Halloween Customs and Costumes

In times gone by there were a number of reasons for celebrating at Halloween. In the pagan calendar it was the last day of the year, a time to bid summer farewell and to welcome in the winter.

All Hallow's Eve marked the end of the old year and it was believed that on this night the veil dividing the material and spiritual worlds becomes so thin that divine beings and spirits easily come in to walk freely among the living. Here are some of the possible origins for customs still being kept at Halloween.

Trick or Treat

Mischievous ghosts had to be appeased so Celtic folk would leave food and drink on their doorsteps for the ghosts believing that during Samhain the dead would play tricks on them causing panic and devastation all over. In providing them with food and drink, the visiting spirits would be satisfied and would leave people alone. This is thought to be the foundation of the modern day practice of "trick or treat".

Another custom related to trick or treat involved the poor who on All Hallows Day would call from door to door begging for food. If they were given something nice they would pray for the dead in those families who were generous. However they would make mean threats and terrible curses towards those who turned them away.

Dressing as Animals

Samhain, the god of the dead would control those spirits who walked on the evening of 31^st October. On All Hallow's Eve or Halloween, it was believed that he brought together all souls who had died that year and placed them into bodies of animals. The Celts would gather at sunset, dressed up as animals and at sunrise, they would parade around the edge of their villages, hoping to lead the spirits away from their homes and back towards the 'other world'.

Halloween Costumes

The tradition of dressing-up in costumes at Halloween originated from this Celtic ritual where everyone would dress up as animals. Another reason the ancients wore masks and costumes on All Hallow's eve was to disguise themselves to avoid being recognised as one of the living. Costumes are sometimes simple and often scary with the intention of tricking the ghosts and spirits into not recognising the people dressed up. Ideas for costumes for Halloween include: Animals, Demon, Devil, Dracula, Dragons, Frankenstein, Ghost, Grim Reaper, Gypsy, Leprechaun, Mad Scientist, Skeleton, Werewolf.

Bobbing for Apples

The Romans worshipped Pomona, goddess of the harvest. She was often portrayed as being seated on a basket of fruit and flowers with a crown of apples on her head. The annual festival honouring this goddess was celebrated at the time of the Samhain festivities. Eventually the two became integrated. The apple was a fruit sacred to Pomona and the Samhain customs included many divinatory games involving apples.

Samhain Fires

Celtic Samhain ceremonies included lighting bonfires on hilltops to light up the evening. They believed this would help prevent Samhain, god of the dead from growing stronger as it got darker. Fires in homes were extinguished and re-lit from the bonfires to mark the New Year.

In some places, people would dance and chant around the bonfires to ward off evil spirits. Farmers and villagers lit torches from the fires and carried them around their farms and around the edges of their fields to keep evil spirits away. Once the fires had died down, everyone returned to their home and feasted on seed cakes, roasted apple and other tasty dishes to complete the Samhain festivities.

Jack-o-Lantern

Irish immigrants who left Ireland because of the potato famine in 1848 introduced Halloween into the USA. They discovered the pumpkin made a perfect substitute for the carved out turnip they used in Ireland to scare evil spirits away.

Jack was a wicked and crafty Irish villain who was so vile that according to legend, the good souls in heaven wouldn't have anything to do with him and even the Devil himself threw Jack out of Hell because of the tricks he would always play. Not wanted in Heaven or Hell, Jack roamed the Earth holding a hollowed out turnip with a flickering light inside, in search of a resting place.

So as everyone dresses up in ghoulish costumes, carrying their jack-o-lanterns and exclaiming 'trick or treat' they are re-enacting pagan rituals, many of the origins of which have been lost in time.