Tink Tank Reporter Justin Gadbury
How Halloween Got Started
Today is Halloween!!! So get ready for the goblins and ghouls walking around your neighborhood tonight, knocking on your door and asking for candy. Tonight I'm going to tell you the spooky history of Halloween. (Lightning and thunder in the background).
People have celebrated Halloween for a long time, but it hasn't always been called Halloween, and the traditions have changed over the years. Halloween dates back as far as 2,000 years ago from the Celtic people. The Celtic people lived where today is what we call Ireland, the U.K. (United Kingdom), and Northern France. The Celtic people didn't call it Halloween but instead Samhain.
Samhain
November 1st marked the new year for the Celtic people. To the Celtic people, November 1st and the new year symbolized a dark, cold period that often meant the end of the harvest season and death. Samhain, pronounced (Sow-in), was celebrated on the night of October 31st, the night before their new year. The Celts believed that on this night, the two realms, the living, and the dead, are blurred, allowing the dead to once again return to Earth for the night.
How the Celtic people celebrated Samhain is different than how we celebrate Halloween today. Still, you may recognize some similarities between how they celebrated their holiday and how we celebrate ours. The Celtic people would ceremonialize this day by going to their Druids (priests) to ask about their future. Druids would construct a sacred bonfire to commemorate the occasion and sacrifice crops and animals to the Celtic deities by throwing them into the fire. A part of the ritual was to wear dead animals as costumes and try to predict each other's futures. After their celebrations, they would reignite the bonfire one more time to protect them for the upcoming winter.
The Romans
Samhain wouldn't last forever. Eventually, in 43 A.D., the Romans would take over the majority of Celtic land. The Romans would rule over them for about 400 years and intertwine their culture with the Celtic people.
Two Roman traditions would become a part of the Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first one was Feralia, the day to remember the dead, and the second was from Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. After years of Roman control, the Celtic tradition of Samhain would be suppressed, and eventually, the church's culture would take over.
The Church's Influence
After centuries of Roman rule, Roman culture and the church became popular in the Celtic lands. When the church started getting involved with the late October festivals, it started looking more like the Halloween that we know today.
Around 1000 AD, the church started implementing its own version of the holiday. Most Experts today believe that the church was attempting to override Celtic traditions with a church-sanctioned holiday. The holiday they came up with was basically Samhain but slightly rebranded to All Souls Day, where people would dress up as Angels, Devils, and Saints and celebrate around a bonfire.
The name Halloween that we use today originates from All Souls Day. Eventually, people stopped calling it "All Souls day" and started referring to it as All Hallows Eve, which became the word Halloween over time.
Americanized Halloween
Like a lot of things, The United States, Americanized Halloween into how we celebrate it today. How we celebrate Halloween isn't random; it was shaped over many years by the mix of cultures of the immigrants who lived on American soil.
When The United States was first colonized and a new country, Halloween wasn't popular everywhere and was celebrated more depending on what state and part of the country you were in. If you did celebrate Halloween back in the 16 and 17 hundreds, you might just be telling scary stories and making mischief.
The popularity of Halloween in the U.S. circles back to where it originated with the Celtic people. During the latter half of the 1800s, Irish immigrants came to the United States to flee the Irish Potato Famine, and that's when the celebration of Halloween across America really became popular. Halloween remains one of the most loved celebrations in the United States today.
The Ups and Downs of Trick-or-Treating in America
Halloween had up and downs in favorability in the United States during the 20th century. During the 1900s through the 1930s, Halloween was a day for friends and the community to have parties, often dressing up in costumes for these neighborhood events. Kids also had fun dressing up and going door-to-door to trick-or-treat during this period. But during World War 2, Halloween started losing popularity.
In the 1940s, some communities were becoming outraged by Halloween shenanigans. Some politicians and parents were getting tired of some of these pranks that led to vandalism and property damage. During this time, parents were advised to avoid anything "frightening."
Eventually, the war would end, and this Anti-Halloween hysteria would fade away. People went back to normal, having parties, trick-or-treating, and telling scary stories.
Future Trends For Halloween
No one can predict the future unless your name is Nostradamus. But here are some of my best guesses from current trends.
We'll still be doing what we've been doing, such as trick-or-treating, gathering at parties, and putting up Halloween and Autumn decorations. Next is not necessarily a prediction for Halloween, but I anticipate horror movies and games will be even more popular all year long and not only on Halloween. My next prediction is that digital Halloween parties and events will become even more popular in video games, like what Fortnite does for concerts. The Metaverse and digital worlds will also become part of how we celebrate.
Happy Halloween!
Do you celebrate Halloween? Share your family's traditions in the comments!
Today is Halloween!!! So get ready for the goblins and ghouls walking around your neighborhood tonight, knocking on your door and asking for candy. Tonight I'm going to tell you the spooky history of Halloween. (Lightning and thunder in the background).
People have celebrated Halloween for a long time, but it hasn't always been called Halloween, and the traditions have changed over the years. Halloween dates back as far as 2,000 years ago from the Celtic people. The Celtic people lived where today is what we call Ireland, the U.K. (United Kingdom), and Northern France. The Celtic people didn't call it Halloween but instead Samhain.
Samhain
November 1st marked the new year for the Celtic people. To the Celtic people, November 1st and the new year symbolized a dark, cold period that often meant the end of the harvest season and death. Samhain, pronounced (Sow-in), was celebrated on the night of October 31st, the night before their new year. The Celts believed that on this night, the two realms, the living, and the dead, are blurred, allowing the dead to once again return to Earth for the night.
How the Celtic people celebrated Samhain is different than how we celebrate Halloween today. Still, you may recognize some similarities between how they celebrated their holiday and how we celebrate ours. The Celtic people would ceremonialize this day by going to their Druids (priests) to ask about their future. Druids would construct a sacred bonfire to commemorate the occasion and sacrifice crops and animals to the Celtic deities by throwing them into the fire. A part of the ritual was to wear dead animals as costumes and try to predict each other's futures. After their celebrations, they would reignite the bonfire one more time to protect them for the upcoming winter.
The Romans
Samhain wouldn't last forever. Eventually, in 43 A.D., the Romans would take over the majority of Celtic land. The Romans would rule over them for about 400 years and intertwine their culture with the Celtic people.
Two Roman traditions would become a part of the Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first one was Feralia, the day to remember the dead, and the second was from Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. After years of Roman control, the Celtic tradition of Samhain would be suppressed, and eventually, the church's culture would take over.
The Church's Influence
After centuries of Roman rule, Roman culture and the church became popular in the Celtic lands. When the church started getting involved with the late October festivals, it started looking more like the Halloween that we know today.
Around 1000 AD, the church started implementing its own version of the holiday. Most Experts today believe that the church was attempting to override Celtic traditions with a church-sanctioned holiday. The holiday they came up with was basically Samhain but slightly rebranded to All Souls Day, where people would dress up as Angels, Devils, and Saints and celebrate around a bonfire.
The name Halloween that we use today originates from All Souls Day. Eventually, people stopped calling it "All Souls day" and started referring to it as All Hallows Eve, which became the word Halloween over time.
Americanized Halloween
Like a lot of things, The United States, Americanized Halloween into how we celebrate it today. How we celebrate Halloween isn't random; it was shaped over many years by the mix of cultures of the immigrants who lived on American soil.
When The United States was first colonized and a new country, Halloween wasn't popular everywhere and was celebrated more depending on what state and part of the country you were in. If you did celebrate Halloween back in the 16 and 17 hundreds, you might just be telling scary stories and making mischief.
The popularity of Halloween in the U.S. circles back to where it originated with the Celtic people. During the latter half of the 1800s, Irish immigrants came to the United States to flee the Irish Potato Famine, and that's when the celebration of Halloween across America really became popular. Halloween remains one of the most loved celebrations in the United States today.
The Ups and Downs of Trick-or-Treating in America
Halloween had up and downs in favorability in the United States during the 20th century. During the 1900s through the 1930s, Halloween was a day for friends and the community to have parties, often dressing up in costumes for these neighborhood events. Kids also had fun dressing up and going door-to-door to trick-or-treat during this period. But during World War 2, Halloween started losing popularity.
In the 1940s, some communities were becoming outraged by Halloween shenanigans. Some politicians and parents were getting tired of some of these pranks that led to vandalism and property damage. During this time, parents were advised to avoid anything "frightening."
Eventually, the war would end, and this Anti-Halloween hysteria would fade away. People went back to normal, having parties, trick-or-treating, and telling scary stories.
Future Trends For Halloween
No one can predict the future unless your name is Nostradamus. But here are some of my best guesses from current trends.
We'll still be doing what we've been doing, such as trick-or-treating, gathering at parties, and putting up Halloween and Autumn decorations. Next is not necessarily a prediction for Halloween, but I anticipate horror movies and games will be even more popular all year long and not only on Halloween. My next prediction is that digital Halloween parties and events will become even more popular in video games, like what Fortnite does for concerts. The Metaverse and digital worlds will also become part of how we celebrate.
Happy Halloween!
Do you celebrate Halloween? Share your family's traditions in the comments!
