History of Halloween

History of Halloween

Halloween is one of the oldest holidays still celebrated in today’s time. Usually, Halloween is associated with dressing up, getting candy, and carving pumpkins, but where did these traditions come from? How have Halloween traditions and rituals changed over the years, or have they changed at all through the centuries? The answer would be yes, and in more ways than one. Halloween has definitely evolved through the centuries known most recently as a child-friendly, community-based holiday, but it was not always like this.

Halloween is the shorten term from the original All Hallows’ Evening. Halloween originated from ancient Celtic civilizations and their famous Samhain festival. The ancient Gaels beliefs depicted that Halloween was the one night of the year where the portal between the living and the dead opened the dead would come back to life and cause severe havoc such as spoiling crops and bringing sicknesses upon their lands. Hints as to why in modern day Halloween stories of ghosts and hauntings emerge all across the country. During the Samhain festival the Celts wore masks and costumes, hints the origins for dressing up for modern day Halloween, to mimic the ancient evil spirits in hopes to calm the sprits down. The Samhain was a festival that also marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter in which the Celts saw and thought was a dreadful time full of human dead, famine, and despair.

Centuries later, the Roman Empire took control of the majority of the Celts land and terrain and this is where traditions began to change drastically. Over the course of the 400 year reign, the Romans had over the land, two new festivals emerged combining the views and beliefs of the Romans and those of the Celts. The first of these festivals would be known as Feralia. Feralia was a day that occurred at the end of October to celebrate and remember the dead. The second day festival was a day that was placed in honor of Pomona. Pomona was the Roman Goddess of fruit and trees. This particular festival is believed to be what spawned the activity of “bobbing” for apples.

Throughout the centuries and the combination of the different civilizations and their diverse beliefs and customs, you may be wondering where did the o so famous Jack-O-Latern comes into play? Jack-O-Laterns is a term more recently