Trick or Treat, costume parties, carved Jack-o-Lanterns, ghouls and ghosts...how did this tradition of Halloween get started? Where does it come from?
     Most people know that another name for Halloween is "All Hallows Eve, but what exactly is that all about?
According to History.com, Halloween is thought to have evolved from an old Celtic celebration called Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The celebration was held between the fall and winter and is when people used to light huge fires and wear costumes to ward of spirits.
     The ancient Celts lived about 2,000 years ago in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and Northern France. Samhain was held on Nov.1st just after the harvest and before the cold and the darkness of winter came. The "dead" of winter might be why the "holiday" centers so much around death today. Zombies, ghouls, ghosts all have their place in modern Halloween tradition.
     The Celts believed that on the eve of the New Year, Oct. 31st, the dividing line between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead was weakened and that the spirits of the dead could come back and reek havoc on their homes and crops. The Celts also believed that with the spirits roaming around, the priesthood of the Celts, the Druids, could use the spirits to predict the future. The people built huge bone fires (thus the term bonfire that we use today) to sacrifice crops and animals to, during which the Celts and Druid priests dressed in costumes of animal heads and skins and tried to tell each other's future.
     Before the celebration, the Celts put out their hearth fires in their homes and then when the celebration was over they re-lit their home fires with flame from the sacred bonfire in an attempt to protect themselves from harm during the coming winter.
     The Romans conquered the Celtic people in 43 AD and adapted the tradition and also added to it creating their own festivals. The Romans occupied Celtic lands for four hundred years and the tradition of Samhain turned into Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans generally celebrated the passing of the dead. Later this celebration transformed into honoring Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. One symbol for her that was used was the apple. Today the Halloween tradition of "bobbing for apples" can be traced to this ancient Roman tradition.
     In 609 AD when Christianity reached the lands of the ancient Celts, the church, as they did with other pagan practices, adopted the ancient holiday, but Christianized it to celebrate the matyrs of the church and All Martyrs Day was born. Later the pope changed the celebration to include all of the saints and not just the martyrs and Nov 1st became All Saints Day which in 900 AD was moved to Nov 2nd and called All Souls Day to honor the dead. The Christian festival was celebrated similarly to the Celtic day of Samhain with bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes that resembled the saints, angels and devils. The night before All Saints Day became known as All Hallows Eve and later Halloween.
     Carved pumpkins or "Jack-O-Lanterns have also become part of the modern Halloween tradition. There are many thoughts on the origins of Jack-O-Lanterns. Some believe that they were used to resemble the human skull in the festivals of the dead. Others believe that the traditon began as an old Irish myth about "Stingy Jack."
     As the story goes, Jack invited the devil to have a drink with him, but "stingy" Jack wouldn't pay for the drink, so he conned the devil into turning himself into a coin to pay for the drinks. Of course Jack kept the coin and didn't keep his promise. He put the money in his pocket next to a silver cross that prevented the devil from turning back into himself.  Jack eventually freed the devil on his promise that he would not bother Jack for a year and, if Jack should die, the devil would not take his soul.
     By the end of the year, Jack once again tricked the devil into climbing a fruit tree on which Jack carved a cross that prevented the devil from climbing down unless the devil promised not to bother him for ten more years.
     Jack soon died and God would not let him into heaven because of his sins and the devil, because of his promise, couldn't let him into hell, so the devil sent Jack away to roam the earth for eternity with only a hot coal to light his way. Legend says Jack put the burning ember into a carved-out turnip and is wandering the earth to this day, thus candle-lighted "Jack-O-Lanterns" soon became a Halloween staple.
     In the early years of America, the tradition of Halloween took on new customs that came from immigrant and Native American influence. The Protestants in the north limited the celebrations, but in the South the traditions florished. The first celebrations included "play parties" where settlers would gather and celebrate the harvest and share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes and dance and sing. Later the colonists began to tell ghost stories at these harvest celebrations and mischief abounded. By the middle of the nineteenth century, harvest celebrations were everywhere, but Halloween wasn't yet celebrated in all of the country.
     In the nineteenth century when Irish immigrants brought their Halloween traditions to the new world. Many of them would dress up in costume and go house to house looking for hand-outs of food or money. This later became known as "trick-or-treating" in the modern era.
     In the late 1800s, there was a movement to remove all the bad aspects of Halloween like death, ghosts, witchcraft and pranking and turn the festival into a more community, family-based holiday. Halloween parties were held for children and adults alike. Dressing up in costume was about the only remnant of the old Celtic holiday left in the Halloween tradtion.
     By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a community-wide celebration. In spite of  the efforts of parents and town officials, the mischief and pranking of the mostly younger generation continued to get out of hand. By the 1950s, community leaders decided that the best way to keep the youngsters out of trouble was to bring back the old tradition of "trick-or-treating" and keep them busy on "devil's night." The traditon grew and grew and is the most popular of events celebrated on Halloween to this day.
     With the same thought of giving potential "trickers" something to do on Halloween, the chief of police in Vassar, MI instituted "The Pumpkin Roll" down the steep hill that goes from upper Vassar to Lower Vassar downtown. Pumpkins get smashed along the way as they roll down the hill and there is a price for the farthest roll. It's geat fun for kids and adults alike.
     The Halloween we know today is a combination of many traditions accumulated over 2,000 years.  It is second only  to Christmas in terms of the best money-making holiday for merchants. Stores sell billions of dollars worth of costumes, decorations, candy and other Halloween-related items. In addition  there are now "Halloween Stores" that open up only during the tradtional Halloween season (September to November) and sell only items related to Halloween. Commercial Haunted Houses and Corn Mazes have all also taken their places in the Halloween tradition... and Halloween like the legends continue to grow...

From the back roads,

Tim 



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