An origin of All Hallows Eve
Halloween has been a childhood favorite for decades, and a truly iconic American holiday. Seemingly unique with costumes, candy, and all things spooky, the festivity is not just an American invention for tricks or treats. Rather, Halloween, like several of our annual celebrations, has a long and ancient past.
The Celts gave us an initial glimpse at the origins of Halloween. The Celts occupied Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Northern France before the Roman Empire, roughly 2,000 years ago. Sahaim, as it was then called, was essentially the Celtic new year. This earliest jubilee gives us some of the darker inspiration to our own Halloween. Although it was a feast for the bringing in of the har vest, it was also seen as the beginning of the dark half of the year, when the natural world and the Celtic spiritual world came closest together. Some of the spirits crossing over were dead friends and family, and often given a place at the table during the superstitious event. Other spirits like fairies were not so welcome. Ferociously mischievous; people often dressed up in costumes in the evenings and nights to avoid the pranksters and sometimes dangerous fairies and spirits. Car ved images, bonfires, and noisemakers all were methods employed to deter maleficent monsters that did not fall for costumes. Visiting your neighbors and asking for treats and gifts, only to return the favor for any visitors you might receive, was a karmalike measure taken to reassure wandering spirits that mischief was unwarranted. Druids, the priests of Celtic communities, offered animal sacrifices, read omens to predict the future, and placed spells at their whim. Women often attempted to divine, through magical means, who they were going to marry, perhaps initiating the concept of witches. Clearly, the early Celtic new year festival of Sahaim is the foundation on which our modern holiday was built.
With the arrival of Christianity, Sahaim either needed to be replaced or absorbed. In the 7th centur y A.D. the Church created All Saints Day, then the Feast of all Martyrs, under Pope Boniface IV. Under Pope Gregor y III, the Feast Day was moved to November 1, clearly coinciding with Sahaim in attempt to convert the Celts. By 1000 A.D., All Souls Day was added on Nov. 2. Two backto-back holidays had been created by the Church to celebrate their dead at the end of fall and beginning of winter. Simple dates were not the only means by which the Church usurped Sahaim for the eventual Halloween. Bonfires, parades, and even costumes continued to exist, although they featured angelic and demonic attributes rather than their Druidic originals. It is in Medieval Europe where we find the origin of the name, “Halloween,” coming from the Middle English Alholowmesse, interpreted as All Saints Day. The holidays of pagan peoples needed to change just as they themselves were joining Christendom.
In the Colonial United States, our English forefathers brought with them plenty of autumn feasts and celebrations, although a recent Protestant Reformation had begun to turn people away from another Catholic celebration. It was not until the 1845 Great Potato Famine, when Irish, hence Catholic, immigrants flooded our Eastern seaboard, that the U.S. began recognizably celebrating Halloween. Carved turnips and potatoes turned into
pumpkins, costumes were fashionable again on the evening before All Saints Day, and mischief reigned. It was this mischief that brought about an American twist on the holiday; that being candy. Instead of mischief and vandalism, whether delinquent spirits or people were responsible, there were attempts on making the holiday one of community. By the 1920s, parties became the norm, as well as the European tradition of sharing gifts and treats. Such was the emphasis given to community and treats that youngsters quickly gravitated to the holiday.
The holiday of Halloween is a compilation of traditions, magic, superstition, mischief, and community that continues to both bring pleasure and strike fear into modern audiences. The ancient Celts inspired the fear, dread, and mischief of their Sahaim festival. The Christian Church absorbed a pagan holiday and rebranded it as one to remember souls gone before us. And finally, immigration reminded us of the ancient past only to be transformed again by tricks and treats. Whether watching a horror film, navigating a corn maze, trick or treating, remember to ward off fairies!