This is taken from an old, neglected website of mine, Autumn's Witchery.
Halloween as we know it today is a mixture of customs and other holidays. The costumes, makeup, jack-o-lanterns, all were derived from Celtic customs from Ireland. In fact, the Irish immigrants brought the holiday to America. During each era in America, Halloween has been reinterpreted and changed. During the Victorian era Halloween was the time for young women to try divination to find out who their future husbands or lovers will be; or to find out if they will marry in the next year. Today, the holiday is mainly thought of as a children's holiday when they can dress up as whatever or whoever they want and get free candy by trick-or-treating. However, Adults are starting to make the holiday their own, too, by hosting their own parties and celebrations. After all, the child aspect makes the holiday a bit restrictive.
Historians often cite the ancient Celts as the source of Halloween. They divided the year into two parts: summer and winter. At the end of summer, Samhain (pr. Sah-wen) a festival is held to celebrate the harvest, the past, and the future. It is also the end of their calendar, marking the coming of winter. Those who died in the past year were remembered and food was left for their spirits, which were said to remain on Earth as the year changed. Also, on this night divination was important and priests often performed and/or practiced it. It is said that the Celts carried the embers from the huge fire made by the priests in hollowed out turnips, a precursor to today's jack-o-lanterns.
The Celts thought that the change to the new year created a "wrinkle in time." For example, events that occur on Samhain took place out of real time. Samhain is also considered to be a crossroads between the past and present, allowing magical creatures to roam freely. In order to protect themselves the Celts wore disguises to trick the fairies. Thus explaining why we wear costumes today.
As time went on, the British Isles were invaded by the Romans around 43 A.D. and stayed almost 400 years. A mixing of cultures is impossible to prevent, so the autumn festivals of these two cultures combined. The Romans celebrated Paternalia, a festival honoring the dead in October. On November 1, they honored Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. Pomona is often represented holding an apple and during the festival, fruits and nuts were used to play games. The Halloween traditions, like apple divination and bobbing for apples most likely have their base in Roman custom.
Things began to change when Christianity started to take hold on the Isles and Ireland around the 7th century. The Church tried to separate itself from the Celts and the Romans. The spirits and the gods regarded in the traditions became demons and witches. This resulted in the converts to distance themselves from the old festivals and traditions and started to celebrate the new holy days created by the Church. Hallowmas or Allhallows or All Saints' Day on November 1st and All Souls' Day on the 2nd were the new replacement holidays to celebrate. The Roman tradition of honoring the dead stayed, but it also included saints along with the ancestors. The night before these holy days were called All Hallows' Eve, All Hallowe'en, and later Halloween.
For centuries, people in Ireland and the British Isles developed their own traditions and customs to the holiday. The Church encouraged people to leave out "soul cakes" on All Souls' Day; which replaced the ancient practice of leaving out food and wine for spirits on Samhain. Working class children went "souling," going door to door begging for the cakes promising to pray for the dead. In contrast to all these changes, divination remained a part of the holiday. The scary, ghoulish associations made today did not exist at this time. Halloween, during this time, was a small family affair.
During the 19th century, the Irish and British immigrants brought their traditions and customs to America, including Halloween. At this time, the Halloween lost much of its religious overtones and transformed into a folk holiday. This allows popular culture to influence the holiday, resulting in a metamorphic holiday. During the Victorian times, Halloween mirrored the era's focus on romance and love. Divination games were very popular among young women and girls and usually were the primary activities for the night. Young girls labeled nuts, one for each potential suitor, then threw them into the fire. The nut that cracked represented her future husband. Snap Apple was a game in which apples were hung from the ceiling by strings. The first to get the apple with her teeth would marry first. Mischievous boys replaced the trouble causing fairies of the past. They overturned outhouses, broke windows, and did other not-so-evil activities.
By the turn of the century, Halloween began to turn into a children oriented holiday. Souling turned into trick-or-treating, ghosts became friendly, and jack-o-lanterns smiled. In the 1970's, Halloween started to become dangerous with the news of needle-filled candy and the false rumors of poisoned candy being handed out to children. Fundamentalist Christians labeled Halloween as a Satanistic holiday and wanted to outlaw it or at least limit its popularity. Hollywood created horror and slasher movies that made Halloween seem scarier or more fun or both, depending on your perspective.
Today, Halloween has turned into a holiday to be celebrated by both adults and children. Jack-o'lanterns, ghosts, etc are now both scary and cute. Mexico's holiday, el Día de los Muertos, also influenced modern day Halloween, especially in southwest USA. It'll be interesting to see what other changes will occur.
Halloween by Joanne O'Sullivan
Halloween Comes to America (History Channel)
Picture: jaz1111 at sxc.hu
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