The origins of Halloween go back to ancient times. Most point to Samhain, a Celtic holiday that commemorated the end of the harvest season and the blurring of the physical and spiritual worlds, as the ancestor of Halloween. Over the ages, the holiday has evolved, taking influences from Christianity, European myth and American consumerism. Today, Halloween is celebrated with treats, costumes, and pumpkin lanterns, all of which would likely be unrecognizable to those who participated in the early forms of the party.
Ancient Times: Halloween Begins As Samhain
Samhain was celebrated with fires, dances and costumes.
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The ancient Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, marked Samhain midway between the autumn equinox and the solstice winter. During this time of year, hearth fires in family homes were left to burn while the crop was being harvested. After the harvest work was completed, the celebrants joined with the Druid priests in lighting massive bonfires and praying.
The Celts believed that the barrier between the physical and spiritual worlds could be crossed during Samhain. It was expected that the ancestors could cross during this time as well, and the Celts would dress like animals and monsters so that the fairies were not tempted to kidnap them.
Learn more about Samhain.
10th century: Samhain is Christianized
In the 7th century, the Catholic Church established November 1 as All Saints’ Day, a day to commemorate all the saints in the church. In the 9th century, the influence of Christianity spread to Celtic lands, where it gradually mingled with and supplanted ancient Celtic rites. In 1000 AD, the church made November 2 the feast of the dead, a day to honor the dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic feast of the dead with a related church sanctioned feast.
The celebration of All Saints’ Day was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and ultimately Halloween. Over the centuries, the three public holidays – All Saints, All Saints and Samhain – have essentially merged into one: Halloween. (The Catholic Church still recognizes All Saints and All Saints today, and some Wiccans and Celtic Reconstructionists commemorate Samhain.)
Learn more about how the early Catholic Church Christianized Halloween.
The Middle Ages: Trick-or-Treating emerges
Trick-or-treat has become an integral part of Halloween.
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In England and Ireland, during All Saints ‘Day and All Saints’ Day celebrations, the poor visited the homes of the wealthiest families and received pastries called soul cakes in exchange for a promise to pray for the souls of the parents. deceased owners. Known as “souling,” the practice was later taken up by children, who would go door to door asking for gifts such as food, money and beer, one of the earliest forms. of treats.
Learn about the origins of trick-or-treat and the history of Halloween candy
19th century: the Jack-o-Lanterns take shape
The practice of carving faces from vegetables became associated with Halloween in Ireland and Scotland around the 1800s. Jack-o-lanterns was born from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack”, who deceived the devil and was forced to roam the land with only a hot coal in a turnip to light his way. People started making their own versions of Jack’s Lanterns by carving spooky faces out of turnips or potatoes and placing them in windows or near doors to scare off Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits.
Learn more about the myth that inspired pumpkin lanterns.
19th century: Halloween arrives in America, and with it, misdeeds
With the exception of Catholic-dominated Maryland and some other southern colonies, Halloween celebrations were extremely limited in early America, which was largely Protestant. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish people fleeing the Irish potato famine, helped popularize the celebration nationwide.
These immigrants celebrated as they did in their country of origin, including playing pranks. In the late 1800s, common Halloween tricks were to place carts of farmers and cattle on barn roofs, uproot vegetables in gardens, and overturn outhouse toilets. At the turn of the 20th century, vandalism, physical assault, and sporadic acts of violence were not uncommon on Halloween.
Learn more about when Halloween was rightfully dangerous.
1930s: haunted houses become a thing in America
Haunted or spooky public attractions already had a precedent in Europe. From the 1800s, Marie Tussaud’s wax museum in London featured a “Chamber of Horrors” with beheaded figures from the French Revolution. In 1915, a British amusement ride maker created an old haunted house, with dim lights, shaking floors, and demonic cries.
In the United States, the Great Depression started the trend. By then, the violence around Halloween – no doubt exacerbated by dire economic conditions – had reached new heights. Parents, concerned about the madness of their children on All Saints’ Eve, have organized “haunted houses” or “trails” to keep them away from the streets.
Learn more about the origins of the Great Depression in Halloween haunted houses.
1950s: Halloween costumes become mainstream
As mass-produced costumes became more affordable in the 1950s, more and more children began to use them for dressing up.
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Costumes and fancy dress have been part of Halloween celebrations since the early days of the holiday. But it wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that the costumes started to look like what we know today.
Around the same time, neighborhoods started hosting activities like haunted houses to keep kids safe and occupied, costumes became more prominent (and less abstract and spooky). They began to take the form of things children would have seen and enjoyed, such as characters from popular radio shows, comics and movies. In the 1950s, mass-produced box costumes became more affordable, so more and more kids started using them to dress up as princesses, mummies, clowns, or more specific characters like Batman. and Frankenstein’s monster.
Learn more about the history of Halloween costumes.
1980s: Fears about poisoned Halloween candy reach new heights
While in general fears about poisoned Halloween candy have been exaggerated, crimes involving poison have taken place. The most infamous case took place on October 31, 1974. It was then that a man from Texas named Ronald O’Bryan gave cyanide leprechaun sticks to five children, including his son. The other children never ate candy, but her eight-year-old son Timothy did and died shortly after.
Paranoia reached new heights in the early 1980s after a wave of Tylenol poisonings in which acetaminophen containing cyanide was placed on store shelves and sold. After the Tylenol murders, which are still unsolved, warnings about adulterated Halloween candy have escalated.
Learn more about how Americans became convinced their Halloween candy was poisoned.
