playing some minor or witty tricks on some adults - often the less popular ones - things like moving or hiding everyday items during Halloween night.
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