What the word halloween means

Halloween
Carving a jack-o’-lantern is a common Halloween tradition
Also called	Hallowe’en All Hallowe’en All Hallows’ Eve All Saints’ Eve
Observed by	Western Christians and many non-Christians around the world[1]
Type	Christian
Significance	First day of Allhallowtide
Celebrations	Trick-or-treating, costume parties, making jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, divination, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions.
Observances	Church services,[2] prayer,[3] fasting,[1] and vigil[4]
Date	31 October
Related to	Samhain, Hop-tu-Naa, Calan Gaeaf, Allantide, Day of the Dead, Reformation Day, All Saints’ Day, Mischief Night (cf. vigil)

Halloween or Hallowe’en (less commonly known as Allhalloween,^[5] All Hallows’ Eve,^[6] or All Saints’ Eve)^[7] is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints’ Day. It begins the observance of Allhallowtide,^[8] the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.^{[9][10][11][12]}

One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots.^{[13][14][15][16]} Some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallow’s Day, along with its eve, by the early Church.^[17] Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow’s Day.^{[18][19][20][21]} Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland for centuries, Irish and Scottish immigrants took many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century,^[22][23] and then through American influence Halloween had spread to other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century.^[24][25]

Popular Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related guising and souling), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins or turnips into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror or Halloween-themed films.^[26] Some people practice the Christian religious observances of All Hallows’ Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead,^[27][28][29] although it is a secular celebration for others.^[30][31][32] Some Christians historically abstained from meat on All Hallows’ Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain vegetarian foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes, and soul cakes.^{[33][34][35][36]}

Etymology

The word Halloween or Hallowe’en («Saints’ evening»^[37]) is of Christian origin;^[38][39] a term equivalent to «All Hallows Eve» is attested in Old English.^[40] The word hallowe[‘]en comes from the Scottish form of All Hallows’ Eve (the evening before All Hallows’ Day):^[41] even is the Scots term for «eve» or «evening»,^[42] and is contracted to e’en or een;^[43] (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en became Hallowe’en.

History

Christian origins and historic customs

Halloween is thought to have influences from Christian beliefs and practices.^[44][45] The English word ‘Halloween’ comes from «All Hallows’ Eve», being the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows’ Day (All Saints’ Day) on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November.^[46] Since the time of the early Church,^[47] major feasts in Christianity (such as Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) had vigils that began the night before, as did the feast of All Hallows’.^[48][44] These three days are collectively called Allhallowtide and are a time when Western Christians honour all saints and pray for recently departed souls who have yet to reach Heaven. Commemorations of all saints and martyrs were held by several churches on various dates, mostly in springtime.^[49] In 4th-century Roman Edessa it was held on 13 May, and on 13 May 609, Pope Boniface IV re-dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to «St Mary and all martyrs».^[50] This was the date of Lemuria, an ancient Roman festival of the dead.^[51]

In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III (731–741) founded an oratory in St Peter’s for the relics «of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors».^[44][52] Some sources say it was dedicated on 1 November,^[53] while others say it was on Palm Sunday in April 732.^[54][55] By 800, there is evidence that churches in Ireland^[56] and Northumbria were holding a feast commemorating all saints on 1 November.^[57] Alcuin of Northumbria, a member of Charlemagne’s court, may then have introduced this 1 November date in the Frankish Empire.^[58] In 835, it became the official date in the Frankish Empire.^[57] Some suggest this was due to Celtic influence, while others suggest it was a Germanic idea,^[57] although it is claimed that both Germanic and Celtic-speaking peoples commemorated the dead at the beginning of winter.^[59] They may have seen it as the most fitting time to do so, as it is a time of ‘dying’ in nature.^[57][59] It is also suggested the change was made on the «practical grounds that Rome in summer could not accommodate the great number of pilgrims who flocked to it», and perhaps because of public health concerns over Roman Fever, which claimed a number of lives during Rome’s sultry summers.^[60][44]

By the end of the 12th century, the celebration had become known as the holy days of obligation in Western Christianity and involved such traditions as ringing church bells for souls in purgatory. It was also «customary for criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and calling on all good Christians to remember the poor souls».^[62] The Allhallowtide custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for all christened souls,^[63] has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating.^[64] The custom dates back at least as far as the 15th century^[65] and was found in parts of England, Wales, Flanders, Bavaria and Austria.^[66] Groups of poor people, often children, would go door-to-door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers’ friends and relatives. This was called «souling».^[65][67][68] Soul cakes were also offered for the souls themselves to eat,^[66] or the ‘soulers’ would act as their representatives.^[69] As with the Lenten tradition of hot cross buns, soul cakes were often marked with a cross, indicating they were baked as alms.^[70] Shakespeare mentions souling in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593).^[71] While souling, Christians would carry «lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips», which could have originally represented souls of the dead;^[72][73] jack-o’-lanterns were used to ward off evil spirits.^[74][75] On All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day during the 19th century, candles were lit in homes in Ireland,^[76] Flanders, Bavaria, and in Tyrol, where they were called «soul lights»,^[77] that served «to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes».^[78] In many of these places, candles were also lit at graves on All Souls’ Day.^[77] In Brittany, libations of milk were poured on the graves of kinfolk,^[66] or food would be left overnight on the dinner table for the returning souls;^[77] a custom also found in Tyrol and parts of Italy.^[79][77]

Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh linked the wearing of costumes to the belief in vengeful ghosts: «It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints’ Day, and All Hallows’ Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes».^[80] In the Middle Ages, churches in Europe that were too poor to display relics of martyred saints at Allhallowtide let parishioners dress up as saints instead.^[81][82] Some Christians observe this custom at Halloween today.^[83] Lesley Bannatyne believes this could have been a Christianization of an earlier pagan custom.^[84] Many Christians in mainland Europe, especially in France, believed «that once a year, on Hallowe’en, the dead of the churchyards rose for one wild, hideous carnival» known as the danse macabre, which was often depicted in church decoration.^[85] Christopher Allmand and Rosamond McKitterick write in The New Cambridge Medieval History that the danse macabre urged Christians «not to forget the end of all earthly things».^[86] The danse macabre was sometimes enacted in European village pageants and court masques, with people «dressing up as corpses from various strata of society», and this may be the origin of Halloween costume parties.^{[87][88][89][72]}

In Britain, these customs came under attack during the Reformation, as Protestants berated purgatory as a «popish» doctrine incompatible with the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. State-sanctioned ceremonies associated with the intercession of saints and prayer for souls in purgatory were abolished during the Elizabethan reform, though All Hallow’s Day remained in the English liturgical calendar to «commemorate saints as godly human beings».^[90] For some Nonconformist Protestants, the theology of All Hallows’ Eve was redefined; «souls cannot be journeying from Purgatory on their way to Heaven, as Catholics frequently believe and assert. Instead, the so-called ghosts are thought to be in actuality evil spirits».^[91] Other Protestants believed in an intermediate state known as Hades (Bosom of Abraham).^[92] In some localities, Catholics and Protestants continued souling, candlelit processions, or ringing church bells for the dead;^[46][93] the Anglican church eventually suppressed this bell-ringing.^[94] Mark Donnelly, a professor of medieval archaeology, and historian Daniel Diehl write that «barns and homes were blessed to protect people and livestock from the effect of witches, who were believed to accompany the malignant spirits as they traveled the earth».^[95] After 1605, Hallowtide was eclipsed in England by Guy Fawkes Night (5 November), which appropriated some of its customs.^[96] In England, the ending of official ceremonies related to the intercession of saints led to the development of new, unofficial Hallowtide customs. In 18th–19th century rural Lancashire, Catholic families gathered on hills on the night of All Hallows’ Eve. One held a bunch of burning straw on a pitchfork while the rest knelt around him, praying for the souls of relatives and friends until the flames went out. This was known as teen’lay.^[97] There was a similar custom in Hertfordshire, and the lighting of ‘tindle’ fires in Derbyshire.^[98] Some suggested these ‘tindles’ were originally lit to «guide the poor souls back to earth».^[99] In Scotland and Ireland, old Allhallowtide customs that were at odds with Reformed teaching were not suppressed as they «were important to the life cycle and rites of passage of local communities» and curbing them would have been difficult.^[22]

In parts of Italy until the 15th century, families left a meal out for the ghosts of relatives, before leaving for church services.^[79] In 19th-century Italy, churches staged «theatrical re-enactments of scenes from the lives of the saints» on All Hallow’s Day, with «participants represented by realistic wax figures».^[79] In 1823, the graveyard of Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome presented a scene in which bodies of those who recently died were arrayed around a wax statue of an angel who pointed upward towards heaven.^[79] In the same country, «parish priests went house-to-house, asking for small gifts of food which they shared among themselves throughout that night».^[79] In Spain, they continue to bake special pastries called «bones of the holy» (Spanish: Huesos de Santo) and set them on graves.^[100] At cemeteries in Spain and France, as well as in Latin America, priests lead Christian processions and services during Allhallowtide, after which people keep an all night vigil.^[101] In 19th-century San Sebastián, there was a procession to the city cemetery at Allhallowtide, an event that drew beggars who «appeal[ed] to the tender recollectons of one’s deceased relations and friends» for sympathy.^[102]

Gaelic folk influence

Today’s Halloween customs are thought to have been influenced by folk customs and beliefs from the Celtic-speaking countries, some of which are believed to have pagan roots.^[103] Jack Santino, a folklorist, writes that «there was throughout Ireland an uneasy truce existing between customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated with religions that were Irish before Christianity arrived».^[104] The origins of Halloween customs are typically linked to the Gaelic festival Samhain.^[105]

Samhain is one of the quarter days in the medieval Gaelic calendar and has been celebrated on 31 October – 1 November^[106] in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.^[107][108] A kindred festival has been held by the Brittonic Celts, called Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan Gwav in Cornwall and Kalan Goañv in Brittany; a name meaning «first day of winter». For the Celts, the day ended and began at sunset; thus the festival begins the evening before 1 November by modern reckoning.^[109] Samhain is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature. The names have been used by historians to refer to Celtic Halloween customs up until the 19th century,^[110] and are still the Gaelic and Welsh names for Halloween.

Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the ‘darker half’ of the year.^[112][113] It was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned. This meant the Aos Sí, the ‘spirits’ or ‘fairies’, could more easily come into this world and were particularly active.^[114][115] Most scholars see them as «degraded versions of ancient gods […] whose power remained active in the people’s minds even after they had been officially replaced by later religious beliefs».^[116] They were both respected and feared, with individuals often invoking the protection of God when approaching their dwellings.^[117][118] At Samhain, the Aos Sí were appeased to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left outside for them.^{[119][120][121]} The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking hospitality.^[122] Places were set at the dinner table and by the fire to welcome them.^[123] The belief that the souls of the dead return home on one night of the year and must be appeased seems to have ancient origins and is found in many cultures.^[66] In 19th century Ireland, «candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin».^[124]

Throughout Ireland and Britain, especially in the Celtic-speaking regions, the household festivities included divination rituals and games intended to foretell one’s future, especially regarding death and marriage.^[125] Apples and nuts were often used, and customs included apple bobbing, nut roasting, scrying or mirror-gazing, pouring molten lead or egg whites into water, dream interpretation, and others.^[126] Special bonfires were lit and there were rituals involving them. Their flames, smoke, and ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers.^[112] In some places, torches lit from the bonfire were carried sunwise around homes and fields to protect them.^[110] It is suggested the fires were a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic – they mimicked the Sun and held back the decay and darkness of winter.^{[123][127][128]} They were also used for divination and to ward off evil spirits.^[74] In Scotland, these bonfires and divination games were banned by the church elders in some parishes.^[129] In Wales, bonfires were also lit to «prevent the souls of the dead from falling to earth».^[130] Later, these bonfires «kept away the devil».^[131]

From at least the 16th century,^[133] the festival included mumming and guising in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales.^[134] This involved people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food. It may have originally been a tradition whereby people impersonated the Aos Sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf, similar to ‘souling’. Impersonating these beings, or wearing a disguise, was also believed to protect oneself from them.^[135] In parts of southern Ireland, the guisers included a hobby horse. A man dressed as a Láir Bhán (white mare) led youths house-to-house reciting verses – some of which had pagan overtones – in exchange for food. If the household donated food it could expect good fortune from the ‘Muck Olla’; not doing so would bring misfortune.^[136] In Scotland, youths went house-to-house with masked, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed.^[134] F. Marian McNeill suggests the ancient festival included people in costume representing the spirits, and that faces were marked or blackened with ashes from the sacred bonfire.^[133] In parts of Wales, men went about dressed as fearsome beings called gwrachod.^[134] In the late 19th and early 20th century, young people in Glamorgan and Orkney cross-dressed.^[134]

Elsewhere in Europe, mumming was part of other festivals, but in the Celtic-speaking regions, it was «particularly appropriate to a night upon which supernatural beings were said to be abroad and could be imitated or warded off by human wanderers».^[134] From at least the 18th century, «imitating malignant spirits» led to playing pranks in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. Wearing costumes and playing pranks at Halloween did not spread to England until the 20th century.^[134] Pranksters used hollowed-out turnips or mangel wurzels as lanterns, often carved with grotesque faces.^[134] By those who made them, the lanterns were variously said to represent the spirits,^[134] or used to ward off evil spirits.^[137][138] They were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century,^[134] as well as in Somerset (see Punkie Night). In the 20th century they spread to other parts of Britain and became generally known as jack-o’-lanterns.^[134]

Spread to North America

Lesley Bannatyne and Cindy Ott write that Anglican colonists in the southern United States and Catholic colonists in Maryland «recognized All Hallow’s Eve in their church calendars»,^[140][141] although the Puritans of New England strongly opposed the holiday, along with other traditional celebrations of the established Church, including Christmas.^[142] Almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was widely celebrated in North America.^[22]

It was not until after mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in America.^[22] Most American Halloween traditions were inherited from the Irish and Scots,^[23][143] though «In Cajun areas, a nocturnal Mass was said in cemeteries on Halloween night. Candles that had been blessed were placed on graves, and families sometimes spent the entire night at the graveside».^[144] Originally confined to these immigrant communities, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and was celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial, and religious backgrounds by the early 20th century.^[145] Then, through American influence, these Halloween traditions spread to many other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century, including to mainland Europe and some parts of the Far East.^{[24][25][146]}

Symbols

Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. Jack-o’-lanterns are traditionally carried by guisers on All Hallows’ Eve in order to frighten evil spirits.^[73][147] There is a popular Irish Christian folktale associated with the jack-o’-lantern,^[148] which in folklore is said to represent a «soul who has been denied entry into both heaven and hell»:^[149]

On route home after a night’s drinking, Jack encounters the Devil and tricks him into climbing a tree. A quick-thinking Jack etches the sign of the cross into the bark, thus trapping the Devil. Jack strikes a bargain that Satan can never claim his soul. After a life of sin, drink, and mendacity, Jack is refused entry to heaven when he dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to let Jack into hell and throws a live coal straight from the fires of hell at him. It was a cold night, so Jack places the coal in a hollowed out turnip to stop it from going out, since which time Jack and his lantern have been roaming looking for a place to rest.^[150]

In Ireland and Scotland, the turnip has traditionally been carved during Halloween,^[151][152] but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which is both much softer and much larger, making it easier to carve than a turnip.^[151] The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837^[153] and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.^[154]

The modern imagery of Halloween comes from many sources, including Christian eschatology, national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and Dracula) and classic horror films such as Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932).^[155][156] Imagery of the skull, a reference to Golgotha in the Christian tradition, serves as «a reminder of death and the transitory quality of human life» and is consequently found in memento mori and vanitas compositions;^[157] skulls have therefore been commonplace in Halloween, which touches on this theme.^[158] Traditionally, the back walls of churches are «decorated with a depiction of the Last Judgment, complete with graves opening and the dead rising, with a heaven filled with angels and a hell filled with devils», a motif that has permeated the observance of this triduum.^[159] One of the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne, who, in 1780, made note of pranks at Halloween; «What fearfu’ pranks ensue!», as well as the supernatural associated with the night, «bogles» (ghosts),^[160] influencing Robert Burns’ «Halloween» (1785).^[161] Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween. Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil, and mythical monsters.^[162] Black cats, which have been long associated with witches, are also a common symbol of Halloween. Black, orange, and sometimes purple are Halloween’s traditional colors.^[163]

Trick-or-treating and guising

Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, «Trick or treat?» The word «trick» implies a «threat» to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given.^[64] The practice is said to have roots in the medieval practice of mumming, which is closely related to souling.^[164] John Pymm wrote that «many of the feast days associated with the presentation of mumming plays were celebrated by the Christian Church.»^[165] These feast days included All Hallows’ Eve, Christmas, Twelfth Night and Shrove Tuesday.^[166][167] Mumming practiced in Germany, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe,^[168] involved masked persons in fancy dress who «paraded the streets and entered houses to dance or play dice in silence».^[169]

In England, from the medieval period,^[170] up until the 1930s,^[171] people practiced the Christian custom of souling on Halloween, which involved groups of soulers, both Protestant and Catholic,^[93] going from parish to parish, begging the rich for soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the souls of the givers and their friends.^[67] In the Philippines, the practice of souling is called Pangangaluluwa and is practiced on All Hallow’s Eve among children in rural areas.^[26] People drape themselves in white cloths to represent souls and then visit houses, where they sing in return for prayers and sweets.^[26]

In Scotland and Ireland, guising – children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins – is a traditional Halloween custom.^[172] It is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money.^[152][173] In Ireland, the most popular phrase for kids to shout (until the 2000s) was «Help the Halloween Party».^[172] The practice of guising at Halloween in North America was first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, reported children going «guising» around the neighborhood.^[174]

American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first book-length history of Halloween in the US; The Book of Hallowe’en (1919), and references souling in the chapter «Hallowe’en in America».^[175] In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; «Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Halloween customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries».^[176]

While the first reference to «guising» in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.^[177] The earliest known use in print of the term «trick or treat» appears in 1927, in the Blackie Herald, of Alberta, Canada.^[178]

The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but not trick-or-treating.^[179] Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice in North America until the 1930s, with the first US appearances of the term in 1934,^[180] and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.^[181]

A popular variant of trick-or-treating, known as trunk-or-treating (or Halloween tailgating), occurs when «children are offered treats from the trunks of cars parked in a church parking lot», or sometimes, a school parking lot.^[100][182] In a trunk-or-treat event, the trunk (boot) of each automobile is decorated with a certain theme,^[183] such as those of children’s literature, movies, scripture, and job roles.^[184] Trunk-or-treating has grown in popularity due to its perception as being more safe than going door to door, a point that resonates well with parents, as well as the fact that it «solves the rural conundrum in which homes [are] built a half-mile apart».^[185][186]

Costumes

Halloween costumes were traditionally modeled after figures such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, scary looking witches, and devils.^[64] Over time, the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses.

Dressing up in costumes and going «guising» was prevalent in Scotland and Ireland at Halloween by the late 19th century.^[152] A Scottish term, the tradition is called «guising» because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children.^[173] In Ireland and Scotland, the masks are known as ‘false faces’,^[38][187] a term recorded in Ayr, Scotland in 1890 by a Scot describing guisers: «I had mind it was Halloween . . . the wee callans were at it already, rinning aboot wi’ their fause-faces (false faces) on and their bits o’ turnip lanthrons (lanterns) in their haun (hand)».^[38] Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in the US in the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children, and when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in Canada and the US in the 1920s and 1930s.^[178][188]

Eddie J. Smith, in his book Halloween, Hallowed is Thy Name, offers a religious perspective to the wearing of costumes on All Hallows’ Eve, suggesting that by dressing up as creatures «who at one time caused us to fear and tremble», people are able to poke fun at Satan «whose kingdom has been plundered by our Saviour». Images of skeletons and the dead are traditional decorations used as memento mori.^[189][190]

«Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF» is a fundraising program to support UNICEF,^[64] a United Nations Programme that provides humanitarian aid to children in developing countries. Started as a local event in a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood in 1950 and expanded nationally in 1952, the program involves the distribution of small boxes by schools (or in modern times, corporate sponsors like Hallmark, at their licensed stores) to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small-change donations from the houses they visit. It is estimated that children have collected more than $118 million for UNICEF since its inception. In Canada, in 2006, UNICEF decided to discontinue their Halloween collection boxes, citing safety and administrative concerns; after consultation with schools, they instead redesigned the program.^[191][192]

The yearly New York’s Village Halloween Parade was begun in 1974; it is the world’s largest Halloween parade and America’s only major nighttime parade, attracting more than 60,000 costumed participants, two million spectators, and a worldwide television audience.^[193]

Since the late 2010s, ethnic stereotypes as costumes have increasingly come under scrutiny in the United States.^[194] Such and other potentially offensive costumes have been met with increasing public disapproval.^[195][196]

Pet costumes

According to a 2018 report from the National Retail Federation, 30 million Americans will spend an estimated $480 million on Halloween costumes for their pets in 2018. This is up from an estimated $200 million in 2010. The most popular costumes for pets are the pumpkin, followed by the hot dog, and the bumblebee in third place.^[197]

Games and other activities

There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween. Some of these games originated as divination rituals or ways of foretelling one’s future, especially regarding death, marriage and children. During the Middle Ages, these rituals were done by a «rare few» in rural communities as they were considered to be «deadly serious» practices.^[198] In recent centuries, these divination games have been «a common feature of the household festivities» in Ireland and Britain.^[125] They often involve apples and hazelnuts. In Celtic mythology, apples were strongly associated with the Otherworld and immortality, while hazelnuts were associated with divine wisdom.^[199] Some also suggest that they derive from Roman practices in celebration of Pomona.^[64]

The following activities were a common feature of Halloween in Ireland and Britain during the 17th–20th centuries. Some have become more widespread and continue to be popular today.
One common game is apple bobbing or dunking (which may be called «dooking» in Scotland)^[200] in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water and the participants must use only their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drive the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity that inevitably leads to a sticky face. Another once-popular game involves hanging a small wooden rod from the ceiling at head height, with a lit candle on one end and an apple hanging from the other. The rod is spun round and everyone takes turns to try to catch the apple with their teeth.^[201]

Several of the traditional activities from Ireland and Britain involve foretelling one’s future partner or spouse. An apple would be peeled in one long strip, then the peel tossed over the shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse’s name.^[202][203] Two hazelnuts would be roasted near a fire; one named for the person roasting them and the other for the person they desire. If the nuts jump away from the heat, it is a bad sign, but if the nuts roast quietly it foretells a good match.^[204][205] A salty oatmeal bannock would be baked; the person would eat it in three bites and then go to bed in silence without anything to drink. This is said to result in a dream in which their future spouse offers them a drink to quench their thirst.^[206] Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror.^[207] The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards^[208] from the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Another popular Irish game was known as púicíní («blindfolds»); a person would be blindfolded and then would choose between several saucers. The item in the saucer would provide a hint as to their future: a ring would mean that they would marry soon; clay, that they would die soon, perhaps within the year; water, that they would emigrate; rosary beads, that they would take Holy Orders (become a nun, priest, monk, etc.); a coin, that they would become rich; a bean, that they would be poor.^{[209][210][211][212]} The game features prominently in the James Joyce short story «Clay» (1914).^{[213][214][215]}

In Ireland and Scotland, items would be hidden in food – usually a cake, barmbrack, cranachan, champ or colcannon – and portions of it served out at random. A person’s future would be foretold by the item they happened to find; for example, a ring meant marriage and a coin meant wealth.^[216]

Up until the 19th century, the Halloween bonfires were also used for divination in parts of Scotland, Wales and Brittany. When the fire died down, a ring of stones would be laid in the ashes, one for each person. In the morning, if any stone was mislaid it was said that the person it represented would not live out the year.^[110]

Telling ghost stories, listening to Halloween-themed songs and watching horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of television series and Halloween-themed specials (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before Halloween, while new horror films are often released before Halloween to take advantage of the holiday.

Haunted attractions

Haunted attractions are entertainment venues designed to thrill and scare patrons. Most attractions are seasonal Halloween businesses that may include haunted houses, corn mazes, and hayrides,^[217] and the level of sophistication of the effects has risen as the industry has grown.

The first recorded purpose-built haunted attraction was the Orton and Spooner Ghost House, which opened in 1915 in Liphook, England. This attraction actually most closely resembles a carnival fun house, powered by steam.^[218][219] The House still exists, in the Hollycombe Steam Collection.

It was during the 1930s, about the same time as trick-or-treating, that Halloween-themed haunted houses first began to appear in America. It was in the late 1950s that haunted houses as a major attraction began to appear, focusing first on California. Sponsored by the Children’s Health Home Junior Auxiliary, the San Mateo Haunted House opened in 1957. The San Bernardino Assistance League Haunted House opened in 1958. Home haunts began appearing across the country during 1962 and 1963. In 1964, the San Manteo Haunted House opened, as well as the Children’s Museum Haunted House in Indianapolis.^[220]

The haunted house as an American cultural icon can be attributed to the opening of The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland on 12 August 1969.^[221] Knott’s Berry Farm began hosting its own Halloween night attraction, Knott’s Scary Farm, which opened in 1973.^[222] Evangelical Christians adopted a form of these attractions by opening one of the first «hell houses» in 1972.^[223]

The first Halloween haunted house run by a nonprofit organization was produced in 1970 by the Sycamore-Deer Park Jaycees in Clifton, Ohio. It was cosponsored by WSAI, an AM radio station broadcasting out of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was last produced in 1982.^[224] Other Jaycees followed suit with their own versions after the success of the Ohio house. The March of Dimes copyrighted a «Mini haunted house for the March of Dimes» in 1976 and began fundraising through their local chapters by conducting haunted houses soon after. Although they apparently quit supporting this type of event nationally sometime in the 1980s, some March of Dimes haunted houses have persisted until today.^[225]

On the evening of 11 May 1984, in Jackson Township, New Jersey, the Haunted Castle (Six Flags Great Adventure) caught fire. As a result of the fire, eight teenagers perished.^[226] The backlash to the tragedy was a tightening of regulations relating to safety, building codes and the frequency of inspections of attractions nationwide. The smaller venues, especially the nonprofit attractions, were unable to compete financially, and the better funded commercial enterprises filled the vacuum.^[227][228] Facilities that were once able to avoid regulation because they were considered to be temporary installations now had to adhere to the stricter codes required of permanent attractions.^{[229][230][231]}

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, theme parks entered the business seriously. Six Flags Fright Fest began in 1986 and Universal Studios Florida began Halloween Horror Nights in 1991. Knott’s Scary Farm experienced a surge in attendance in the 1990s as a result of America’s obsession with Halloween as a cultural event. Theme parks have played a major role in globalizing the holiday. Universal Studios Singapore and Universal Studios Japan both participate, while Disney now mounts Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party events at its parks in Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo, as well as in the United States.^[232] The theme park haunts are by far the largest, both in scale and attendance.^[233]

Food

On All Hallows’ Eve, many Western Christian denominations encourage abstinence from meat, giving rise to a variety of vegetarian foods associated with this day.^[234]

Because in the Northern Hemisphere Halloween comes in the wake of the yearly apple harvest, candy apples (known as toffee apples outside North America), caramel apples or taffy apples are common Halloween treats made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts.

At one time, candy apples were commonly given to trick-or-treating children, but the practice rapidly waned in the wake of widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples in the United States.^[235] While there is evidence of such incidents,^[236] relative to the degree of reporting of such cases, actual cases involving malicious acts are extremely rare and have never resulted in serious injury. Nonetheless, many parents assumed that such heinous practices were rampant because of the mass media. At the peak of the hysteria, some hospitals offered free X-rays of children’s Halloween hauls in order to find evidence of tampering. Virtually all of the few known candy poisoning incidents involved parents who poisoned their own children’s candy.^[237]

One custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays, the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish: báirín breac), which is a light fruitcake, into which a plain ring, a coin, and other charms are placed before baking.^[238] It is considered fortunate to be the lucky one who finds it.^[238] It has also been said that those who get a ring will find their true love in the ensuing year. This is similar to the tradition of king cake at the festival of Epiphany.

List of foods associated with Halloween:

• Barmbrack (Ireland)
• Bonfire toffee (Great Britain)
• Candy apples/toffee apples (Great Britain and Ireland)
• Candy apples, candy corn, candy pumpkins (North America)
• Chocolate
• Monkey nuts (peanuts in their shells) (Ireland and Scotland)
• Caramel apples
• Caramel corn
• Colcannon (Ireland; see below)
• Halloween cake
• Sweets/candy
• Novelty candy shaped like skulls, pumpkins, bats, worms, etc.
• Roasted pumpkin seeds
• Roasted sweet corn
• Soul cakes
• Pumpkin Pie

Christian religious observances

On Hallowe’en (All Hallows’ Eve), in Poland, believers were once taught to pray out loud as they walk through the forests in order that the souls of the dead might find comfort; in Spain, Christian priests in tiny villages toll their church bells in order to remind their congregants to remember the dead on All Hallows’ Eve.^[239] In Ireland, and among immigrants in Canada, a custom includes the Christian practice of abstinence, keeping All Hallows’ Eve as a meat-free day and serving pancakes or colcannon instead.^[240] In Mexico children make an altar to invite the return of the spirits of dead children (angelitos).^[241]

The Christian Church traditionally observed Hallowe’en through a vigil. Worshippers prepared themselves for feasting on the following All Saints’ Day with prayers and fasting.^[242] This church service is known as the Vigil of All Hallows or the Vigil of All Saints;^[243][244] an initiative known as Night of Light seeks to further spread the Vigil of All Hallows throughout Christendom.^[245][246] After the service, «suitable festivities and entertainments» often follow, as well as a visit to the graveyard or cemetery, where flowers and candles are often placed in preparation for All Hallows’ Day.^[247][248] In Finland, because so many people visit the cemeteries on All Hallows’ Eve to light votive candles there, they «are known as valomeri, or seas of light».^[249]

Today, Christian attitudes towards Halloween are diverse. In the Anglican Church, some dioceses have chosen to emphasize the Christian traditions associated with All Hallow’s Eve.^[250][251] Some of these practices include praying, fasting and attending worship services.^[1][2][3]

O LORD our God, increase, we pray thee, and multiply upon us the gifts of thy grace: that we, who do prevent the glorious festival of all thy Saints, may of thee be enabled joyfully to follow them in all virtuous and godly living. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. —Collect of the Vigil of All Saints, The Anglican Breviary^[252]

Other Protestant Christians also celebrate All Hallows’ Eve as Reformation Day, a day to remember the Protestant Reformation, alongside All Hallow’s Eve or independently from it.^[253] This is because Martin Luther is said to have nailed his Ninety-five Theses to All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg on All Hallows’ Eve.^[254] Often, «Harvest Festivals» or «Reformation Festivals» are held on All Hallows’ Eve, in which children dress up as Bible characters or Reformers.^[255] In addition to distributing candy to children who are trick-or-treating on Hallowe’en, many Christians also provide gospel tracts to them. One organization, the American Tract Society, stated that around 3 million gospel tracts are ordered from them alone for Hallowe’en celebrations.^[256] Others order Halloween-themed Scripture Candy to pass out to children on this day.^[257][258]

Some Christians feel concerned about the modern celebration of Halloween because they feel it trivializes – or celebrates – paganism, the occult, or other practices and cultural phenomena deemed incompatible with their beliefs.^[259] Father Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist in Rome, has said, «if English and American children like to dress up as witches and devils on one night of the year that is not a problem. If it is just a game, there is no harm in that.»^[260] In more recent years, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has organized a «Saint Fest» on Halloween.^[261] Similarly, many contemporary Protestant churches view Halloween as a fun event for children, holding events in their churches where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and get candy for free. To these Christians, Halloween holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality, and the ways of the Celtic ancestors actually being a valuable life lesson and a part of many of their parishioners’ heritage.^[262] Christian minister Sam Portaro wrote that Halloween is about using «humor and ridicule to confront the power of death».^[263]

In the Roman Catholic Church, Halloween’s Christian connection is acknowledged, and Halloween celebrations are common in many Catholic parochial schools in the United States.^[264][265] Many fundamentalist and evangelical churches use «Hell houses» and comic-style tracts in order to make use of Halloween’s popularity as an opportunity for evangelism.^[266] Others consider Halloween to be completely incompatible with the Christian faith due to its putative origins in the Festival of the Dead celebration.^[267] Indeed, even though Eastern Orthodox Christians observe All Hallows’ Day on the First Sunday after Pentecost, The Eastern Orthodox Church recommends the observance of Vespers or a Paraklesis on the Western observance of All Hallows’ Eve, out of the pastoral need to provide an alternative to popular celebrations.^[268]

Analogous celebrations and perspectives

Judaism

According to Alfred J. Kolatch in the Second Jewish Book of Why, in Judaism, Halloween is not permitted by Jewish Halakha because it violates Leviticus 18:3, which forbids Jews from partaking in gentile customs. Many Jews observe Yizkor communally four times a year, which is vaguely similar to the observance of Allhallowtide in Christianity, in the sense that prayers are said for both «martyrs and for one’s own family».^[269] Nevertheless, many American Jews celebrate Halloween, disconnected from its Christian origins.^[270] Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser has said that «There is no religious reason why contemporary Jews should not celebrate Halloween» while Orthodox Rabbi Michael Broyde has argued against Jews’ observing the holiday.^[271] Purim has sometimes been compared to Halloween, in part due to some observants wearing costumes, especially of Biblical figures described in the Purim narrative.^[272]

Islam

Sheikh Idris Palmer, author of A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, has ruled that Muslims should not participate in Halloween, stating that «participation in Halloween is worse than participation in Christmas, Easter, … it is more sinful than congratulating the Christians for their prostration to the crucifix».^[273] It has also been ruled to be haram by the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia because of its alleged pagan roots stating «Halloween is celebrated using a humorous theme mixed with horror to entertain and resist the spirit of death that influence humans».^[274][275] Dar Al-Ifta Al-Missriyyah disagrees provided the celebration is not referred to as an ‘eid’ and that behaviour remains in line with Islamic principles.^[276]

Hinduism

Hindus remember the dead during the festival of Pitru Paksha, during which Hindus pay homage to and perform a ceremony «to keep the souls of their ancestors at rest». It is celebrated in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, usually in mid-September.^[277] The celebration of the Hindu festival Diwali sometimes conflicts with the date of Halloween; but some Hindus choose to participate in the popular customs of Halloween.^[278] Other Hindus, such as Soumya Dasgupta, have opposed the celebration on the grounds that Western holidays like Halloween have «begun to adversely affect our indigenous festivals».^[279]

Neopaganism

There is no consistent rule or view on Halloween amongst those who describe themselves as Neopagans or Wiccans. Some Neopagans do not observe Halloween, but instead observe Samhain on 1 November,^[280] some neopagans do enjoy Halloween festivities, stating that one can observe both «the solemnity of Samhain in addition to the fun of Halloween». Some neopagans are opposed to the celebration of Hallowe’en, stating that it «trivializes Samhain»,^[281] and «avoid Halloween, because of the interruptions from trick or treaters».^[282] The Manitoban writes that «Wiccans don’t officially celebrate Halloween, despite the fact that 31 Oct. will still have a star beside it in any good Wiccan’s day planner. Starting at sundown, Wiccans celebrate a holiday known as Samhain. Samhain actually comes from old Celtic traditions and is not exclusive to Neopagan religions like Wicca. While the traditions of this holiday originate in Celtic countries, modern day Wiccans don’t try to historically replicate Samhain celebrations. Some traditional Samhain rituals are still practised, but at its core, the period is treated as a time to celebrate darkness and the dead – a possible reason why Samhain can be confused with Halloween celebrations.»^[280]

Geography

The traditions and importance of Halloween vary greatly among countries that observe it. In Scotland and Ireland, traditional Halloween customs include children dressing up in costume going «guising», holding parties, while other practices in Ireland include lighting bonfires, and having firework displays.^{[172][283][284]} In Brittany children would play practical jokes by setting candles inside skulls in graveyards to frighten visitors.^[285] Mass transatlantic immigration in the 19th century popularized Halloween in North America, and celebration in the United States and Canada has had a significant impact on how the event is observed in other nations.^[172] This larger North American influence, particularly in iconic and commercial elements, has extended to places such as Brazil, Ecuador, Chile,^[286] Australia,^[287] New Zealand,^[288] (most) continental Europe, Finland,^[289] Japan, and other parts of East Asia.^[25]

See also

References

Further reading

External links

• Halloween at Curlie
• «A brief history of Halloween» by the BBC
• «All Hallows Eve (Halloween) in the Traditional, Pre-1955 Liturgical Books» by the Liturgical Arts Journal
• «The History of Halloween» by the History Channel

• The word «Halloween» comes from All Hallows’ Eve and means «hallowed evening.»
• The history of Halloween dates back to a pagan festival called Samhain.
• Hundreds of years ago, people dressed up as saints and went door-to-door, which is the origin of Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating.

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As the leaves turn vibrant autumn shades, temperatures drop, and you start to pull out sweaters and jackets, it’s time to deck out your porch with pumpkins and get to carving. Halloween, celebrated on October 31, is just around the corner, which means an evening of fun filled with costumes, spooky treats, trick-or-treating, Halloween party games, and (for adults only) boo-zy Halloween cocktails.

Amidst all the festivities, do you ever wonder about the origin and history of Halloween, such as what it its meaning and is it pagan or Christian? The answer: It’s complicated—and also shaped by secular pop culture through the ages. So let’s dive into fun facts about the holiday and how its most popular traditions evolved.

What Does Halloween Mean?

The current English name Halloween traces back to medieval Christianity. The word hallow is derived from the Middle and Old English words for holy. As a noun, it can also mean saint. In those days, the Christian holiday we know as All Saints’ Day was called All Hallows’ Day, and the day before, when an evening mass was held, was All Hallows’ Eve. That three-word name eventually got shortened to Halloween.

Why Do We Celebrate Halloween on October 31?

The ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, which occurred on November 1 but kicked off the evening before, is considered the earliest known root of some of our secular Halloween traditions. It marked a pivotal time of year when seasons changed, but more importantly, observers also believed the boundary between this world and the next became especially thin, enabling them to connect with the dead. This is also where Halloween gains its «haunted» connotations.

The path to the Christian Halloween date of October 31 is a little more complex. Pope Boniface IV began All Saints Day in the early 7th century when he dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to the saints, but the day was May 13. In the next century, Pope Gregory III changed the day to November 1 when he dedicated a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica to the saints. Yet another century later, Pope Gregory IV added All Saints Day to the Christian calendar, extending the celebration from Rome to churches everywhere. With All Saints Day came All Hallows’ Eve on October 31. This was, perhaps, an effort to offset the pagan celebration of Samhain with a religious celebration.

The History of Halloween Activities

The early pagan holiday of Samhain involved a lot of ritualistic ceremonies to connect to spirits, as the Celts were polytheistic. While there isn’t a lot of detail known about these celebrations, many believe the Celts celebrated in costume (granted, they were likely as simple as animal hides) as a disguise against ghosts, enjoyed special feasts, and made lanterns by hollowing out gourds (hence, the history of jack-o’-lanterns). Over time, as Christianity took over and the pagan undertones of the holiday were lessened, the basic traditions of the holiday remained a part of pop culture every year; they simply evolved and modernized.

The mystical rituals of earlier times evolved into more lighthearted fun and games. For example, the somewhat heavy concept of connecting to the dead was replaced with the more lighthearted idea of telling the future. Bobbing for apples, for example, became popular as a fortune-telling game on All Hallows’ Eve: Apples would be selected to represent all of a woman’s suitors, and the guy—er, apple—she ended up biting into would supposedly represent her future husband. In fact, Halloween previously posed a huge (albeit rather superstitious) matchmaking opportunity for young women in the 19th century.

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Another popular All Hallows’ Eve ritual was mirror-gazing, as people hoped to catch a vision of their future by looking into the mirror. There are also reports of fortune-cookie-like favors being given out during earlier times. People wrote messages on pieces of paper in milk, and the notes were then folded and placed into walnut shells. The shells would be heated over a fire, causing the milk to brown just enough for the message to mystically appear on the paper for the recipient.

History of Halloween Costumes and Trick-or-Treating

Many people were said to dress up as saints and recite songs or verses door to door. Children would also go door to door asking for «soul cakes,» a treat similar to biscuits. Technical note: Soul cakes originated as part of the All Souls’ Day holiday on November 2 (yep, a third holiday following Halloween and All Saints’ Day!) but eventually became a part of Halloween night as the concept evolved into trick-or-treating. The candy-grabbing concept also became mainstream in the U.S. in the early to mid-1900s, during which families would provide treats to children in hopes that they would be immune to any holiday pranks.

As for the costumes, they evolved, too. While they began as earnest tributes to saints, that tradition likely fell out of favor at some point… until young Scottish and Irish pranksters got the idea to dress up in scary-looking garb again as a way to spook unsuspecting neighbors. And just like that, thanks to these local hooligans, Halloween costumes became scary, spooky, funny, and creative all at the same time.

How Halloween Is Celebrated Today

Halloween obviously remains a popular holiday in America today, but it actually almost didn’t make it across the Atlantic. The Puritans were disapproving of the holiday’s pagan roots, so they didn’t take part. The American colonial Halloween celebrations that did take place featured large public parties to commemorate the upcoming harvest, tell ghost stories, sing, and dance.

It was not until the second half of the 19th century as Irish and Scottish immigrants began to arrive in America in greater numbers that the holiday took hold as part of the national zeitgeist. It’s estimated that by the early 20^th century, Halloween was celebrated across North America by the majority of (candy-loving, costume-wearing) people.

Today, our Halloween traditions continue to evolve. Instead of trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, some deck out their vehicles in spooky tailgate fashion for community trunk-or-treats, which are often held in school or church parking lots. In 2019, a popular movement to move the date of Halloween led to the creation of National Trick-or-Treat Day on the last Saturday of October. However, Halloween remains on October 31, and how communities celebrate the new National Trick-or-Treat Day, if at all, depends on local organizers.

This year, once again, we’ll all be enjoying our favorite candy and admiring our neighbors’ decorations on October 31—and the only spooky spirits we’ll be talking about are the witch and ghost costumes our friends are wearing.

Fittingly, everything about Halloween is a bit bizarre. Kids put on costumes and demand candy from strangers. People decorate their houses with fake blood and gravestones. Even the word itself sounds weird. Where does Halloween come from? And how did the celebration of all things spooky come to have a history that’s intertwined with an ancient Celtic festival and a Christian holiday in honor of saints?

Hold open your trick-or-treat bag (a pillowcase, if you’re doing it right) for some tricky word treats.

Why is it called Halloween?

The first records of the word Halloween come from around the 1550s. Halloween is sometimes spelled Hallowe’en, reflecting the fact that its name comes from a shortening of Allhallows Even. Allhallows is another name for the Christian holiday known as All Saints’ Day. In Allhallows Even, even means the same thing as eve—the evening or day before a holiday (as in Christmas Eve). The word hallow is used in reference to the saints—hallowed means “holy.”

What is that apostrophe doing in Hallowe’en? Learn about it here.

What is All Saints’ Day?

All Saints’ Day is a Christian holiday on November 1 in honor of all the saints. For Catholics, it’s often considered a holy day of obligation in which they are obligated to attend Mass (meaning that many Catholic school students know the day after Halloween as a day off from school). The day after, November 2, is All Souls’ Day—a Christian holiday of solemn prayer for all dead persons.

Like many Christian holidays, the observance of All Saints’ Day—and its date—are thought to have been influenced by preexisting religious traditions. Many historians believe that the observance of All Saints’ Day was situated on November 1 in Britain and Ireland to coincide with (or replace) the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.

What is Samhain?

Samhain, pronounced [ sah-win ] is an ancient Celtic harvest festival in celebration of the beginning of winter and a new year.

It was celebrated by the ancient Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles on or around November 1, which the Celts considered the start of winter and the year. Some scholars believe the word Samhain means “summer’s end.”

Samhain is among the most important holidays in Pagan and Neopagan traditions, in which major festivals are held at the change of seasons.

Among the ancient Celts, it was a time of year when it was believed that the threshold of the spirit world was opened for spirits to pass through and haunt the living. People marked the occasion by lighting bonfires for protection and dressing as the spirits and creatures they believed could cross over that night. Sound familiar?

Today, the word Samhain is sometimes used as another word for Halloween.

Where does Halloween come from?

Many of the traditions associated with Halloween are thought to originate in Samhain, especially the notion of it as a time when creatures from the spirit realm roam the world of the living. Also the costumes.

Under Christianity, some of the traditions of Samhain were incorporated into All Saints’ Day—which was placed on November 1. Many of these customs were brought by immigrants to the US, where Halloween has been influenced by and has incorporated elements from several cultures to become what it is today. One cultural celebration with some notable parallels with Halloween is the Day of the Dead.

What is the Day of the Dead?

Day of the Dead is the English name for Día de los Muertos, a festival in celebration and honor of the souls of the dead. It takes place on November 1 and 2 and is primarily celebrated in Mexico (where it originated) and among people with Mexican heritage, as well as in some other Central and South American countries.

It is observed as a day to honor deceased family members and loved ones by welcoming back their spirits through various customs, including making dedicated altars, laying out special food offerings, and visiting their graves.

Though the focus of the festival can be somber, it is typically observed in festive and celebratory ways, including with parades in which the souls of the dead are said to take part.

Its ultimate origins are debated, but many of its traditions are thought to be based on Indigenous customs, including those of the Aztecs and Toltecs. The lighthearted tone of the festival is thought to derive from the fact that mourning practices in such cultures have traditionally been less somber due to beliefs that souls of the dead remain among the living. Some of the customs are often traced to influences from Christian European colonizers and missionaries, notably the placing of the festival to coincide with the Christian holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.

Somewhat like the Day of the Dead, Halloween is often seen as a way to embrace the macabre—scary things or things related to death.

We know Halloween means a day filled with spooky costumes, candy both chocolate-filled and chalky, and fun decor — but what does the word «Halloween» actually mean? While most holidays almost give away the meaning of the day in the title (as in, Christmas is a combination of «Christ’s Mass») Halloween seems just a little bit different. I mean, there’s a thing called a hallow, but besides the name of a band, what’s a ween?

First, let’s talk about All Saints’ Day. Celebrated on Nov. 1, the day is a Catholic holiday which honors the saints of the Catholic Church. Typically Catholics observe the holiday by attending mass, and while originally celebrated in May, it was moved to November by Pope Gregory III. As you might know, Halloween falls the day beforehand — Oct. 31, to be exact. In accordance with All Saints’ Day, Halloween was then called All Hallows’ Eve, and seemed a bit less… well, commercial. All Hallows’ Eve was definitely an event that each community celebrated, and it was usually pretty kid-friendly.

Then, of course, there was Samhain, celebrated by the Celts. Samhain, pronounced as «saw-en,» was best known as both the beginning of winter, as well as the day ghosts came back from the dead.

These ghosts usually caused a little bit of chaos, which was actually expected and even praised — in fact, the ghosts were often given treats. That’s likely where the spooky, eeriness of Halloween derived. It was so ghostly that even Glenn Danzig was inspired by the name, starting up a band called Samhain in the 1980s. But that’s just a random fun fact.

Halloween eventually became more about fun food and celebration (and less about hauntings) in the 1920s. Not to say that events like bobbing for apples aren’t fun, but — well, every holiday goes through a set amount of changes throughout the years.

Halloween today, as a word, was pretty much formed based on All Hallows’ Eve — say it out loud real quick, and the new name might make a bit more sense. That, and the fact that Hallow stands for «holy» in Old English, and — remember «Samhain» being pronounced «saw-en»? The word in general means «end of summer,» and as the holidays merged, it might have derived from there.

It’s definitely important to know that while we think of it as an American holiday, it actually started in Celtic-European culture — Americans just adopted it, and made it what it is today.

Images: Lumina/Stocksy; Giphy (2)

Halloween Hallowe’en
Jack-o’-lantern
Also called	All Hallows Eve All Saints’ Eve
Observed by	Numerous Western countries (see article)
Type	Secular with roots in Christianity and Paganism
Date	October 31
Celebrations	Varies by region but includes trick-or-treating, ghost tours, apple bobbing, costume parties, carving jack-o’-lanterns
Related to	Samhain, All Saints Day

Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is a holiday celebrated on October 31, particularly in the United States where it has been heavily commercialized. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. As a result it is considered a time when the barrier between the physical realm and the spirit world is open, allowing the spirits of the dead to come to earth, possibly causing problems for the living.

The day is often associated with the colors orange and black, and is strongly associated with symbols such as the jack-o’-lantern. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving pumpkins, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies.

For some Christians and Pagans the religious origins of the holiday are cause for concern. For most, though, the holiday is an opportunity for children to enjoy dressing up in costumes and obtaining large amounts of free candy from their neighbors. When this is done safely it promotes a closer community involving young and old alike with opportunities to express creativity and share happiness.

Origins

Halloween has origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (Irish pronunciation: [ˈsˠaunʲ].^[1] The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes regarded as the «Celtic New Year.»

The Celts believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the living and the dead dissolved, and the deceased become dangerous for the living, causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. Festivals frequently involved bonfires, into which the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to copy the evil spirits or placate them.

Etymology

The term «Halloween» is shortened from «All Hallows’ Even» (both «even» and «eve» are abbreviations of «evening,» but «Halloween» gets its «n» from «even») as it is the eve of «All Hallows’ Day,» which is now also known as All Saints’ Day.^[2] It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints’ Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1. Although All Saints’ Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, in the ninth century the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar, with the result that the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day.

Symbols

On Hallows’ eve, the Celts would place a skeleton on their window sill to represent the departed. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and its knowledge, the Celts also used the «head» of a vegetable to frighten off any evil spirits that might try to do harm. Large turnips were hollowed out, carved with faces, and placed in windows to ward off evil spirits.

The «jack-o’-lantern» can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack,^[3] a greedy, gambling, hard-drinking old farmer. He tricked the devil into climbing a tree and trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack, condemning him to forever wander the earth at night with the only light he had: a candle inside of a hollowed turnip.

The carving of pumpkins became associated with Halloween in North America, where pumpkins were not only readily available but much larger, making them easier to carve than turnips. The carved pumpkin was originally associated with harvest time in America, and did not become specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late nineteenth century.

The imagery surrounding Halloween today is an amalgamation of the Halloween season itself, works of Gothic, and horror literature, nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists, and a rather commercialized take on the dark and mysterious. Halloween imagery tends to involve death, evil, magic, or mythical monsters. Traditional characters include the Devil, the Grim Reaper, ghosts, ghouls, demons, witches, pumpkin-men, goblins, vampires, werewolves, zombies, mummies, skeletons, black cats, spiders, bats, owls, crows, and vultures.

Activities

Trick-or-treating and guising

«Trick-or-treating» is a custom for children on Halloween. Children proceed in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as confectionery, or sometimes money, with the question, «Trick or treat?» The «trick» is an idle threat to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given.

In the United States, trick-or-treating is now one of the main traditions of Halloween and it has become socially expected that if one lives in a neighborhood with children one should purchase treats in preparation for trick-or-treaters. The tradition has also spread to Britain, Ireland, and other European countries, where similar local traditions have been influenced by the American Halloween customs.

The practice of dressing up in costumes and going door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2). It originated in Ireland and Britain, although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of «puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas.»^[4]

However, there is no evidence that souling was ever practiced in North America, where trick-or-treating may have developed independent of any Irish or British antecedent. There is little primary documentation of masking or costuming on Halloween—in Ireland, the UK, or America—before 1900. Ruth Edna Kelley, in her 1919 history of the holiday, The Book of Hallowe’en, makes no mention of ritual begging in the chapter «Hallowe’en in America.»^[5] The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the twentieth century and the 1920s commonly show children, but do not depict trick-or-treating.^[6]

Halloween did not become a holiday in the United States until the nineteenth century, where lingering Puritan tradition restricted the observance of many holidays. American almanacs of the late-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries do not include Halloween in their lists of holidays. The transatlantic migration of nearly two million Irish following the Irish Potato Famine (1845–1849) finally brought the holiday to the United States. Scottish emigration, primarily to Canada before 1870 and to the United States thereafter, brought the Scottish version of the holiday to each country. Irish-American and Scottish-American societies held dinners and balls that celebrated their heritages, with perhaps a recitation of Robert Burns’ poem «Halloween» or a telling of Irish legends. Home parties centered on children’s activities, such as apple bobbing, and various divination games often concerning future romance. Not surprisingly, pranks and mischief were common as well.

The earliest known reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English speaking North America occurs in 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, near the border of upstate New York, reported that it was normal for the smaller children to go street «guising» on Halloween between 6:00 and 7:00 P.M., visiting shops and neighbors to be rewarded with nuts and candies for their rhymes and songs.^[7] Another isolated reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.^[8]

The earliest known use in print of the term «trick or treat» appears in 1927, from Blackie, Alberta, Canada:

Hallowe’en provided an opportunity for real strenuous fun. No real damage was done except to the temper of some who had to hunt for wagon wheels, gates, wagons, barrels, etc., much of which decorated the front street. The youthful tormentors were at back door and front demanding edible plunder by the word “trick or treat” to which the inmates gladly responded and sent the robbers away rejoicing.^[9]

Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice until the 1930s, with the first U.S. appearances of the term in 1934,^[10] and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.^[11] Trick-or-treating spread from the western United States eastward, although it was stalled by sugar rationing that began in April 1942 during World War II and did not end until June 1947.

Early national attention to trick-or-treating was given in October 1947 issues of the children’s magazines Jack and Jill and Children’s Activities, and by Halloween episodes of the network radio programs The Baby Snooks Show in 1946 and The Jack Benny Show and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1948.^[12] The custom had become firmly established in popular culture by 1952, when Walt Disney portrayed it in the cartoon Trick or Treat and Ozzie and Harriet were besieged by trick-or-treaters on an episode of their television show.^[13] At that time UNICEF began what became an annual national campaign for children to raise funds for the charity while trick-or-treating.^[14]

Today, in many towns and cities, trick-or-treaters are welcomed by lit porch lights and jack-o’-lanterns. In some large and/or crime-ridden areas, however, trick-or-treating is discouraged, or re-focused to staged trick-or-treating events within nearby shopping malls, in order to prevent potential acts of violence against trick-or-treaters. Even where crime is not an issue, many American towns have designated specific hours for trick-or-treating to discourage late-night trick-or-treating.

Games

There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. A common one is dunking or apple bobbing, in which apples float in a tub of water; the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity that inevitably leads to a very sticky face.

Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination. In Puicíní, a game played in Ireland, a blindfolded person is seated in front of a table on which several saucers are placed. The saucers are shuffled, and the seated person then chooses one by touch; the contents of the saucer determine the person’s life during the following year. A traditional Irish and Scottish form of divining one’s future spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over one’s shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse’s name. This custom has survived among Irish and Scottish immigrants in the rural United States. Unmarried women were frequently told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before marriage, a skull would appear. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of TV series and specials with Halloween themes are commonly aired on or before the holiday, while new horror films are often released in theaters before the holiday to take advantage of the atmosphere.

Foods

Because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, candy apples (also known as toffee, caramel or taffy apples) are a common Halloween treat made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts.

Other foods associated with the holiday include candy corn; Báirín Breac (Ireland); colcannon (Ireland); bonfire toffee (UK); apple cider; cider; roasted sweetcorn; popcorn; roasted pumpkin seeds; pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread; «fun-sized» or individually wrapped pieces of small candy, typically in Halloween colors of orange, and brown/black; novelty candy shaped like skulls, pumpkins, bats, worms, and so forth; small bags of potato chips, pretzels, and caramel corn; chocolates, caramels, and chewing gum; and nuts.

Haunted attractions

Haunted attractions are entertainment venues designed to thrill and scare patrons; most are seasonal Halloween businesses. Common motifs for Halloween are settings resembling a cemetery, a haunted house, a hospital, or a specific monster-driven theme built around famous creatures or characters.

Typical elements of decoration include jack-o’-lanterns, fake spiders and cobwebs, and artificial gravestones and coffins. Coffins can be built to contain bodies or skeletons, and are sometimes rigged with animatronic equipment and motion detectors so that they will spring open in reaction to passers-by. Eerie music and sound effects are often played over loudspeakers to add to the atmosphere. Haunts can also be given a more «professional» look, now that such items as fog machines and strobe lights have become available for more affordable prices at discount retailers. Some haunted houses issue flashlights with dying batteries to attendees to enhance the feeling of unease.

Commercialization

Commercialization of Halloween in the United States began perhaps with Halloween postcards (featuring hundreds of designs), which were most popular between 1905 and 1915. Dennison Manufacturing Company (which published its first Halloween catalog in 1909) and the Beistle Company were pioneers in commercially made Halloween decorations, particularly die-cut paper items. German manufacturers specialized in Halloween figurines that were exported to the United States in the period between the two World Wars. Mass-produced Halloween costumes did not appear in stores until the 1930s.

In the 1990s, many manufacturers began producing a larger variety of Halloween yard decorations; before this, the majority of decorations were homemade. Some of the most popular yard decorations are jack-o’-lanterns, scarecrows, witches, orange string-lights; inflatable decorations such as spiders, pumpkins, mummies, vampires; and animatronic window and door decorations. Other popular decorations are foam tombstones and gargoyles.

Halloween is now the United States’ second-most popular holiday (after Christmas) for decorating; the sale of candy and costumes is also extremely common during the holiday, which is marketed to children and adults alike. Each year, popular costumes are dictated by various current events and pop-culture icons. On many college campuses, Halloween is a major celebration, with the Friday and Saturday nearest October 31 hosting many costume parties. Halloween costume parties provide an opportunity for adults to gather and socialize. Urban bars are frequented by people wearing Halloween masks and risqué costumes. Many bars and restaurants hold costume contests to attract customers to their establishments.

Several cities host Halloween parades. Anoka, Minnesota, the self-proclaimed «Halloween Capital of the World,» celebrates the holiday with a large civic parade and several other city-wide events. Salem, Massachusetts, also has laid claim to the «Halloween Capital» title, while trying to dissociate itself from its history of persecuting witchcraft. New York City hosts the United States’ largest Halloween celebration, started by Greenwich Village mask-maker Ralph Lee in 1973, the evening parade now attracts over two million spectators and participants, as well as roughly four-million television viewers annually. It is the largest participatory parade in the country if not the world, encouraging spectators to march in the parade as well.

Religious perspectives

In North America, Christian attitudes towards Halloween are quite diverse. In the Anglican Church, some dioceses have chosen to emphasize the Christian traditions of All Saints Day, while some other Protestants celebrate the holiday as Reformation Day, a day of remembrance and prayers for unity. Celtic Christians may have Samhain services:

Many ancient Celtic customs proved compatible with the new Christian religion. Christianity embraced the Celtic notions of family, community, the bond among all people, and respect for the dead. Throughout the centuries, pagan and Christian beliefs intertwine in a gallimaufry (hodgepodge) of celebrations from October 31 through November 5, all of which appear both to challenge the ascendancy of the dark and to revel in its mystery.^[15]

Halloween celebrations are common among Roman Catholic parochial schools throughout North America and in Ireland. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church sees Halloween as having a Christian connection.^[16] Father Gabriele Amorth, a Vatican-appointed exorcist in Rome, has said, «If English and American children like to dress up as witches and devils on one night of the year that is not a problem. If it is just a game, there is no harm in that.»^[17]

Most Christians hold the view that the tradition is far from being «satanic» in origin or practice, and that it holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality, and the ways of the Celtic ancestors actually being a valuable life lesson and a part of many of their parishioners’ heritage. Other Christians, primarily of the Evangelical and Fundamentalist variety, are concerned about Halloween, and reject the holiday because they believe it trivializes (and celebrates) “the occult” and what they perceive as evil.

Many Christians ascribe no negative significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular holiday devoted to celebrating “imaginary spooks” and handing out candy. Contemporary Protestant churches often view Halloween as a fun event for children, holding events in their churches where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and get candy.

Religions other than Christianity have varied views on Halloween. Some Wiccans feel that the tradition is offensive to «real witches» for promoting stereotypical caricatures of «wicked witches.»

Halloween around the world

Halloween is not celebrated in all countries and regions of the world. For example, Halloween is not celebrated in Eastern Europe, although it is popular in many Western European nations. Where it is celebrated the traditions and importance of the celebration vary significantly from country to country.

The celebrations in the United States have had a significant impact on how the holiday is observed in other nations. In Japan, Germany, Italy, Spain, and some South American countries, Halloween has become popular in the context of American pop culture. Some Christians do not appreciate the resultant de-emphasis of the more spiritual aspects of All Hallows Eve and Reformation Day, respectively, or of regional festivals occurring around the same time (such as St Martin’s Day or Guy Fawkes Night).

United Kingdom

England

In parts of northern England, there is a traditional festival called Mischief Night, which falls on October 30. During the celebration, children play a range of «tricks» (ranging from minor to more serious) on adults. In recent years, such acts have occasionally escalated to extreme vandalism, sometimes involving street fires.

Halloween celebrations in England were popularized in the late-twentieth century under the pressure of American cultural influence, including a stream of films and television program aimed at children and adolescents and the discovery by retail experts of a marketing opportunity to fill the empty space before Christmas. This led to the introduction of practices such as pumpkin carving and trick-or-treat. In England and Wales, trick-or-treating occurs, although the practice is regarded by some as a nuisance, sometimes criminal.^[18]

Ireland

Halloween is a significant event in Ireland where it is widely celebrated. It is known in Irish as Oíche Shamhna, literally «Samhain Night.» The pre-Christian Celtic autumn festival, Samhain, «End of Summer,» was a pastoral and agricultural «fire festival» or feast, when the dead revisited the mortal world and large communal bonfires would be lit to ward off evil spirits. Halloween was perceived as the night during which the division between the world of the living and the otherworld was blurred so that spirits of the dead and inhabitants from the underworld were able to walk free on the earth.

On Halloween night, adults and children dress up as creatures from the underworld (ghosts, ghouls, zombies, witches, and goblins), light bonfires, and enjoy spectacular fireworks displays—in particular, the city of Derry is home to the largest organized Halloween celebration on the island, in the form of a street carnival and fireworks display. It is also common for fireworks to be set off for the entire month preceding Halloween as well as a few days after.

Houses are frequently adorned with pumpkins or turnips carved into scary faces; lights or candles are sometimes placed inside the carvings, resulting in an eerie effect. The traditional Halloween cake in Ireland is the barmbrack, which is a fruit bread. Games of divination are also played at Halloween, but are becoming less popular

Scotland

In Scotland, folklore, including that of Halloween, revolves around the ancient Celtic belief in faeries (Sidhe, or Sith, in modern Gaelic). Children who ventured out carried a traditional lantern (samhnag) with a devil face carved into it to frighten away the evil spirits. Such Halloween lanterns were made from a turnip with a candle lit in the hollow inside. In modern times, however, such lanterns use pumpkins, as in North American traditions, possibly because it is easier to carve a face into a pumpkin than into a turnip.

Houses were also protected with the same candle lanterns. If the spirits got past the protection of the lanterns, the Scottish custom was to offer the spirits parcels of food to leave and spare the house another year. Children, too, were given the added protection by disguising them as such creatures in order to blend in with the spirits. If children approached the door of a house, they were also given offerings of food (Halloween being a harvest festival), which served to ward off the spirits. This is where the origin of the practice of Scottish “guising” (a word that comes from «disguising»), or going about in costume, arose. It is now a key feature of the tradition of trick-or-treating practiced in North America.

In modern-day Scotland, this old tradition survives, chiefly in the form of children going door to door «guising» in this manner; that is, dressed in a disguise (often as a witch, ghost, monster, or another supernatural being) and offering entertainment of various sorts. If the entertainment is enjoyed, the children are rewarded with gifts of sweets, fruits, or money.

Popular games played on the holiday include «dooking» for apples (retrieving an apple from a bucket of water using only one’s mouth). In some places, the game has been replaced (because of fears of contracting saliva-borne illnesses in the water) by standing over the bowl holding a fork in one’s mouth and releasing it in an attempt to skewer an apple using only gravity. Another popular game is attempting to eat, sometimes while blindfolded, a treacle or jam-coated scone on a piece of string hanging from the ceiling, without using hands.

Wales

In Wales, Halloween is known as Nos Calan Gaeaf (the beginning of the new winter. Spirits are said to walk around (as it is an Ysbrydnos, or «spirit night»), and a «white lady» ghost is sometimes said to appear. Bonfires are lit on hillsides to mark the night.

Isle of Man

The Manx traditionally celebrate Hop-tu-Naa on October 31. This ancient Celtic tradition has parallels in Scottish and Irish traditions.

European Continent

Denmark

In Denmark children will go trick-or-treating on Halloween, despite collecting candy from neighbors on Fastelavn, Danish carnival. Fastelavn evolved from the Roman Catholic tradition of celebrating in the days before Lent, but after Denmark became a Protestant nation, the holiday became less specifically religious. This holiday occurs seven weeks before Easter Sunday and is sometimes described as a Nordic Halloween, with children dressing up in costumes and gathering treats for the Fastelavn feast.

Italy

In the traditional culture of some regions of Italy, especially in the North of the country—populated by Celts before the arrive of Romans—there were until the last century traditions very similar to Halloween. These involves beliefs about nocturnal visiting and processions of dead people and the use of preparing special biscuits and carving jack-o’-lanterns. These traditions were vanishing when the feast of Halloween arrived in a new form from America.

The Netherlands

Halloween has become increasingly popular in The Netherlands since the early 1990s. From early October, stores are full of merchandising related to the popular Halloween themes. Students and little children dress up on Halloween for parties and small parades. Trick-or-treating is highly uncommon, however, because this directly interferes with the Dutch tradition of celebrating Saint Martin’s Day. On November 11, Dutch children ring doorbells hoping to receive a small treat in return for singing a short song dedicated to St. Martin.

Sweden

In Sweden All Hallows Eve (All Saint’s Night, Alla Helgons Natt) is a Christian, public holiday which always falls on the first Saturday in November. It is about lighting candles at graves and remembering the dead. Swedes also go trick-or-treating on Maundy Thursday.

Other regions

Carribean

The Island Territory of Bonaire is one of five islands of the Netherlands Antilles, accordingly a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. As such, customs found in Europe as well as the United States are common, including the celebration of Halloween. Children often dress up in costume for trick-or-treating expecting to receive candy.

Mexico

In Mexico, Halloween has been celebrated since the 1960s. There, celebrations have been influenced by the American traditions, such as the costuming of children who visit the houses of their neighborhood in search of candy. Though the «trick-or-treat» motif is used, tricks are not generally played on residents not providing candy. Older crowds of preteens, teenagers and adults will sometimes organize Halloween-themed parties, which might be scheduled on the nearest available weekend. Usually kids stop by at peoples’ houses, knock on their door or the ring the bell and say «¡Noche de Brujas, Halloween!» (‘Witches’ Night—Halloween!’) or «¡Queremos Haloween!» (We want Halloween!). The second phrase is more commonly used among children, the afirmation of «We want Halloween» means «We want candy.»

Halloween in Mexico begins three days of consecutive holidays, as it is followed by All Saints’ Day, which also marks the beginning of the two day celebration of the Day of the Dead or the Día de los Muertos. This might account for the initial explanations of the holiday having a traditional Mexican-Catholic slant.

Notes

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Arkins, Diane C. Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear. Pelican Publishing Company, 2000. ISBN 1565547128
• Arkins, Diane C. Halloween Merrymaking: An Illustrated Celebration Of Fun, Food, And Frolics From Halloweens Past. Pelican Publishing Company, 2004. ISBN 158980113X
• Bannatyne, Lesley. Halloween: An American Holiday, An American History. Pelican Publishing Company, 1998 (original 1990). ISBN 1565543467
• Bannatyne, Lesley. A Halloween Reader. Stories, Poems and Plays from Halloweens Past. Pelican Publishing Company, 2004. ISBN 1589801768
• Galembo, Phyllis. Dressed for Thrills: 100 Years of Halloween Costumes and Masquerade, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2002. ISBN 0810932911
• Hatcher, Lint. The Magic Eightball Test: A Christian Defense of Halloween and All Things Spooky. Lulu.com, 2006. ISBN 978-1847287564
• Hutton, Ronald. Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford Paperbacks, 2001. ISBN 0192854488
• Kelley, Ruth Edna. The Book of Hallowe’en. Echo Library, 2008 (original 1919). ISBN 978-1406875720
• Kondratiev, Alexei. Samhain: Season of Death and Renewal An Tríbhís Mhór: The IMBAS Journal of Celtic Reconstructionism 2(1/2) (Samhain 1997/Iombolg 1998). Retrieved February 25, 2009.
• Markale, Jean. The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween: Celebrating the Dark Half of the Year (translation of Halloween, histoire et traditions), Inner Traditions, 2001. ISBN 0892819006
• Morton, Lisa. The Halloween Encyclopedia. McFarland & Company, 2003. ISBN 078641524X
• Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0195146913
• Santino, Jack (ed.). Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life. University of Tennessee Press, 1994. ISBN 0870498134
• Skal, David J. Death Makes A Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween. Bloomsbury USA, 2003. ISBN 1582343055
• Truwe, Ben. The Halloween Catalog Collection. Portland, OR: Talky Tina Press, 2003. ISBN 0970344856

What is the true meaning of Halloween in the Bible?

Does Halloween mean holy night?

What does Halloween mean in Old English?

Why Christians shouldn’t celebrate Halloween?

What is the truth behind Halloween?

What is the spiritual meaning of Halloween?

Why Halloween is scary?

Do Catholics celebrate Halloween?

What does Halloween mean in the Catholic Church?

What are the values of Halloween?

Is Halloween forbidden in the Bible?

What religion does not allow Halloween?

Is Halloween pagan or Catholic?

Why Halloween is bad for you?

How do you explain Halloween to a child?

Do Muslims celebrate Halloween?

Do the dead rise on Halloween?

How do you explain Halloween to a 2 year old?

What is the fear of Halloween called?

Asked by: Mrs. Polly O’Reilly

Score: 4.6/5
(51 votes)

The word «Halloween» comes from All Hallows’ Eve and means «hallowed evening.» Hundreds of years ago, people dressed up as saints and went door-to-door, which is the origin of Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating.

What is the real meaning of Halloween?

What is the true meaning of Halloween in the Bible?

Halloween is the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows’ Day (also known as All Saints’ or Hallowmas) on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November, thus giving the holiday on 31 October the full name of All Hallows’ Eve (meaning the evening before All Hallows’ Day).

What Old English word does Halloween come from?

The word “Halloween” has roots in the Christian tradition. Hallow is an archaic word that evolved from the Old English word halgian.

Why Christians shouldnt celebrate Halloween?

Halloween is a devil’s holiday, not a Christian observance. The founder of the church of Satan said that by dressing up, either by wearing a costume or coloring oneself for Halloween, is tantamount to worshipping the devil.

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