Pumpkin carving, bats, and candy! That is what we associate with the scariest holiday of the year. Halloween is a fun and beloved holiday to many and an exciting experience for all. Like every other holiday, Halloween has its origins which many do not even know about!
Halloween has its main roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain. This was done by the Celtic people, who lived mostly in Ireland, northern France, and the UK. The Celtic people celebrated their new year on November 1st and this celebration was very important.
“Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.” This is also where the origin of dressing up comes from, the Celtic people would dress up and have bon fires to scare off any of the ghosts. There is more to Halloween than just the origin, the classic traditions cannot be forgotten either!
The whole idea of carving pumpkins originated in Ireland. Pumpkin carving was originally done using turnips. It is based off an old legend about Stingy Jack, a man who trapped the Devil multiple times and promised to only let him out if he would never go to Hell. However, when Jack died, Heaven did not want his soul either, so he was stuck to roam Earth as a ghost forever. Now the tradition comes in when the Devil gave Jack a carved turnip with burning coal inside to light up his way, locals started carving scary faces into turnips and eventually, what we are more familiar with, pumpkins. Locals believed the scary faces would scare away evil spirits, but nowadays people just carve pumpkins for fun!
The tradition of wearing scary costumes is also connected to the Celtic festival. Celts believed that during Halloween time, evil spirits were roaming the Earth. To tackle this, the Celts would wear scary costumes in attempts to scare off said evil spirits. Isn’t it ironic? A precautionary action has become a fun celebration for millions of people now.
Trick or treating is arguably the most popular and fun part of Halloween, but there is actually debate about its origin and three main theories about it. The first theory is that during Samhain people would leave out food to appease the traveling spirits at night. The second theory is that it stems off the Scottish practice of guising, a secularized version of souling. Finally, the third theory is that trick or treating as we know it originates from a German practice called Belsnickeling.
Overall, our beloved and scariest time of the year has some interesting origins and history behind each thing we do. It may not be celebrated for many of the same reasons now, it is still a fun experience for millions each year.
