Blogger: SkullantacySmith

INTRODUCTION

As someone from Western civilisation, Halloween has been a tradition and holiday I have often celebrated during the autumn (or fall, as some countries also call this time of year). As a child, I would go trick-or-treating with other children and my parents. The school would host Halloween activities, contests and even a disco at the end of the day—the best dancer always got some sweets to take home.

As an adult, I have the luxury of dressing up my home in the spookiest decorations and throwing a Halloween-themed event if I wish (this year, one of my friends threw a Halloween-themed Dungeons and Dragons one-shot, so I was off the hook).

However, Halloween wasn't always this way. In fact, the origins go back much further than the capitalised version of the holiday we have come to know. So, let's take a step back in time and learn more about this beloved holiday by children and adults alike.

GOING BACK IN TIME...

The Celts—a group of tribes originating in central Europe around the fifth century BC—is where the Halloween holiday finds its beginnings. They found their homes around what is now commonly known as Ireland in the United Kingdom and northern France. With them, an ancient festival known as Samhain, pronounced sow-in, would be celebrated on the 31st of October.

This festival would come a day before the Celts celebrated their new year on the 1st of November. Due to this marking the beginning of the dark and cold wintertime, expelling the summer and harvest seasons, it was often associated with death. It is thought that the Celts believed that the night before their new year the boundary between the living and the dead became murky and blurry, meaning the dead (or ghosts) could return to the earth.

During the long dark winters, the Celts needed a source of comfort that would pull them through until the crops could grow again. They were a civilisation dependent on the natural world for resources. Therefore, they thought the presence of the otherworldly spirits said to come back to the earth on the 31st of October would make it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions.

The Druids would build what are known as sacred bonfires which would be large to commemorate the festival. The Celtic folk would burn sacrifices, such as crops and animals, to their deities. Alongside this, they would attempt to tell each other's fortunes whilst wearing the hides and heads of animals. Once this celebration was over, the Celts would return to their homes and relight the fires in their hearths—they would need to extinguish them before the festival began—with flames from the sacred bonfire. They believed this would help to protect them during the coming winter.

THE INVASION OF THE HOT ITALIANS

As a side note, if you understand the reference in this heading, please let me know. You will make my day. But I digress.

For those of you confused, or who never watched past the David Tennant 2009 specials of Doctor Who, there came a time—specifically, by 43 AD—when the Roman Empire had conquered most of the Celtic territories. The Romans would rule over these lands for four hundred years. During this time, they fused two of their festivals with the Celtic festival of Samhain.

A festival called Feralia was the first. It landed on a day in late October when the Romans would traditionally memorialise the passing of the dead, much like the Celts would observe with their own festival. The second festival was a day that honoured the Roman goddess Pomona of fruit and trees. Pomona's symbol is an apple, which may explain the Halloween tradition of bobbing for apples after the fusion with Samhain.

CHRISTIANITY'S INFLUENCE

I have heard some teaching staff not wanting to observe or celebrate Halloween because it is known as a Pagan holiday, which can be associated with witchcraft. However, Paganism, a term used by early Christians, was its own religion and was practised by Celts and Romans before Christianity took precedence. Despite this, Christians had their influence on what is now known as Halloween.

All Saints' Day has its beginnings with Pope Boniface IV. On the 13th of May of the year 609, he dedicated the Pantheon—what is considered one of the best-preserved monuments of ancient Rome—in honour of all martyrs of the Christian faith. This would be called All Martyrs Day which was marked by a feast among Catholics that were a part of the Western church. Years later, Pope Gregory III expanded the festival to include saints as well as martyrs. He would also move the observance of this holiday to the 1st of November.

The influence of Christianity continued to spread throughout Europe and the Western civilisation. By the 9th century, it reached the lands of the Celts and moulded with the older Celtic rites. It is believed that the church wanted to replace the known Celtic festival of the dead with their own that would be church-approved by creating All Souls' Day in the year 1000 to honour those who had passed. Unlike Halloween and Samhain, it would be observed a couple of days later on the 2nd of November.

All Souls' Day had many similarities with how it was celebrated compared to the Celtic holiday of Samhain. It would include bonfires, parades and dressing up. However, instead of dressing in the heads and skin of animals, people would dress as saints, angels and devils. It would also be known as All-hallows. Subsequently, the night before it when Samhain would be celebrated, became known as All-Hallows Eve or as we know it today—Halloween.

CONCLUSION

Halloween is a magical time of year which may be in part due to its long history and mystical beginnings from the Celts. Many cultures and religions have come along to put their spin on the festival/holiday. Does it make it any less of what it began? By no means. It might actually make it more magical when the Western world seems to be falling out of love with the idea of celebrating the dead with this holiday. Maybe we owe it to our ancestors to keep the traditions alive...