History of Halloween

Halloween is one of the world's oldest holidays, dating back to pagan times. People celebrate it today in more countries than ever before. There's a simple reason: it is good, clean, harmless fun for young and old alike!

Halloween is known and loved today as a time to wear costumes, go door to door asking for candy, and watching monster movies. But the holiday's origins go back centuries to the enactment of All Saints' Day, a Christian holiday. Along the way, it has also picked up traditions from Samhain, a Celtic festival celebrating the start of winter.

Since much of the history of Halloween wasn't written down for centuries; some of it is still sketchy and subject to debate. But the most plausible theory is that Halloween originated in the British Isles out of the Pagan Celtic celebration of Samhain. It goes back as far as 5 B.C. It was believed that spirits rose from the dead and mingled with the living on this day. The Celts left food at their doors to encourage good spirits and wore masks to scare off the bad ones.

The word 'Halloween' is directly derived from the Catholic Church. In an effort to bridge the pagans with Christianity, the church tied the event into a religious celebration, All Hallows Eve when the evil spirits roamed was followed by All Saints Day where all the good spirits prevailed. Contrary to some people, Halloween is not an off shoot or practice of evil, but a ritual of protection and celebration.

The event migrated to Rome and was assimilated into celebrations of other Roman traditions such as the day of honoring Pamona, the Goddess of fruit and trees.

Many of today's traditional Halloween activities can be traced to the Celtics and Roman celebrations. Bobbing for apples might very well symbolize Pamona who's symbol is the apple. Burning of the bonfire while extinguishing fires in the homes was to attract the evil spirits. Dancing around it was to scare them away. The fires were extinguished at midnight.

The wearing of masks was to scare away the evil spirits who were free to roam the earth during All Hallow's Eve.

The carving of the pumpkin or Jack o Lantern most likely derives from Irish folklore. The legend relates the story about a drunkard named Jack who tricked the devil into sitting in a tree. Jack carved a symbol on the tree that prevented the devil from coming back down. It was not until Jack elicited a promise from the devil that he would never tempt Jack again (with the drink most likely) that he destroyed the symbol and let Satan loose again. When Jack died, he could not enter heaven because of his evil ways and he could not enter hell because of his prank on Satan. He was doomed to roam the earth carrying a single ember to light his way which he carried in a carved out turnip to keep it glowing longer.

Once all of the evil spirits were scared away, room was made for the good spirits to freely roam on All Saint's Day. The Catholic Church use this day to honor and worship their saints.

In the late 1800's there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborhood "get-togethers," than about the supernatural. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate. By the 1950's vandalism had to be brought under control and by this time Halloween was more of a child's celebration. Treats were handed out in order to prevent tricks. The kids going home to home saying, "Trick or Treat' began as a pledge that, "If you give us a treat, we won't play a trick on you." (this practice also comes from the Irish folklore about Jack) People who did not treat the kids might just find their out-houses tipped over or their gates unhinged.

Those traditions have made Halloween the country's second largest commercial holiday to the tune of more than $2 billion spent on candy each year.

Today, though many still do the house trick or treating with the children, society has evolved into hosting church, school and neighborhood parties for both adults and for children. Adults have as much fun and any kid - perhaps they remember when they were young.

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