Origins of Halloween General Purpose: To inform people of the origins of this great holiday.
This year when you carve scary faces into a pumpkin, or eat that Halloween whopper have you ever wondered about the history of where Halloween started? Millions of people a year celebrate Halloween every year but very few know why. Well, I’m here to maybe shed some light or should I say darkness. Halloween is a very scary night but it originated from the Christian religion. All Saint’s Day is November 1. The day before that is what early Christians called All Saint’s Eve or All Hallows Eve. (Hallow meaning saints) Overtime All Saint’s Eve turned into Halloween. But for the real history of the holiday we have to go back almost 1000 years to the early Celts in Ireland! A long time ago, the Celtics believed that Summer ended on October 31. So to get prepared for the end of the season of harvest or life and get ready for the season of death they celebrated Samhain. They believed that on this day the gap between the living and the dead was thinnest and that ghost and ferries could easily cross over. The Celtics would leave food at their doors to keep ghosts at bay and would wear costumes to “blend in” with the dead spirits. This is where we get our costumes today. They believed dressing up would honor the good spirits and keep away the bad ones. Sometime around the 8th century Pope Gregory the 4th merged All Saint’s day with the same day as Samhain and merged the traditions. One of the being children going door to door asking for baked cakes in return of praying for the other person’s dead family in purgatory. Another one was called “guising” wear people would wear masks and go door to door dancing and singing in return for food and wine. Does this sound a little familiar? In early America, Halloween wasn’t really celebrated because of the Puritan beliefs but with the influence of many Irish Immigrants coming to America the holiday started to become more mainstream. One of their traditions was carving faces into potatoes or turnips and leaving them on their doorstep to block out evil spirits. But, when the Irish came to America they saw that pumpkins were way better to carve a face into. And, this is how we got Jack o’ Lanterns. In conclusion, Halloween is a billion-dollar industry with deep dark roots involving the dead. Halloween is only one night so make sure to get spooky and celebrate this fun holiday!