The Story of Halloween
The Story of Halloween begins several thousand years ago with the Celts and their priests known as the Druids. They lived in what we call Great Britain, Ireland and Northern France region. They lived in a land that was affected by the severe change of seasons and by the Arctic Sun's limited sun light. The Celtics’ religion could be classified, according to today’s definitions, as Paganism. In general the Celtics believed in different Gods or Spirits being in control of Nature or responsible for the different seasons and happenings that made up Life. The Celts had their favorite god who was the sun god. This god represented the Season of the Sun and made the Earth beautiful and created a healthy growing season. But this season ended on November 1st.
The Samhain (pronounced “sow-en”) was the 3 day festival that marked the change of seasons – from the Season of the Sun to the Season of Darkness and Cold. On October 31st after the crops were all harvested and stored, for the long winter, the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on this night, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, was when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead would return to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids to make predictions about their future. These predictions were a source of comfort for the Celtic people because in gave them direction in dealing with the Season of Darkness and Cold. One of the practices of the Druids was to meet on the hilltop in the dark forest of the sacred oak trees. The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals; especially animals that were associated to darkness. These were usually small, nocturnal, dark colored animals. Black Cats were known to be the usual victims to this practice. The Celts would dance around these fires and people would parade around dressed up as those sacrificed animals. At the end of the Samhain, the Celtic people would take embers from the fires that the Druids created and use these embers to re-light their cooking fires in their homes. These new fires would warm their home and protect them from the evil spirits during the winter months.
Another of our traditions the Jack O’Lantern has its roots from this time period. During the Season of Darkness and Cold, people would use vegetables as lanterns by hollowing them out and place embers inside them. This would enable people to travel during these dark days and to transport fire or the Druid’s embers from one place to another. In those days root vegetables, like turnips and beets, or gourds were used as lanterns. The tradition of the pumpkin used as a lantern did not come into existence until the mid 1800’s. The Jack O’Lantern is another story.
During the first century (around A.D. 43) Romans had conquered the majority of the Celtic territory. The Romans brought with them many of their own festivals and customs. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. During these festivals the Romans would celebrate these holidays with many types of games. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration and its games into the Samhain festival probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples. The Pomona was also celebrated around the 1st of November. After about 400 hundred years of Roman rule the customs of the Celtic's Samhain festival, the Roman Feralia and Pomona Day mixed together becoming 1 major fall holiday.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity was spreading over Europe, Britain and Ireland. Around the year 835 AD, Pope Boniface IV of the Roman Catholic Church would designate November 1st as a church holiday to honor all the saints. This day was called All Saint's Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Years later the Church would make November 2nd a holy day too. It was called All Souls Day and was to honor the dead. It was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as saints, angels and devils. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. This of course failed because people, in general, do not give up on old traditions so easily.
Another belief is that the Pope wanted to create a holiday so more people would come into the churches thus encourage more types of donations. But people during this time preferred to celebrate the dead by having parties or gatherings not at the church but at the grave sites in the open fields and among the trees similar to the Roman Feralia and Pomona festivals. Here the heads of families would tell stories of the dead by remembering their accomplishments. In response the church would claim that you must be pure and free of sins or the spirits of the dead would take your soul - thus the people must come to church and attend confession. Again old ways die hard; people, instead of going to confession, would dress up in Costumes so the spirits would be unable to know who they were and thus protecting their souls from these spirits. In the end October 31st became the day before All Saints Day or All Hallows Eve which we now call Halloween.
There are many more cultures throughout the millennium with their stories and traditions that coincides with the changing of the seasons. As people spread and travel from one land to another all these cultures and beliefs begin to change and blend with other people. Today we now celebrate Halloween with all of these influences from the festivals of Salhain, Feralia, Pomona and from other cultures too.
Happy Halloween!
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