Halloween began 2,000
years ago as the Celtic festival
called Samhain or “summer’s
end.”
The Celtic New Year was on
Nov. 1, marking the end of
the harvest and the beginning
of the winter.
The Celts believed that on
the eve of the new year, the
boundary between the living
world and the afterworld
became blurred and ghosts
returned to earth, causing
trouble by damaging crops.
Celts also believed the presence
of ghosts made it easier
for Celtic priests, called
Druids, to predict the future
about whether the villages
would survive the winter.
The Druids made bonfires,
where people gathered and
burnt crops and sacrificed
animals to the Celtic deities.
Demonic costumes
made of
animal skins were
also worn to repel
and confuse the
ghosts.
By 43 A.D., most
Celtic territory
was conquered by
the Roman
Empire and two
of their festivals
were combined
with Samhain.
The first festival,
Feralia, was celebrated in
late October to commemorate
the passing of the dead. The
second was in honor of
Pomona, the goddess of fruit
and trees. Pomona’s symbol
is the apple. This is believed
to be where the tradition of
bobbing for apples came
from.
In the eighth century, when
Christianity had spread into
Celtic territory, Pope Gregory
III designated Nov. 1 as ‘All
Hallows’ Day,’ to honor
saints and martyrs. It is
believed he did this to distract
the Celts from their
“pagan practices.”
The Celts accepted the new
holiday, but still celebrated
their traditional ritual as well,
and Samhain became known
as “All Hallow’s Eve.”
All Hallows’ Day is also
known as All Saints’ Day. The
word Halloween is shortened
from All Hallows’ Even, as
“eve” and “even” are abbreviations
of “evening,” since
it’s the eve of All Hallows
Day.
Halloween was brought to
the United States when 1 million
Irish people immigrated
during the Potato Famine in
1846. In the melting pot of
culture, the tradition began to
change. The large bonfires
were shrunk down to jack-olanterns
and the Celt’s
demonic costumes became
the modern mass-produced
ones of today.
In the early 1900s,
Halloween was a night of
vandalism. Property was
destroyed and cruelty to animals
and people was common.
Finally, in 1912 the Boy
Scouts and other neighborhood
organizations encouraged
a safe celebration.
Posters were hung in schools
reminding children to have a
“Sane Halloween.”
In lieu of tricking neighbors
and vandalizing, students
went door-to-door to collect
treats. Trick-or-treating
became widespread by the
end of the 1930s. The term
“trick-or-treat” is a threat to
trick the neighbor if they do
not give a treat.
Halloween was not commercialized
until the 1910s
and the mass-production of
costumes appeared in stores
in the ’30s. Trick-or-treating
became a holiday staple in
the ’50s.
Today, it is estimated that
Americans spend $6.9 billion
on Halloween annually, making
it the second largest commercial
holiday next to
Christmas.