The Trick or Treat History of Halloween
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As the Harvest Moon passes and the Hunter's Moon approaches, it is the season of All Hallows Eve or Halloween. In the old Celtic calendar, Halloween, October 31st, was the last day of the year, the night when all the witches and warlocks were abroad in the land. Christianity then took over the day and made it All Hallows or All Saint's Day, that day being November 1st. This meant that the evening before, just like the evening before Christmas (Christmas Eve), became All Hallows Eve, later shortened to Halloween. One of the oldest holidays, Halloween has a history that stretches back thousands of years, encompassing Celtic, Roman, and Christian traditions. Despite the notion that the Celtics are a basketball team from Boston, or a way of describing Ireland, I.E., the land of Celtics, the Celtics were actually a nomadic tribe of people, composed of many clans (families) who eventually settled in what is today Northern France (Brittany), Great Britain, and Ireland. The Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1st. A three-day festival at this time marked the end of the "season of the sun" and the beginning of the "season of darkness and cold." During this season, which we call winter, the Celts believed the sun god was taken prisoner by Samhain, the Lord of the Dead and the Prince of Darkness. One the eve before their new year (October 31), Samhain called to gather all the dead people. The dead then took many forms, with the bad spirits taking the form of animals, the most evil taking the form of cats. On October 31st, after the crops were harvested and stored for the long winter, the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids and the Celtic priests would meet in the hilltop in the dark oak forest (oak trees were considered sacred). The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals. As they danced around the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness began. When morning arrived, the Druids gave an ember from their fires to each family. Each family then took the ember home and started a new cooking fire. This new year's fire would then keep the home warm and free from evil spirits. Named after Samhain, this festival found many parading around in costumes made from heads and skins of dead animals. During the first century A.D., the Romans invaded Britain, bringing with them many of their festivals and customs. One of these was the festival known as Pomona day, named for their goddess of fruits and gardens. Like the Celtic holiday, it too was celebrated around the 1st of November. This holiday included the passing out what were called Pomona's Day apples, as well as nuts and other "treats" from the harvest. After hundreds of years of Roman rule, the customs of the Celtic's Samhain festival and the Roman Pomona Day mixed, forming a single major fall holiday. Next came Christianity. Though early forms of it had arrived with the Romans, Christianity's influence on what we call Halloween came in the ninth century. In 835 A.D., the Roman Catholic Church made November 1st a church holiday to honor all the saints. This day was called All Saint's Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Years later the Church made November 2nd a holy day, too. It was called All Souls Day and was to honor the dead. It was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as saints, angels, and even devils. (Does anybody detect a pattern here?) These new holidays (or holy days, which is the root of the word holidays) did not erase the earlier customs. Instead, on the eve of All Hallows, October 31st, people celebrated the blended festival of Samhain and Pomona Day. Eventually, the customs from all these holidays mixed. October 31st became known as All Hallow Even, eventually All Hallow's Eve, Hallowe'en, and then Halloween. Today, while we may not have a three-day festival starting October 31st, we do turn on our porch lights and pass out treats to children dressed as black cats, wizards, witches, ghosts, skeletons, and other hobgoblins from our blended Celtic, Roman and Christian heritage. Happy Halloween. |