Today’s October 31st and it’s Halloween, one of my favorite holidays of the year. Around the globe (mostly in North America and Europe), children are going door to door trick or treating and adults get ready for a party or two. It’s a great day to dress up and celebrate! There are many different types of activities to do and the holiday as very unique history.
History of Halloween
Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. The festival was used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.
In the seventh century, the Pope designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints in an attempt to replace the Celtic festival with a related, church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was called All-hallows or All Saints’ Day and the night before it was called All-hallows Eve. In A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated like Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, these three celebrations were called Hallowmas (i.e. Halloween).
The celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited. The first celebrations included “play parties,” public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds.
In the late 1800s, America was flooded with new immigrants that helped popularize the celebration of Halloween. Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties. By the 1950s, Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats, which if you’re a kid is great- free candy.
Halloween is a pretty secular even now though in many parts of the world, especially Mexico, the Day of the Dead tradition of honoring the deceased is still very, very strong.
Halloween Celebrations
With so many ways to celebrate the day, Halloween allows the young to act crazy and the old to act crazier:
- Dress Up- Halloween isn’t Halloween without a costume! Get into the spirit with a crazy or not so crazy costume. From the typical Dracula to the weird full on Winnie the Pooh costume I once saw, no matter what at least you get into the spirit. Even throwing a sheet around you and calling it a toga is good. (Not that I did that or am doing it again)
- Bob for apples- What’s more fun than getting a face full of water while trying to grab an apple with your mouth! Especially fun after a few drinks!
- The tell ghost story- Booo! What’s the day without a little fright? Turn off the light, put the flashlight to your face and get really creepy. I remember hearing this story at camp about “Bob” that scared me for weeks. I’m still not sure it’s fake. It probably is.
- Carve a Pumpkin- The name jack-o’-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a greedy, gambling, hard-drinking old farmer. He tricked the devil into climbing a tree and trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack, condemning him to forever wander the earth at night with the only light he had: a candle inside of a hollowed turnip. Make your own jack o lantern to scare away the spirits. It’s one the funniest activities in all of Halloween! It allows you to be very creative and some pumpkin designs are really intricate. Added bonus: cooked pumpkins seeds are delicious.
- Candy apple- Since the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, candy apples are a good Halloween treat made by rolling whole apples in a sticky, dentist hating caramel.
- Trick or Treat- There’s nothing better than going door to door and getting candy, though parents around the world, dread the dentist bill afterwards! Everyone decorates their house and gives out candy to kids (and adults) that ring their doorbell. What a great community activity!
On this day of fright, go out and cast the evil spirits away and have some fun. The day may not carry the religious significance it used it but it is still great for any age. As I kid, I loved trick or treating, carving pumpkins, eating pumpkins, and getting lots of candy. Now, as and adult, I still love all those things but now I also get to go to excellent Halloween parties.
Happy Halloween!
It’s getting pretty popular in Turkey too as are other Western celebrations like Valentine’s Day and quasi-Christmas.
Hi
Happy Halloween..what a wonderful festival..have heard so much abt the parties.but I understand the significance better
Happy Halloween — and thanks for the cultural run-down. What’s your costume going to be?
Matt,
Thanks for the great photo! Hallowe’en is not catching on in Spain.
November 1st, however, is All Saints Days (Todo los Santos) and it is a national holiday. Traditional foods for this holiday include roasted chestnut (castañes), sweet potatoes, and small almond cookies called pannellets. These are sometimes served by Maria, la Castañada or chestnut seller. The little treats are reminders of the days when home made cakes and offerings were left with the bodies of the dead.
Yay, Halloween! I am dressing up the dogs as superman and batman and taking the nephews out trick or treating. (Like they need more sugar).
As much as I love Halloween (and I do) I hate seeing it in parts of the world that have never celebrated it in the past. A Dutch friend of mine told me something about how one of their traditions had started to look more and more like Halloween. Something about how kids used to go door to door doing something (I forget what) and now they are starting to dress up in scary costumes and ask for candy. It’d be kind of crappy to see the marketing machine that is Halloween push more traditional activities in other countries aside.
I would be interested to know about how Halloween is catching on in the rest of the world and what other people think of it spreading.
Anyways, enough of that… happy Halloween!!
Interesting. Your description of the genesis of Halloween (the word, at least) is different to mine. Wonder which of us is right ?
Not a big deal in Australia usually. For the first time ever I actually had some kids come trick or treating. Had nothing to give them. Didn’t even realise it was Halloween till I saw little witches walking around. We moved to a new suburb this year though and I’m guessing the local primary school promotes it heavily or something.
Kirsty, I can’t think of any Dutch traditions that involve kids going door to door (I’m part Dutch). Maybe there’s some regional ones that I’m unaware of though. Sinterklaas is the BIG deal in Holland, but the tradition there is for Sinterklaas and his “Zwarte Pieten” to come by your house. I understand that the Zwarte Pieten (Black Peters) have started to come in other colours, because it was not exactly politically correct.
Matt, I’m not sure where in Europe it has caught on at all to be honest.. is there any specific countries where it is even close to as big as it is in the US?
Happy Halloween !
This is a festival with a different flavor, I have enjoyed it when I was in Europe.
Hi Matt! I’m not so keen on Halloween, and must confess that though living in Europe only heard of it when visiting the States; now it’s becoming different…
)
Great shot of Schönbrunn Palace taken from the Gloriette!
Meanwhile Blogtrotter is now strolling somewhere around the Holy See of Echmiadzin. Hope you enjoy and have a great weekend!
@angela: I didn’t have one..
@wandermom: we have the genesis. I just explain the history a bit more.
@peter: It definetly is not as big in Europe as it is in the US but I think the UK has some stuff. I think Halloween in Europe is more about adults having fun than kids. At least that was the impression I got when I was there last year.
@everyone else: Happy halloween! Hope you had a good one!
I missed out on Halloween this year, though the fam did send a boatload of plain M&Ms to me. You know what I miss, the spurt of Halloween themed movies that always come on this time of year. We do have a Halloween party every year here. Fantastic!
Peter,
I live in North Holland n St Maarten is celebrated on Nov 11 – the tune “elf november is de dag, dat mijn kaarsjes branden mag” says it all – with the kids singing door to door with their pretty lanterns n being rewarded with sweets.
hey nomadicmatt,
any trick or treat sing-alongs to share ?
Interesting history. Still have never had a kid come around hunting for treats in Australia though i believe that it is slowly infiltrating our fair shores.