Halloween

What exactly is halloween?

Halloween is a holiday of costumes, pumpkins, witches, ghosts, haunted houses as well as trick-or-treating.

Why do we celebrate halloween?

The first response to this question is that nobody really knows for sure why and today it is more of a festive mood surrounding the idea of Halloween.

What we do know for sure is that Halloween is on the eve of a major Catholic event, All Saints (1st November) and the eve of the pagan Celtic festival generally known as Samhain.

The 3 days between 31st October and 2nd November see pagan as well as Christian celebrations intertwined in a fascinating way and is an ideal illustration of superstition struggling with the religious belief.

Currently, it is generally thought that Halloween originated as a pagan Celtic festival of the dead related to the Irish and Scottish Samhain, but there isn’t any evidence that it had been connected with the deceased in pre-Christian times.

The History Of Halloween

The story of Halloween can be traced back 2,000 years. It was during these earlier period in Europe that the Celts celebrated the beginning of winter on the evening of October 31st.

November 1st was the first day of their new year and it also marked the first day of winter. They assumed that death was strongly connected to the long and bitter winter.

The Celts thought that during the winter the dead and the living existed simultaneously because it was on this day that the dead roamed the world. Samhain was the name they gave to their celebration of the dead on the evening of October 31st.

However, as soon as Christians began to build authority in the 800s, the history of Halloween was ceaselessly changed.

November 1st became referred to as All Saints Day or All-Hallows.

It is assumed that the Christians slightly altered the holiday right into a church associated celebration, honoring deceased saints. Not unlike Celtic custom though, the Christians too honored the deceased on this day. The evening of October 31st soon became referred to as All-Hallows Eve and was eventually changed to Halloween.

Traditions And Customs Today

In America today, dressing in a costume is also quite a popular way to celebrate the spooky holiday. Dressing up in costumes relates to the Celtic tradition of wearing masks on All-Hallows Eve. People would disguise themselves so that they would be unrecognizable to ghosts. At the moment dressing in costume is extremely popular and ranges from ghost as well as witch
costumes to fashionable costumes along the lines of famous characters.

At these events people engage in games, play Halloween themed songs as well as decorate their houses, especially windows and doors with pictures of ghost and witches. Halloween themed music with spooky sounds allows to set an eerie mood. At these parties games such as bobbing for apples are played and spooky ghost stories is likely to be shared.

Today’s association of ghosts with the holiday isn’t far off from the traditions of Samhain or All-Hallows Eve belief. The traditional festivals honoring the dead revolved around the idea of ghosts mingling with all the living. Therefore it is not strange that ghosts are so frequently linked to current celebrations.

However, the tradition of trick-or-treating and costumes are rather less tied towards the history of Halloween. Door to door trick-or-treating all started in America though, it was most likely taken from festival parades in Europe. During these parades poor citizens would beg for food.

Modern day trick-or-treating is mostly practiced by children who go door to door asking for candy. They customarily say “trick or treat” in anticipation that they will be given a luxury which is most likely candy.