History of Halloween
Halloween began as a combination of pagan and Christian holidays, Samhain (pronounced sowen) and All Saints' Day. Originally, Christians observed All Saints' Day on May 13. But in the eighth century, Pope Gregory III moved it to November 1st. Officially, the Church chose this new date to mark the papal dedication of a church honoring the saints. But many historians believe it was moved to correspond with Samhain and other pagan fall festivals.The Catholic Church had a long-standing policy of incorporating non-Christian traditions into its holidays in order to bring people into the Catholic faith. This included moving the dates of Christian holidays to those of established non-Christian occasions. Many historians believe, for example, that the church set Christmas on December 25th so that it would correspond with pagan winter solstice festivals.
The Church began to incorporate Samhain traditions into the holy day's activities. This helped bring descendants of the ancient Celts into Christianity, but it posed some problems for the church. Many of the Samhain traditions centered on the supernatural and spirit worlds, ideas that don't have much credence in Christianity. Recognizing saints, who were by definition deceased, covered a lot of the same ground, and the converts were fascinated by the idea of their familiar dead returning to the world of the living.
Despite some unease in the church, many supernatural ideas persisted in All Saints' Day Eve celebrations, making the occasion a remarkable combination of Christian and pagan beliefs. At the end of the 10th century, the church tried to give these traditions a little more direction by establishing All Souls' Day, an occasion to recognize all Christian dead.
All Souls' Day
All Souls' Day, observed on November 2nd, is celebrated with masses and festivities in honor of the dead. The living pray on behalf of Christians who are in purgatory, the state in the afterlife where souls are purified before proceeding to heaven. Souls in purgatory must suffer so that they can be purged of their sins. Through prayer and good works, living members of the church may help their departed friends and family.
After its introduction, this holiday sated many Catholics' interest in death and the supernatural. But the unchristian idea of wandering spirits persisted in some areas, as did the festive atmosphere of Samhain. Conceding that they could not completely get rid of the supernatural elements of the celebrations, the Catholic church began characterizing the spirits as evil forces associated with the devil. This is where we get much of the more disturbing Halloween imagery, such as evil witches and demons.
All Souls' Day lives on today, particularly in Mexico, where All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day are collectively observed as "Los Dias de los Muertos" (The Days of the Dead). First and foremost, the Days of the Dead is a time when families fondly remember the deceased. But it is also a time marked by festivities, including spectacular parades of skeletons and ghouls.
Trick-or-Treating
In medieval times, one popular All Souls' Day practice was to make "soul cakes," simple bread desserts with a currant topping. In a custom called "souling"; children would go door-to-door begging for the cakes, much like modern trick-or-treaters. For every cake a child collected, he or she would have to say a prayer for the dead relatives of the person who gave the cake. These prayers would help the relatives find their way out of purgatory and into heaven. The children even sang a soul cake song along the lines of the modern "Trick-or-treat, trick-or-treat, give me something good to eat." One version of the song went:
A soul cake!
A soul cake!
Have mercy on all Christian souls, for
A soul cake!
There is also some evidence of trick-or-treat type activities in the original Celtic tradition. Historians say the Celts would dress up in ghoulish outfits and parade out of town to lead the wandering spirits away. Additionally, Celtic children would walk door to door to collect firewood for a giant communal bonfire. Once the bonfire was burning, the revelers would extinguish all the other fires in the village. They would then relight every fire with a flame taken from the Samhain bonfire, as a symbol of the people's connection to one another.
A lot of the Samhain celebration had to do with honoring Celtic gods, and there's evidence that the Celts would dress as these deities as part of the festival. They may have actually gone door to door to collect food to offer to the gods. It is fairly clear that Samhain involved an offering of food to spirits. The Celts believed in fairies and other mischievous creatures, and the notion of Halloween trickery may have come from their reported activities on Samhain.
As part of the Samhain celebration, Celts would bring home an ember from the communal bonfire at the end of the night. They carried these embers in hollowed-out turnips, creating a lantern resembling the modern day jack-o-lantern
But the direct predecessor of jack-o-lanterns dates from 18th century Ireland, where ancient Celtic traditions remained a significant part of the national culture. A very popular character in Irish folk tales was Stingy Jack, a disreputable miser who, on several occasions, avoided damnation by tricking the devil (often on All Hallows' Eve). In one story, he convinced Satan to climb up a tree for some apples, and then cut crosses all around the trunk so the devil couldn't climb down. The devil promised to leave Jack alone forever, if he would only let him out of the tree.
When Jack eventually died, he was turned away from Heaven, due to his life of sin. But, in keeping with their agreement, the Devil wouldn't take Jack either. He was cursed to travel forever as a spirit in limbo. As Jack left the gates of Hell, the Devil threw him a hot ember to light the way in the dark. Jack placed the ember in a hollowed-out turnip, and wandered off into the world. According to the Irish legend, you might see Jack's spirit on All Hallows' Eve, still carrying his turnip lantern through the darkness.
Traditional jack-o-lanterns, hollowed-out turnips with embers or candles inside, became a very popular Halloween decoration in Ireland and Scotland a few hundred years ago. Folk tradition held that they would ward off Stingy Jack and other spirits on Halloween, and they also served as representations of the souls of the dead. Irish families who emigrated to America brought the tradition with them, but they replaced the turnips with the more plentiful pumpkins. As it turns out, pumpkins were easier to carve than turnips. People began to cut frightening faces and other elaborate designs into their jack-o-lanterns.
For children, dressing up and trick-or-treating door to door is still the main event. Most households in the United States and Canada participate, and those who don't run the risk of petty vandalism. Many adults dress up themselves, to go out with their children or to attend costume parties and contests. Other Halloween activities fill the whole month of October. These traditions preserve Samhain's spirit of revelry in the face of frightening thoughts of death and the supernatural. Americans have added scary movies, community haunted houses, ghost stories and Ouija boards to the celebration. Greeting cards and festive decorations are also a big part of Halloween.
Although Halloween comes in part from Christian tradition, many Christian groups want nothing to do with the holiday because of its pagan elements. Prominent Halloween figures, such as witches and ghouls, carry an uncomfortable connotation to some Christians, and they do not want to expose their children to these images. Some groups are also disturbed by the origins of the holiday, as it is a common belief that the Samhain festival was a celebration of a devil-like god of the dead called Samhain. Most evidence suggests that this is not actually the case -- the main documentation for such a god comes from material apparently produced by the Catholic church hundreds of years ago, as a means of converting people away from Druidism.
Christian groups are also disturbed by rumors that modern day Wiccans and Druids observe Halloween as an occasion to worship evil forces. The established organizations of these groups completely disavow all knowledge of such practices, though they do say that Halloween is an important day of the year in their religion. Any such practices are by individuals and smaller extremist groups, operating outside any larger organization.
Many Wiccans, modern day witches, get upset around Halloween because they feel that they are misrepresented by a few Christian spokesmen and the news media. They want to separate their religion from the popular notion of witches as evil figures. They say that modern witchcraft is based on ancient Wiccan and Druid beliefs that had nothing to do with Satan or other figures from Judeo-Christian theology. Wiccans say that their religion is based on a connection to nature and the universe, not to dark forces and evil spells as the popular idea of a witch suggests.
Many aspects of Halloween are important to children. Dressing up can give a shy child a boost of self-confidence, and trick-or-treating may create a healthy feeling of community in a neighborhood. Most of all, adults who love Halloween would hate to see their favorite traditions phased out, because they remember how much they enjoyed them when they were kids.
Why do we enjoy being scared?
Why do we enjoy dressing up as scary figures?
All of these pleasures seem to be universal human traits, with death-related festivals and costume parades popping up in many cultures. As human beings, we are acutely aware of our own mortality and death in general. Human cultures are obsessed with death because we cannot understand it, yet it looms over everything we do. It is one of the most frightening mysteries we face in life. One way to feel more comfortable with this unknown realm is to make light of it with a festival. This brings all of the frightening ideas out in the open, where we can face them more comfortably, enjoying ourselves with other people instead of contemplating mortality on our own.
In addition to working through uneasiness about death and supernatural mysteries, people like to feel frightened for purely biological reasons. When you watch a scary movie or take a ride on a roller coaster, your brain triggers a fear response. Your body releases adrenaline and other hormones that provide extra energy do deal with the situation. When you're actually in danger, of course, you don't enjoy the feeling of these hormones, you simply use them to fight, escape or take some other action. When the danger is simulated, though, your mind knows you're actually safe and you enjoy the energy that the hormones give you. Intentional, contained fear is fun because it provides a hormone rush and helps you work through your general fears in a safe
environment.
By dressing up as our fears, we embrace them even more closely, taking control of them to some extent. This can be particularly effective with children. They usually don't fear mortality as much as they do sinister figures like monsters and ghosts. Once they've dressed themselves up as a monster and played that character, they cut through some of the monster's mystery, making it less ominous.
Trick-or-treating is not all about dressing up as frightening figures, of course. Just as often, children dress as a favorite cartoon character or an adult figure such as a fireman or astronaut. The pleasure in this is the simple joy of play-acting - kids look forward to Halloween because they get to inhabit a character, whether it be a frightening figure or an idolized superhero. Adults enjoy dressing up for similar reasons, and this is why the masquerade plays a part in so many festivals from different cultures. Putting on a mask lets people drop their inhibitions and step outside of themselves for an evening. People in costumes often say and do things they probably wouldn't say or do in their everyday life. It's very satisfying to step into another character for a while, even (or especially) for a grown-up.
Halloween seems to serve a valuable function for many children and adults. It continues to be so popular because it fills our basic need to address the mysteries that frighten us, and even celebrate them. It is a real testament to the power of Halloween traditions that they have been passed down and embraced by so many generations.
Today, the origins of Halloween are mostly forgotten, and the true meaning behind the holiday and its celebrations lost. It has become a day of fantasy, of role play; a chance to dress up and "become" someone else for a day. Donning a scary costume gives some wearers a feeling of power, or - at least - less timidity. Normally straight-laced girls may dress up in sexy costumes, daring the world to see them in a different light. Nurse costumes, french maids, playboy bunnies and all sorts of naughty fairies, witches and schoolgirls abound on Halloween night. When Halloween falls mid-week, there may be several parties to attend. Woe to the celebrant who does nnot wear a different costume to each party. Adults no longer settle for cheap costumes; they want something nice, something showy. Halloween costume ideas today very seldom include thin material and a flimsy plastic mask. More often fabrics are of higher quality, and some retailers even offer rental-quality costumes for sale on a regular basis, for those who really want finery or realism.
Whatever your bent, Halloween costumes offer a time to pretend and to have fun. Whether or not your religious affiliation looks upon the original Halloween traditions as "the devil's holiday," if you view Halloween as a day to enjoy in its current light, you can reap its benefits.
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