What Exactly is Halloween?

The Halloween that we know and celebrate today, here in the United States, is deeply rooted to other countries. Beginning about 2,000 years ago with the Celts who lived in the area that we now know as Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Northern France. November 1^st marked the end of summer, therefore the beginning of winter, when the crops needed to be harvested and animals made safe from the cold. This time of year the people also feared sickness among themselves and their animals.

The Celts celebrated this time of year with a festival called Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween). This festival took place on October 31^st, the night which the Celts believed that ghosts of the people that had passed away during the year could roam about with the living. The souls of these people were thought to be on their way to the other world.

To aid the spirits on their way, people lit large bonfires to give them light. Also the bonfires were to honor the dead; yet keep them away from the living. In these bonfires they sacrificed animals and crops to their Celtic gods.

Our form of dressing up for trick-or-treating came about from part of this Celtic celebration where the people would dress up in costumes and try to tell each others fortunes, over time this developed into children dressing up and going to the wealthy neighbors to receive treats that they would take home for their holiday parties. This type of costume wearing and going door to door has evolved so much over time to become what it is now.

Further on in time the Romans conquered most of the Celtic land. Four hundred years passing brought on the intertwining of two Roman type festivals with the Celtic festival of Samhain.

Feralia was a day at the end of October when the Romans gave memorial to the passing of their dead. Pamona, the second festival was a day they honored the Roman goddess Pamona, the goddess of fruit and trees. Pamona also symbolizes the apple, which may be why we have used the apple in so many celebratory ways throughout the years, such as games like bobbing for apples.

Christianity began to spread through the Celtic lands quickly. The celebration of Samhain, being littered with supernatural belief, was labeled pagan. Therefore the Christians set out to reform the celebrations. Trying to replace the Samhain, in the seventh century, the Pope came up with a plan to replace the Celtic festival and replace it with a church sanctioned holiday. This way they were not totally doing away with the traditions, only changing it to a church holiday.

The Pope declared November 1^st to be All Saints Day, a day in which they would honor the saints and martyrs. Another name for this day is All -hallows or All-Hallowmas. ( taken from the middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints Day)

The night before this was called All-hallows Eve, eventually to be Halloween. Much later the church decided on yet another church holiday and declared November 2^nd to be All Souls' day, a day to honor the dead. This was another celebration similar to Samhain. Together, the these three days All-hallows Eve, All Saints Day, and All Souls' day were called Hallowmas.

As the Europeans began to migrate to America, the customs of their Halloween came with them. However they found a deep protestant belief system in America and their celebrations were greatly limited. America contained several different ethnic groups, so the American version of Halloween slowly emerged. Eventually becoming the Halloween that we know and celebrate today.