Halloween is a holiday that is celebrated every year on the 31st of October. It’s popularity has grown immensely in recent years and it is now one of the most popular holidays in the United States. It was originally called “All Hallows Eve” or “All Saints Eve” and was a day to commemorate all Christian Saints and Martyrs as well as the souls of the dead.
The earliest recorded celebration of Halloween was in both Ireland and Scotland where it became a festival to celebrate their Celtic heritage. Originally, it was believed that supernatural beings known as “The Dead” walked among them on this eve and they would light bonfires to confuse the spirits because they could not cross over running water. It is also believed that they were trying to keep these spirits from returning to earth. As time moved on, this festival was later adopted by the Christian church where many believed that certain witches were able to leave their bodies on this eve and roam around doing mischief. This belief led to many victims of witch hunts being burned at the stake during this period.
In America, Halloween took on an entirely different meaning. During the late nineteenth century, immigrants from Ireland and Scotland brought with them their Halloween traditions. In America, Halloween became commercialized
Halloween is an ancient Celtic festival that was celebrated by the Druids. The festival of Samhain was a time when the spirits of the dead were believed to walk among the living. The Celts believed that on this night, the boundary between this world and the next dissolved.
The Druids built great bonfires to protect their communities from these spirits, and costumed themselves in order to avoid being mistaken for spirits themselves. These early Halloween costumes were not for trick-or-treating but for rituals and sacrifices.
The holiday spread as Christianity grew in Europe, and eventually Halloween evolved from a pagan religious holiday into a secular, calendar-based holiday. The use of jack-o’-lanterns on Halloween may have originated with the Druids who used turnips to carve faces into lanterns.
Its association with witchcraft probably began in Ireland around 1635. This association may have arisen from the fact that the Irish tradition called for divination on 31 October with apple parings and hazelnuts [oranges were not introduced into Europe until after 1492].
Halloween has become a time when people are encouraged to act out fantasies with little or no risk. Children dress up as monsters and most adults do not recognize them as such, but
October 31 is the most popular day of the year for dressing up in costumes, carving jack-o’-lanterns, and putting on spooky makeup to terrify friends and neighbors. It all culminates with a big feast and then a mass exodus of children into the night, collecting candy from neighbors’ porches.
It’s no wonder Halloween has become so popular in contemporary American culture. The holiday has its roots in our Celtic ancestors’ harvest festivals, which have evolved over time into modern Halloween celebrations. But that’s not all there is to this spooky season!
Halloween has long been associated with magic and superstition, especially in medieval times when people believed that supernatural forces were at work during the autumn months. These beliefs have evolved into today’s common practices of trick-or-treating and telling scary stories around the campfire.
What is it about this time of year that spurs us to want to revel in the spirit of mystique? And why do we associate it with fun festivities like costumes, jack-o’-lanterns, bonfires, and trick or treating? Read on to learn more about the history of this intriguing holiday.
Halloween is a holiday celebrated annually on October 31. It is an ancient Celtic festival and has been practiced throughout the centuries. The name comes from a contraction of All Hallows’ Eve, meaning the evening before All Hallows’ Day, or November 1.
Today, Halloween is celebrated in many countries around the world but it has not always been a popular holiday in America. Before the nineteenth century, European immigrants brought their celebration of this evening with them to America. In the 1800s, there was little interest in celebrating Halloween. It was not until the mid-1800s that Americans began to observe the evening with such enthusiasm. Today, it is one of the most popular holidays of the year.*
The practice of trick-or-treating did not begin until the late 1930s when groups of children began parading from house to house asking for candy from their neighbors.* Children typically dressed up like ghosts, witches, monsters and other characters.* Accompanied by props such as cardboard boxes to look like coffins and gravestones were created for children to place at the doors of homes they visited.* The first reported instance of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters was in Detroit in the 1930s.*
The modern celebration of Halloween is
Halloween is not just for kids. Costume parties, pumpkin carving contests, and haunted houses are more popular than ever. Halloween’s dark origins have become even darker as people have added their own spooky touches to the holiday over time.
Treats for Trick-or-Treaters
Halloween has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, or ‘Summer’s End’ which was celebrated on November 1. Celts believed this night marked the end of the growing season and a time to honor the dead. They lit bonfires and wore costumes made of animal heads and skins to disguise themselves from wandering ghosts. The next day they would reenact the past year’s events. The Celts believed that on the night before Samhain, the boundary between our world and the spirit world was lifted so spirits could visit our world. They believed that on October 31st all bets were off, as mortals could roam free through both worlds. Some of these practices carried into what we know today as Halloween customs.
The ancient Romans observed October 31st by lighting lanterns to honor Pomona, goddess of fruits and seeds. In later years, Christians adopted some of these traditions and turned them into harvest festivals honoring saints such as Martin, Catherine
Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the eve of November 1, in the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom, as well as many other countries. Its origins are a fusion of ancient Celtic harvest festivals and newer Christian traditions.
The earliest known use of the term “Halloween” is from the Scottish pre-Christian calendar, where it was known as All Hallows’ Eve. It is said that the pagan celebration of Samhain in Ireland led to some local Christian communities adopting parts of their own All Saints/All Souls customs to incorporate some aspects of Samhain in order to avoid conflict with traditionalists such as St Patrick’s Day.
“The custom of wearing costumes at Halloween may have derived from the practice of making special clothing for All Hallows’tide (alloween). The garments worn were improvised versions of everyday clothes. Some scholars hold that Halloween began among the Celts as a festival marking the end of summer and beginning of winter and was not Christianised until 1131 when Pope Innocent II decreed that all churches should celebrate All Saints’ Day on November 1. In any event, Halloween is now firmly entrenched in contemporary culture.”
Halloween has always been a special time for Irish immigrants. In the 1800s, many American cities had serious problems with crime and violence, particularly from gangs made up of young men. Irish gangs were some of the most notorious. Many immigrants came to America fleeing famine and political oppression in their homeland. They were angry at their former oppressors and took out their anger on the streets of big American cities.
Treatments for alcoholics and drug addicts were not available until the mid-20th century. People with these problems often became criminals to support their habits. The Irish gangs seemed to be made up exclusively of such people. The gangs terrorized the city streets, bringing crime and violence to the nation’s biggest cities.
The Irish were also very religious, especially Roman Catholics. The majority of them felt that Halloween was wrong because it celebrated evil spirits and encouraged children to disobey their parents. They called it “the devil’s holiday.” They also believed that Satanists sacrificed animals on Halloween night as part of their rituals.
At first, most Irish immigrants in America practiced their religion as they always had back home. But as time went on, more and more Americans began celebrating Halloween. This bothered the Catholics greatly because they could see that Halloween was becoming popular due to
