Okay, I don’t know what ghoulish activity happened between the ancient times and now that inspired people to create a holiday full of insidious undertones. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for the door-to-door free candy festivities or the creative showcasing of pumpkin carving skills, and let’s not forget the thrill of dressing up without others’ judging you. However, once all of the festive ornamentation of this seemingly innocent holiday is removed, you’re left with a day that specifically caters to, you guessed it, spirits. Let’s take a brief walk through history to learn the past of this ill-intended holiday.
While there are many stories concerning the origins of Halloween, one of the most popular stories originates from Celtic traditions. Samhain was a pagan festival celebrated on Oct. 31. This celebration originated to mark the ending of the fruitful summer harvest and the beginning of the dark cold winter. Pagan Celts believed that evil spirits were the cause of their dying harvest and on this day the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead would merge. Because of this belief, they would perform rituals offering sacrifices of crops, animals and sometimes humans to appease the spirits and persuade them to bring the sun back to help with their harvest. They would also host bonfires which actually meant, “bone fire,” in which they would pile the remains of the sacrificed animals and humans together and set them ablaze.
Costumes and trick-or-treating also originated from pagan tradition. The pagans would often dress up in morbid costumes including the skins and heads of dead animals, fooling the spirits into believing that they were one of them. Trick-or-treating came about when these people would go door-to-door collecting offerings intended for the wandering spirits.
Jack-O-Lanterns were originally carved in turnips and potatoes, but once the tradition moved to North America the agriculture was much different. The purpose of the Jack-O-Lantern was to ward off wandering evil spirits by placing them on the doorsteps or in the windows of houses.
Now let’s relate the ancient pagan practices to the today’s practices. While many people don’t fully understand the correlation between Halloween and ghoulish, ghostly creatures, we unknowingly continue to follow the same practices, as the pagans did to commune with the dead. The thought is quite unsettling. Bonfires are still being lit, trick-or-treaters are still going door-to-door asking for treats, and costumes are still being worn to imitate other worldly beings.
Though the origins of Halloween may have a significantly eerie past, todays’ practices are equally as terrifying. Horror movies, spooky myths and legends and haunted houses all play a large part in today’s celebrations. I can’t quite grasp the concept of why timidly tip-toeing through a haunted house in hopes of something terrifying happening is a thrilling idea to anybody, or why the stories of Bloody Mary or the Headless Horseman still catch everyone’s attention.
The main issue with this holiday is that the people who avidly celebrate and partake in the festivities have no idea about the intended meaning of these practices. I think if more people knew about the history of Halloween, less people would be involved in such a creepy celebration. Holidays are meant to be celebrated and shared with family and friends for joyful reasons, not morose ones. So, before you buy your costume, eat your candy and carve your pumpkin, think about the gory history behind these traditions.
