Halloween History

We’re coming up on that time of year when the veil between fully dressed and scantily clad is at its thinnest.

Whoops! I meant to say the veil of the living and dead are at its thinnest. Here in New England, the trees have turned their red and golden hues with the crisp air swirling the fallen piles around yards. Halloween is drawing nearer as the days grow shorter and shorter.

This is one of my favorite times of the year. I know CJ alluded to my lamenting the end of summer in one of her reviews. And it’s true, I hate to see summer go. But, as the season turns into full autumn, I can’t help but get excited for the spooky activities and events that pop up the closer we get to All Hallows Eve. So, when I sat down to write, I thought I should dedicate some space to the second biggest holiday in the United States.

What we know as Halloween is a patchwork holiday. It’s contents sewn together from several different traditions. A fairly typical story for the holidays we celebrate as this is part of the conquerors’ modus operandi. Samhain (pronounced Soo-win) and the Christian Allhallowtide with a little influence from the Protestants and the effects of immigration were responsible for the birth of Halloween.

Samhain, which any Outlander fan will describe as responsible for time travel, but is the Celtic New Year, celebrated from the sunset on October 31st and November 1st. Days started at sunset in the Celtic tradition rather than sunrise. During this day, the wall between the lands of the living and the dead was believed to disappear. This allowed both the souls of the dead and ancient spirits to rejoin the living, which leads to a celebration with dueling traditions taking place simultaneously.

First, people would hold great feasts to commemorate the harvest that had just completed but also to remember loved ones who had passed on. Food would be set aside as an offer of hospitality to the souls of the departed to dine with the family once more. Divination and games were played as part of the joyous reveling. However, not all of the otherworldly creatures were benign and benevolent. Bonfires were lit to protect against the more malicious entities that could be about. Later, during the 18th and 19th centuries, jack o’ lanterns were used as talismans against any trickster or mean spirits come to do harm. For American Gods fans, the vignette with Essie MacGowan depicts these types of harvest offerings. She leaves bowls of milk at the edge of her fields and bread on the kitchen window still to pay homage to Mad Sweeney. People would use the milk and bread offerings during Samhain as ways to ward off any ghosts bent on harming the living/livestock. Folks would also go about dressed up to hide from these spirits, called guising, often going door to door collecting food offerings.

Eventually, the Catholics came into the picture. Allhallowtide is a series of holy days focused on memorializing the dead. The observation of these feast days was moved around the 8th century to coincide with Samhain. The period begins with All Hallows Eve. Now synonymous with Halloween, it was a day of vigil and sometimes one of fasting. On the 1st, All Saints Day honors the Martyrs and Saints in heaven. On the final day, All Souls Day, those caught up in Purgatory would have prayers and masses held for them. Over the entire three days, it would be common for people to visit the graves of their loved ones and light candles on their graves. When the broad arms of the Reformation swept across the Old World, feasting days, including Allhallowtide, saw a reduction in importance in religious life. Once again, the traditions of Samhain and Allhallowtide were nestled in the Celtic culture for observation. And they were carried over to the New World during the Potato Famine of the 19th century.

For a while, Halloween was only observed within the immigrant communities. Over time the traditions diffused out into the wider population. Midway through the 20th century, Halloween had become a household observance although the holiday had since gone through another facelift. The holiday in the US has retained the spooky and ghoulish elements from its Celtic beginnings. The dead still walk among us on the evening of the 31st. This includes on our television sets via specials and full-length features. Witches and witchcraft were folded into the ghoulish hauntings, pulling from the scars left behind by the Salem Witch Trials. Guising, better known to us as Trick or Treating, has become king of the holiday. The practice now so important some cities and towns are discussing moving the holiday for facility’s sake.

Not every aspect of the hodgepodge holiday made the transition into present day. Dia de Los Muertos is more synonymous with remembering loved ones. Dia de Los Muertos could be called Halloween’s distant cousin. Although it is its own distinct holiday, Allhallowtide is also a progenitor of the Mexican celebration. Halloween’s memorial components have been dropped entirely, which is a shame when you think about it. We have Memorial Day and Veterans Day on the calendar, but neither has the same impetus supporting them. Without question, parties and picnics are held on Memorial Day. I feel that the spirit of the festivities is very much rooted in the fact that warm weather is around the corner more than anything else. Of course, that could be because I live in New England, and living in a snow globe gets boring after a while. My mother makes an effort each year to set down flower pots on the graves of the departed. I don’t know of many other people who make the trip to the cemetery each May 25th. But I could be wrong there.

Halloween, as we know it, has come to us through an evolution of practices and traditions, and it is continuing to evolve as time goes on. Part of the reason I sat down to take a good hard look at Halloween is because of the articles about towns looking to move the date of Halloween popping up on my news feed. From a logistics standpoint, I understand a lot of the speed behind the movement. I would benefit from the move myself as I commandeer my parents’ lawn for my version of the most sincere pumpkin patch. They don’t exactly live next door. Pushing everything to a Saturday night would save me from rearranging my weekday schedule and taking time off of work for preparations. It would probably lead to me having more time for the setup, which would thrill my mother let me tell you. She’d wipe Halloween off the calendar if she could and turn Thanksgiving into a whole weekend of feasting instead. That said, I don’t think I’d enjoy it as much because the holiday would have lost a tether to a critical piece of lore. You might even say it is the heart of the whole tradition. But maybe that’s just me.

We have come to the end of our jaunt through a brief history of Halloween, and hopefully, you’ve learned something new or had your holiday spirit piqued. I’ll do my best to keep Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter updated with pictures of pumpkins and decorations. Till next time, Nerd Girls.