Halloween, the day when people dress up in costumes and consume sweets, is right around the corner. However, around this time, some might wonder how we started celebrating this unusual holiday. Often, Halloween is associated with the Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead. But Halloween, despite sharing certain similarities with the Day of the Dead, such as ghoulish decorations and a variety of goodies, has separate origins.
Halloween and its origins
Halloween can be traced back to the Celtic holiday Samhain. According to the National Endowment for the Humanities, Samhain, the Celtic New Year, marked the end of the harvest season and the start of Earth’s hibernation period. It also marked a time during which the barrier between the living and undead worlds were thinnest, allowing the dead to visit the living. During the spread of Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church attempted to incorporate Samhain into their own traditions in order to make the conversion of the Celts to Christianity easier.
This resulted in All Hallows’ Eve and, over time, Halloween.
The costumes, important to the modern celebration of Halloween, started as an attempt to fool the spirits and fairy folk that were believed to be visiting the earthly world. Several other practices from the Samhain festival are still practiced today, like parades, pranks, bobbing for apples and bonfires.
According to the History Channel, the trick-or-treating of modern-day Halloween came from the tendency of children and the poor to knock on homeowners’ doors to ask for gifts. In exchange, these visitors would pray for the souls of the homeowners’ relatives or, in other countries, sing a song, recite poetry or tell a joke. However, this tradition is fuzzy when considering its origins. According to the National Endowment for the Humanities, food was left on doorsteps to prevent otherworldly beings from entering the house, evolving into the practice of trick-or-treating.
Now, large-scale pranks have become the norm. And while costumes and bonfires are still prevalent, leaving food on doorsteps is no longer practiced in the United States, although it is still practiced in several European countries. Also, instead of a time to acknowledge the dead and the end of the harvest season, Halloween is now a time associated with being whoever you want to be, having fun and, of course, receiving candy for it.
The Day of the Dead and its origins
The Day of the Dead, which is the day after Halloween, is actually a holiday born from two different cultures, according to the National Endowment for the Humanities. It consists of practices that come from a blending of traditions from Spanish conquistadors and traditions of the native Mesoamericans. The Aztec Festival of the Dead, a two-month celebration, was a time for participants to set out offerings to the dead as they visited the earthly world. Again, the attempts to convert indigenous holidays into a Christian concept turned these celebrations into All Saints Day and All Souls Day, collectively celebrated in Mexico as los Dias de los Muertos.
According to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the first day is used to remember those who passed away in childhood, while the second day is used to celebrate the visits of those who died as adults. Families will invite their deceased relatives into their house for a visit. These practices are considerably light-hearted, reflecting the idea of death as it was before the time of Columbus.
Halloween and the Day of the Dead, while possessing many similarities, are two different holidays, though they have changed with time.
For more information, visit edsitement.neh.gov/feature/origins-halloween-and-day-dead and history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-trick-or-treating.
