This coming Wednesday is the holiday of Halloween. This is a holiday of Western-European origin and American fame, now spread around the world thanks to globalization and commercialism. I bet you have heard of this holiday, but I wonder if you know its origin. Today I am going to write some about the origin and traditions of Halloween and over the next few days leading up to the actual holiday I will have some posts for you about different Halloween decorations and costumes to help you get in the spirit of this holiday.
The name of this holiday has changed over time. The holiday of All Hallows Eve (eve=evening) is a Christian holiday observed in many countries, but not always in the way American now celebrate Halloween. The name All Hallows Eve evolved into Hallowe’en and eventually Halloween. This holiday has origins dating back to the celebration of harvest festivals in many pagan religions. These older celebrations were then influenced and incorporated into by the Christian holiday of All Souls Day and All Saints Day that happen on the first two days of November. In Christianity, it was traditionally believed that the souls of the dead wandered the earth until All Saints’ Day each year and All Hallows Eve provided these souls last chance to visit and do mischief before moving on to the next world.
Halloween and some of its traditions were brought to America by immigrants from Ireland and Scotland who celebrated Halloween with some of the symbols we still use today.
For example:
The carving of pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns comes from the custom of carving turnips into lanterns (in Ireland and Scotland) as a way of remembering the souls still wandering the earth. In America immigrants used pumpkins to make these carving because pumpkins are softer, larger, and easier to carve than a turnip.Images of ghosts and monsters related to this holiday come from the idea that the dead walking around on this day.The custom of trick-or-treating comes from the medieval practice of poor people going door to door on November 1st (All Saints Day) asking for food in return for making prayers for the dead on November 2nd (All Souls Day). Today trick-or-treating is usually carried out by children. This is a custom in which children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy, with the question, “Trick or treat?” The word “trick” refers to the threat of performing some mischief on the homeowners if no treat is given. Traditionally homeowners keeps some treats around to give to children so that they don’t have a trick played on them. Today it is not very common for children to actually perform tricks if they don’t get a treat, but some older teenagers often do tricks and get into mischief on this holiday.I hope this history helps you better understand this famous American holiday. The holiday has changed a great deal in just the last few decades and now is more about candy and costumes than anything else.
