History of Halloween

By Shelby Welker, sw256@uakron.edu

Although Halloween is a widely celebrated holiday in America, with its name bringing to mind thoughts of candy, pumpkins, trick or treating, and haunted houses, many do not know how Halloween originated. Halloween is 4000 years older than Christmas, and developed in western Europe, with the Celts. There was an ancient pagan festival called Samhain (pronounced like ‘sowin’). Samhain celebrated the end of summer and the beginning of fall, and was the ancient Celtic New Year’s Eve. It was thought that during Samhain the barrier between worlds was fragile, and spirits could cross over into the world of the living. The Celts would celebrate by lighting bonfires, both to burn the bones of livestock killed in preparation for winter and to ward off any evil spirits (the fires were used to burn bones and were known as bone fires, which eventually morphed into the word bonfire). They carved faces into turnips, with the intention of scaring off any evil spirits, which is why pumpkin carving is done today.

In the eighth century, in an attempt to get more Celtic pagans to convert to Christianity, the church created All Souls Day. All Souls Day was a day to honor the dead and was initially celebrated just like Samhain was, basically acting as the Christian version of the original holiday, only Samhain was October 31st and All Souls Day was November 2nd. Today we still celebrate Halloween on October 31st, though Dia de Los Muertos, a holiday often associated with Halloween, is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd.

Along with All Souls Day, All Saints Day was created in the 8th century, and while it was initially on May 13th, it was moved to November 1st to try and get more Celtic pagans to convert to Christianity. The holiday celebrated all of the saints who did not have their own specific day. All Saints Day was originally known as Allhallowmas, and since Samhain was the day before, it became known as All Hallows Eve. The name All Hallows Eve eventually morphed into Halloween, giving us the holiday we know today.