Most holidays commemorate or celebrate something. But what about Halloween?
What is Halloween actually
a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship?
Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual where folks get together for parties, dress up in
costumes and bob for apples? The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It
comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is
a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially
ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would
extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all
manner of ghoulish costumes (similar to today's Halloween costumes), and noisily parade around the
neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.
Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit
possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that
was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.
Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been
possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.
The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated
into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor
Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the
origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
In Greek mythology, goddesses of the underworld were often used to invoke the Samhain. Popular costumes
portray Hecate and Medusa. Hecate was the most favored goddess by Zeus, and wandered the emptiness
between the worlds of life and death looking for souls of the dead. Both were considered serpent goddesses,
and their ancient dark legends spawned myths such as vampires, who fed off the living using venom and
snake-like fangs. Ritualistic dress includes snake adornments and three headed masks. Today, Hecate is
often referred to as the goddess of witches.
The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession
waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's
potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging
fence gates.
The custom of trick-or-treat is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century
European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to
village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the
beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the
donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer,
even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.
The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who
was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a
cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never
tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he
was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember
to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it
glowing longer.
The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they
found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowedout pumpkin, lit with an ember. So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite
"holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new
year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have parties complete
with Halloween costumes or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one
cares to make it.
