Post by Elix on Sept 29, 2005 9:26:15 GMT -5
The history of Halloween
The time is upon us where the leaves change colour, the smells of fresh crisp air. We put on our overcoats and turn the heat on in our cars. The children begin school, we star thinking of the Holidays, and most importantly, we begin to think of Halloween.
Jack’o Lanterns decorate window sills, devils and bats look out at us from webbed doorways. We dress in costumes and take our children trick or treating up and down cold fog filled streets filled with goblins and ghosts.
Halloween is a great time of the year, and we, especially in America, celebrated in so many ways. So many cultures have traditions based upon All Saints Day.
Halloween began in Ancient Celtic Ireland around 5th century BC signifying the official end of summer on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), The Celtic New Year.
In the early settlements of man, you had 2 seasons, the growing season and winter, also known as Beltain and Samhain. On May 1st you would send your cattle out to pasture, on November 1, you would return them to their barns for the winter. Since November 1 began the winter cycle, when all the plants would die and food would be scarce, the ancient Celts celebrated the night before in honour of the Lord of the Dead Anwinn. Their belief was, the spirits of the dead who had died during that year gathered that night and needed help of their kin to cross over to the land of the dead. Relatives would hollow out turnips and gourds and use them to carry the spirits to the proper location.
Another superstition was that the spirits that had died that same year, would come back to possess the living. The Celts believed that on October 31st the worlds of the living and the dead were suspended and the dead could cross over into the world of the living. Not wanting to be possessed, the people would put out the fires in their homes to make them cold and unwelcoming. They would also dress up in a ghoulish manner and act as destructive and as noisy as possible in order to scare away any spirits looking to possess the living bodies.
It was also believed that on the night of Samhain, the presence of the spirits made it easier for the Druids to make predictions about the future. To commemorate the event, the Druids would build huge bon fires where the people would meet and burn crops and animals as sacrifice to the Celtic Gods. They too, would dress up in costumes of animal skins and would try to predict one another’s futures. At the end of the Celebration, the tribes men would re-lite their harths from the sacred bon fires of the Druids to help protect them through the winter.
Not only did the spirits of the decease flood the lands of the living on Samhain, but so did the Fey. Here is where some of the earlier traditions of give a treat or be tricked came from.
It is believed that the fairies would dress up as old beggars and go house to house begging for food. Those that would give, were rewarded, those that slammed their doors would tend to experience bad luck.
Around the 1st century AD, the Romans adopted the practice of Samhain as their own. The Romans had two celebrations in October. The first was Feralia, a day late in October when the Romans would commemorate the dead, and the second, Pomona, the Roman Goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and may explain why one of the modern Halloween traditions is bobbing for apples.
Now incorporated into Roman tradition, the belief of spirit possession began to wan and dressing up like hobgoblins took more of a ceremonial role.
The American custom of Trick or treating did not originate from the Irish Celts but from a 9th century European custom called “souling”.
On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for “soul cakes”, made from pieces of bread and currants. The more soul cakes a beggar received, the more prayers they would promise to say for the deceased of the donor. It was believed that the souls would spend time in Limbo after death, and prayers, even from strangers, could expedite a soul’s passage to heaven. This was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses of their neighbors and would be given food, drink, and money.
By the 800s, Christian influence had spread into the Celtic lands. Pope Bonefice IV designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, as a day to honour saints and martyrs. It is believed the Pope was trying to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related but more church-sanctioned holiday.
The holiday was called All-Hallows from the middle English Allholomesse, meaning All Saints’ Day and the night before, Samhain, was All-Hallows Eve, Hallow E’en, and eventually, Halloween.
Even later, the church would eventually make November 2 All Souls’ Day, the day to honour the dead. This day would be celebrated similarly to the ancient celebrations of Samhain, with bon fires, parades, and costumes.
The jack-o-lantern is an Irish Christian tradition. Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing up a tree. Once in the tree, Jack carved the sign of the cross , trapping the Devil in the tree forever. Jack made a deal with the devil, that should he let him out of the tree, the Devil will never bother him again.
After Jack died, he was not allowed into Heaven for his evil deeds on Earth, but wasn’t allowed into Hell either because of the trick he played on Satan. So instead, the Devil gave him a single ember placed in a hallowed turnip to light his way through the frigid darkness.
The original Jack-o-Lanterns were made from turnips, but when the immigrants came to America, they found pumpkins to be cheap and more plentiful than the turnips.
As European immigrants came to America, they brought their traditions of Halloween with them, but due to the heavy protestant belief system in the colonial times, celebration was limited.
It was more commonly celebrated in Maryland and other southern colonies where the traditions of different European cultures and American Indian beliefs meshed and an American version of Halloween began to emerge.
The first Halloween celebrations included “play parties”, public events held to celebrate the harvest, costumes, ghost stories, dancing, fortune telling, and mischief-making. Although the fall harvest festivals were common, by the middle of the 19th century, Halloween was still not celebrated everywhere.
Not until around 1846 with the flood of new immigrants, especially the Irish, was Halloween popularized throughout the country.
Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could for-tell the name and appearance of their future husband.
By the turn of the century, Halloween parties for adults and children were common, and the holiday became more of a time to gather with the neighborhood and community more so that of ghost, pranks, and witchcraft. Parties focused on games and foods and festive costumes and parents were encouraged to remove anything grotesque or frightening out of the Halloween celebrations, and because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of it’s superstitious and religious overtones by the 20th century.
By the 1920’s, Halloween had become a secular but community-centered holiday. However, despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism plagued the Halloween celebrations, and because of the high baby boom of the 1950’s, Halloween became a Holiday directed towards the young, and celebrations were confined to civic centers and classrooms, where they could be more easily accommodated.
Between 1920 and 1950, “trick-or-treating” was revived. It was a relatively inexpensive way for entire communities to share in the Halloween celebration and in theory could prevent tricks from being played by providing the neighborhood children with treats.
Today American’s spend an estimated $6.9 Billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday.
I hope you enjoyed my report.
Have a Safe and Happy Halloween!!
www.wilstar.com/holidays/halloween.htm
www.historychannel.com/exhibits/halloween
www.theholidayspot.com/halloween/history.htm
www.dcls.org/x/archives/halloween.html
The time is upon us where the leaves change colour, the smells of fresh crisp air. We put on our overcoats and turn the heat on in our cars. The children begin school, we star thinking of the Holidays, and most importantly, we begin to think of Halloween.
Jack’o Lanterns decorate window sills, devils and bats look out at us from webbed doorways. We dress in costumes and take our children trick or treating up and down cold fog filled streets filled with goblins and ghosts.
Halloween is a great time of the year, and we, especially in America, celebrated in so many ways. So many cultures have traditions based upon All Saints Day.
Halloween began in Ancient Celtic Ireland around 5th century BC signifying the official end of summer on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), The Celtic New Year.
In the early settlements of man, you had 2 seasons, the growing season and winter, also known as Beltain and Samhain. On May 1st you would send your cattle out to pasture, on November 1, you would return them to their barns for the winter. Since November 1 began the winter cycle, when all the plants would die and food would be scarce, the ancient Celts celebrated the night before in honour of the Lord of the Dead Anwinn. Their belief was, the spirits of the dead who had died during that year gathered that night and needed help of their kin to cross over to the land of the dead. Relatives would hollow out turnips and gourds and use them to carry the spirits to the proper location.
Another superstition was that the spirits that had died that same year, would come back to possess the living. The Celts believed that on October 31st the worlds of the living and the dead were suspended and the dead could cross over into the world of the living. Not wanting to be possessed, the people would put out the fires in their homes to make them cold and unwelcoming. They would also dress up in a ghoulish manner and act as destructive and as noisy as possible in order to scare away any spirits looking to possess the living bodies.
It was also believed that on the night of Samhain, the presence of the spirits made it easier for the Druids to make predictions about the future. To commemorate the event, the Druids would build huge bon fires where the people would meet and burn crops and animals as sacrifice to the Celtic Gods. They too, would dress up in costumes of animal skins and would try to predict one another’s futures. At the end of the Celebration, the tribes men would re-lite their harths from the sacred bon fires of the Druids to help protect them through the winter.
Not only did the spirits of the decease flood the lands of the living on Samhain, but so did the Fey. Here is where some of the earlier traditions of give a treat or be tricked came from.
It is believed that the fairies would dress up as old beggars and go house to house begging for food. Those that would give, were rewarded, those that slammed their doors would tend to experience bad luck.
Around the 1st century AD, the Romans adopted the practice of Samhain as their own. The Romans had two celebrations in October. The first was Feralia, a day late in October when the Romans would commemorate the dead, and the second, Pomona, the Roman Goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and may explain why one of the modern Halloween traditions is bobbing for apples.
Now incorporated into Roman tradition, the belief of spirit possession began to wan and dressing up like hobgoblins took more of a ceremonial role.
The American custom of Trick or treating did not originate from the Irish Celts but from a 9th century European custom called “souling”.
On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for “soul cakes”, made from pieces of bread and currants. The more soul cakes a beggar received, the more prayers they would promise to say for the deceased of the donor. It was believed that the souls would spend time in Limbo after death, and prayers, even from strangers, could expedite a soul’s passage to heaven. This was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses of their neighbors and would be given food, drink, and money.
By the 800s, Christian influence had spread into the Celtic lands. Pope Bonefice IV designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, as a day to honour saints and martyrs. It is believed the Pope was trying to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related but more church-sanctioned holiday.
The holiday was called All-Hallows from the middle English Allholomesse, meaning All Saints’ Day and the night before, Samhain, was All-Hallows Eve, Hallow E’en, and eventually, Halloween.
Even later, the church would eventually make November 2 All Souls’ Day, the day to honour the dead. This day would be celebrated similarly to the ancient celebrations of Samhain, with bon fires, parades, and costumes.
The jack-o-lantern is an Irish Christian tradition. Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing up a tree. Once in the tree, Jack carved the sign of the cross , trapping the Devil in the tree forever. Jack made a deal with the devil, that should he let him out of the tree, the Devil will never bother him again.
After Jack died, he was not allowed into Heaven for his evil deeds on Earth, but wasn’t allowed into Hell either because of the trick he played on Satan. So instead, the Devil gave him a single ember placed in a hallowed turnip to light his way through the frigid darkness.
The original Jack-o-Lanterns were made from turnips, but when the immigrants came to America, they found pumpkins to be cheap and more plentiful than the turnips.
As European immigrants came to America, they brought their traditions of Halloween with them, but due to the heavy protestant belief system in the colonial times, celebration was limited.
It was more commonly celebrated in Maryland and other southern colonies where the traditions of different European cultures and American Indian beliefs meshed and an American version of Halloween began to emerge.
The first Halloween celebrations included “play parties”, public events held to celebrate the harvest, costumes, ghost stories, dancing, fortune telling, and mischief-making. Although the fall harvest festivals were common, by the middle of the 19th century, Halloween was still not celebrated everywhere.
Not until around 1846 with the flood of new immigrants, especially the Irish, was Halloween popularized throughout the country.
Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could for-tell the name and appearance of their future husband.
By the turn of the century, Halloween parties for adults and children were common, and the holiday became more of a time to gather with the neighborhood and community more so that of ghost, pranks, and witchcraft. Parties focused on games and foods and festive costumes and parents were encouraged to remove anything grotesque or frightening out of the Halloween celebrations, and because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of it’s superstitious and religious overtones by the 20th century.
By the 1920’s, Halloween had become a secular but community-centered holiday. However, despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism plagued the Halloween celebrations, and because of the high baby boom of the 1950’s, Halloween became a Holiday directed towards the young, and celebrations were confined to civic centers and classrooms, where they could be more easily accommodated.
Between 1920 and 1950, “trick-or-treating” was revived. It was a relatively inexpensive way for entire communities to share in the Halloween celebration and in theory could prevent tricks from being played by providing the neighborhood children with treats.
Today American’s spend an estimated $6.9 Billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday.
I hope you enjoyed my report.
Have a Safe and Happy Halloween!!
www.wilstar.com/holidays/halloween.htm
www.historychannel.com/exhibits/halloween
www.theholidayspot.com/halloween/history.htm
www.dcls.org/x/archives/halloween.html