The Origin of Halloween

Today, we’re exploring the origins of Halloween.

Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? How did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?

This information comes from a paper by Dr. Jerry Wilson.

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. In  the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer
officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year,  would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31,villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized.  As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.

The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors.

At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.

Next week we'll look at the tradition of Jack-O-Lantern's.

Safe Journeys,
Sandi

Comments

[Denise]

In my husband's country, in the old days, during Ramadan, the children would go from house to house asking for sweets, and would say, "Helwa heloo." (I'm not sure the exact translation, but it's something about sweets, anyhow...)
I always thought this sounded a lot like trick-or-treating and the sound of the "helwa heloo", to me, was a lot like "halloween".

[Lori Prokop]

Dear Sandi,

Love your blog and your book. Could you do some posts on Animal Medicine? Maybe a series of posts about the topic? It would be great. I have both cats and dogs. I'm all ears listening and will be watching for more on this topic.

Thanks for putting up the blog and receiving my request.

Blessings of Love and Light,

Lori Prokop