Origin of Halloween
From LoveToKnow Party
The origin of Halloween begins with the Celtic celebration of Samhain. Samhain is the celebration of the end of summer. It first occured late in the fall in Ireland when the weather turned colder. Read on to find out how this harvest celebration evolved into a religious celebration and a day to collect candy from neighbors.
Samhain
The purpose of the celebration of Samhain was to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. It included leaving some of the harvest outdoors on the doorstep for the good spirits that walked amongst them. They wore animal masks and skins to disguise themselves from the bad spirits that might also be walking about. This celebration also heralded the beginning of the Celtic New Year.
The Samhain celebration included fortune telling, the lighting of bonfires and the tossing of animal bones and items from the harvest onto these fires. These sacrifices were done to pacify the spirits so that they wouldn't damage the crops or cause anyone grief. People then took sticks from the ceremonial bonfires and used them to light their own hearth fires in the hopes it would bring them good luck during the winter months.
Roman Holiday
When the Romans ruled over the Celts, they merged Samhain with two other festivals: Feralia and a celebration for the goddess Pomona. Feralia was a day to honor the dead. The Pomona celebration was dedicated to fruit and trees. It is believed that the Pomona celebration explains the bobbing for apples tradition at Halloween.
All Hallomas
In the 800's, Pope Boniface IV moved All Saints Day from May 13 to November 1, thus blurring the two celebrations together. In this time period, the new day began at sunset, which would have been October 31. This day was also known as All Souls Day. The Catholic church wanted people to convert to Christianity, and in order to do so they had to change the Pagan celebration to a church-sanctioned one.
The Roman word, "hallow" means "sanctified." The term Hallomas refers to the three different names of the celebration – eve of All Saints, All Saints Day and All Souls Day.
Origin of Halloween Celebrations in America
The celebration of Halloween in America began with European immigrants. It began as harvest festivals or "play parties" where colonials celebrated bountiful crops in the fall. They gathered to trade ghost stories with each other and with the Native Americans. These celebrations also included singing, dancing and fortune telling.
Later in the 19th century, the influx of Irish immigrants into America helped spread the popularity of the harvest festival tradition. In keeping with Irish and English traditions, people dressed up in costumes and went door-to-door asking for food or money. This was known as beggar's night. It was also the beginning of today's practice of "trick-or-treat." Giving someone a treat was an inexpensive way to avoid some of the mischief that would otherwise be played on a homeowner.
The fortune-telling aspect was also a part of this celebration and young women believed they could divine who their husband would be by using objects such as apple peels, mirrors and pieces of yarn.
In the late 1800's, festival organizers urged communities to remove some of the scary components of the celebration to make them friendlier for children. This was the turning point where the harvest celebrations began to change from a neighborhood event to one focused on children.
In 1921 Halloween became a recognized national celebration. The holiday was celebrated with trick-or-treating, community events and parades, which continues today.
Conclusion
The origin of Halloween doesn't come from pagan devil worship, as some people believe. It began as a harvest festival, and oddly enough, has returned to this practice in many public schools. Many communities continue the traditions of the early 1900's with special events, trick-or-treat nights and Halloween parades.
While the practice of telling ghost stories, fortune telling and honoring the dead has by and large fallen by the way side, this holiday is still a popular one with children, not to mention quite a few adults.
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© 2006-2009 LoveToKnow Corp.
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