(Published on October 30, 2012 by Punto Central Luzon, www.punto.com.ph)
Ancient
Origins of Halloween
Halloween's
origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced
sow-in).
The
Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United
Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.
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 the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds
of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they
celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned
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, or Celtic priests,
to make predictions about the future.
For
a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies
were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To
commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people
gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During
the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads
and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes.
When
the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had
extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them
during the coming winter.
By
43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory.
In
the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two
festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration
of Samhain.
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.
The
symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into
Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that
is practiced today on Halloween.
On
May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of
all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was
established in the Western church.
Pope
Gregory III (731–741) later expanded the festival to include all saints as well
as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1. By the 9th
century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it
gradually blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites.
In
1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the
dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the
Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday.
All
Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and
dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils.
The
All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from
Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it,
the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called
All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.
Halloween
Comes to America
Celebration
of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid
Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and
the southern colonies.
As
the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the
American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to
emerge.
The
first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to
celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell
each other's fortunes, dance and sing.
Colonial
Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and
mischief-making of all kinds.
By
the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common,
but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
In
the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new
immigrants.
These
new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato
famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally.
Taking
from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and
go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became
today's "trick-or-treat" tradition.
Young
women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of
their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.
In
the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday
more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and
witchcraft.
At
the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became
the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of
the season and festive costumes.
Parents
were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything
"frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations.
Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and
religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.
By
the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered
holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment.
Despite
the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague
Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time.
By
the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had
evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of
young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic
centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily
accommodated.
Between
1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also
revived.
Trick-or-treating
was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween
celebration.
In
theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing
the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born,
and it has continued to grow.
Today,
Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the
country's second largest commercial holiday.
Today's
Halloween Traditions
The
American Halloween tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates
back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities,
poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called
"soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's
dead relatives.
The
distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the
ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits.
The
practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually
taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be
given ale, food, and money.
The
tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic
roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time.
Food
supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short
days of winter were full of constant worry.
On
Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world,
people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes.
To
avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left
their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow
spirits.
On
Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of
food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting
to enter.
