Halloween: A magical night of history and tradition
We get trick or treaters coming to the door every year. I always get extra sweets in for them. Anne recently asked me where Halloween comes from. I wasn’t sure exactly, so I decided to do a bit of research.
Spirits and magic
Halloween is celebrated all around the world on the 31st of October: a night of mystery, suspense and excitement. As the days get shorter, this festival brings the darker evenings to life with magical stories of spirits and ghosts. Modern-day Halloween has its origins in the old Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated 2000 years ago in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France. Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of the cold, dark winter months. The Celts believed that, on the evening of 31 October, the division between the realms of the living and dead was at its thinnest, allowing ghost to return to the earthly world. People wore costumes and masks to disguise themselves as evil spirits and protect themselves from harm. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III ordered that 1 November be celebrated as All Saint’s Day, or All Hallow’s Day. The night was known as All Hallows’ Eve, which later evolved to ‘Hallowe’en’. The second of November became All Soul’s Day. These Christian festivals were combined with the pagan tradition of Samhain, resulting in the festival of Halloween as we know it today.
Trick or treat
Going from house to house trick-or-treating to collect sweets is probably the best known tradition associated with Halloween. The custom is thought to date back to the Christian festival of All Soul’s Day. On 2 November, poor people dressed in rags would travel from door to door begging for soul cakes: small, round buns made with spices and currants. In exchange for the soul cakes, they sang songs or promised to pray for the departed family of the generous homeowners. That would ensure they were admitted to heaven sooner.
Jack 0’Lantern
Carving pumpkins to make jack-o’-lanterns is another iconic Halloween tradition. This custom started with an Irish folktale about a man called Jack who outsmarted the devil on several occasions, but was then unable to enter either heaven or hell when he died, leaving him to roam the earth with a piece of burning coal inside a hollow turnip for all of time.
Anne, Barney and I have carved and decorated lots of pumpkins together. But we usually just put them around the house, glowing cheerfully with a tealight inside.
