Who doesn’t feel the spooky vibe on and around Halloween? There’s plenty of history to give us all good reason for the goosebumps, that’s for sure. While the roots of Halloween (aka Samhain, pronounced SOW-in) and its traditions aren’t crystal clear, there are certainly prevailing notions with historical pedigree. Halloween and Samhain are essentially the same thing, though the term Samhain came before what we know more popularly as Halloween. Before we get to that fine distinction, first things first: let's go back about 2,000 years to the Celtic Pagans who started the whole thing.
The Celts lived and breathed the rhythm of the seasons and the land, which is hard for us to even conceptualize in our age of automation and an easily accessed, year-round food supply. The time of the harvest was critical to the Celts, and the harvest at Samhain was the final harvest of the year for them. This day also marks the Celtic or Pagan New Year and the start of winter, and as such, it is a time for endings and beginnings. Whatever harvest remained was left to rot, falling back to the earth where it would feed the soil and ultimately be reborn as a new harvest over the coming months. Because this symbolism was so crucial and all-encompassing for the Celts, whose very lives were tied to the weather and the turning of the year, this became the time when they would honor their dead. They determined that Samhain marked the time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was at its thinnest. Even today, this transitional time of year is prime for ghosts and spirits, both angry and kind, to communicate with and walk among us.
“Samhain” means “end of summer.” The Celts would have harvest festivals on Samhain that, in part, celebrated the kindness that their sun god, Baal, showed them prior to the reaping. The Druids (Celtic priests) were a proactive bunch, so instead of simply waiting for the dead to stop on by, they would dress as scarily as possible—antlers and animal hides and the like--to ward off any evil spirits preemptively. (Sound familiar? Halloween costumes!) The Celts would also use bonfires to banish ghosts, and made offerings of plants and animals, which were added to these bonfires. When the fires burned themselves out, they Druids would interpret the charred remains (like reading tea leaves) to gain insight into the circumstances of the coming year. This perpetuated the strong ties between Samhain and divination.
Just as the bonfires would scare off any looming ghoulies, so, too, would the head-shaped lanterns the Druids used for that very purpose. This was likely the forbearer of the jack-o’-lantern, though in Great Britain it probably originated as some other vegetable, like the turnip, since pumpkins weren’t local and didn’t catch on until Samhain reached America. Samhain certainly wasn’t all about banishing ghosts, however; welcoming and celebrating the spirits of the dead was just as important, if not more so. The Celts would leave out goodies for the well-loved spirits of dearly departed—think cookies for Santa at Christmas. This is likely how trick-or-treating originated: if the living relative didn't leave out any food, the jilted spirit might not take too kindly to that and wreak a little havoc.
The Romans had similar festivals around the same time in honor of Pomona, their goddess of fruitful abundance (including the very seasonal apple orchards). It wasn’t until Christianity really picked up speed around 400 C.E. that the Celts and Romans felt pressure to put a lid on their festivals honoring the harvest and the dead. Christians were threatened by the stronghold of Pagan beliefs, particularly with regard to Samhain, so they moved All Hallows’ Day (now commonly called All Saints’ Day, a day of reflection and prayer for saints that both did and did not already have their own calendar event) from May to November 1st. November 2nd became All Souls' Day, a Christian day to honor the dead in their own traditions. October 31st, then, became All Hallows’ Eve, which morphed over time into Hallowe’en. Ditch the apostrophe, and here we land in 2011.
Halloween came to the States shortly after we were liberated from England in the late 18th century. Obviously it struck a chord: we’re still dressing up, lighting bonfires, carving jack-o’-lanterns, trick-or-treating, practicing various forms of divination, and scaring ourselves with ghost stories and other tales of the dead.
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