The Truth Behind Halloween’s Mask
The history of a well loved holiday.
October 31st, the one night a year it’s considered socially acceptable to dress up in costumes and go to people’s houses demanding candy. Also known as Halloween, a holiday that we’ve normalized as an annual celebration. Most people have celebrated this holiday their whole lives without ever knowing its origin. Are you one of them? Well don’t you worry, I’m here to tell you exactly how this holiday, All Hallows’ Eve, came to be.
Traces of this holiday can be tracked back more than a thousand years ago. All the way back to the Celtic tribes, an early Indo-European people that spread over much of Europe during the 2nd millennium BCE to the 1st century BCE. The Celtics had this festival named Samhain, a rather sinister series of events. The beliefs of the ancient Celts consisted of November 1st being the night where the line between the living world and that of the dead thinned. Allowing for the world of the gods to be visible to the human eye. It was believed that the gods played tricks on their moral followers. Thus began the tradition of wearing an assortment of costumes and various rituals. Many involving bonfires and sacrifices in order to appease the gods. This gave us fuel to create the creatures we know today as witches, ghosts, goblins, and ghouls.
Later in the 7th century CE, Pope Boniface IV created All Saints Day on May 13 a holy day to honor saints both known and unknown. A century later Pope Gregory III moved this holy day to November 1st. “The evening before the saintly celebration became known as All Hallows’ Eve, which was eventually shortened to Halloween.” stated Don Vaughan in his ‘Why do we celebrate Halloween’ article. Halloween began in Celtic parts of Ireland, the United Kingdom, along with Northern France. It later spread to other parts of the world, the early Puritan colonists in New England didn’t dabble in this holiday or its activities, however it was very popular in the southern colonies. By the 1800’s festivals for the fall harvest borrowed elements from All Hallow’s Eve. During the Great Potato Famine Irish immigrants left to escape the depression bring along more of their customs that have become traditions such as jack-o’-lanterns.
Trick-or-treating didn’t become popular until the 1900s, steaming from the Irish and Scottish tradition called “guising” where a person would dress up and perform in some way, like telling a joke or reciting a poem, and would receive a treat in return. They would carry out some kind of “trick” hence the name, trick-or-treating. I was curious to see how far this knowledge had made its way to the average teen in the 21st century. “I had no idea that Halloween was full of so much history that we will contribute to today,” said the anonymous senior. It’s interesting to see the story behind a beloved holiday that’s quickly approaching. Have a happy Halloween and remember to beware of wandering spirits.