James Shockley
When my kids were about ten years old, Halloween was the best holiday of the year. It was better than Thanksgiving, Christmas and a birthday all rolled into one.
When else could you dress up so that no one would recognize you, knock on strangers’ doors and get candy? When you got home, you could gorge on the candy until you got sick. It was the best holiday ever invented.
Halloween is the day before All Saints Day, and its origin predates the Christian holiday. If you had asked me how I thought the holiday had started, I would have guessed an Ancient Roman Holiday that had been “Christianized” by the early church. As you will see, this is not quite the story.
Halloween is based on the ancient Celtic* festival of Samhain (pronounced SAH-win) that goes back at least two thousand years. There is a historical hint that it goes back 3500 years, but that is not conclusive.
It is roughly midway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, and it marked the time when harvest ended and preparations were made for a cold winter.
Crops were stored, cattle were brought in from distant fields and some were slaughtered for food. It was a time to celebrate a good harvest. It also was a time when the boundaries blurred between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
Samhain was a time to honor the family dead who, perhaps, could communicate with the living. Food and drink might be put out for their spirits. (I would guess that the spirits only ate the spiritual essence of the food.)
Evil spirits were warded off. Families visited and games were played. Some people disguised themselves in costume, either to fool the spirits or to fool their neighbors.
Old habits die hard, and when Scotland, Ireland, and Wales became Christian, the church found that Samhain continued to be celebrated. Almost from its beginning, the church had a policy of changing popular pagan holidays into Christian holidays, and this was done with Samhain.
Apparently All Saints Day was celebrated throughout much of the western Catholic world at various times of the year. It was a day to remember the dead, especially the Saints, “either known or unknown.” In the 9th Century, the church in the British Isles put All Saints Day on Nov. 1, the day after the start of Samhain, and the rest of the church followed suit.
As far as the people were concerned, the day before All Saints Day, known as Hallow’s Eve, or Halloween, still had the magical properties of Samhain, but the emphasis on spirits changed.
Originally the spirits were benign ancestor spirits, but gradually they became dark and sinister – minions of Satan. They were ghosts of the murdered who wanted vengeance or lost souls who for some reason could not get into heaven or hell.
In America Halloween is often confused with the Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday, although there is no real connection.
The Day of the Dead is an ancient celebration that honors the spirits of the deceased members of the family. The best estimates are that it started as a pre-Mayan celebration two to three thousand years ago. Originally celebrated in the summer, it was changed by the Spanish to coincide with Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day (the day after All Saints Day).
The unofficial symbols for the Day of the Dead are the skeleton and the skull, and these are seen in artwork throughout Mexico. The spirits are benign as with Samhain, not malevolent as in much of the Christian world.
In the United States, Halloween eventually degenerated into a time for children to commit minor acts of vandalism, such as throwing raw eggs at homes, or rubbing soap on the windows of neighbors’ homes.
After all, they could blame it on the evil spirits. In an effort to tame this influence, a movement in the middle of the 20th Century changed the holiday to a peaceful time for small children to go Trick-or-Treating and collect candy from strangers.
Halloween is now celebrated by adults as a time to dress in grotesque costumes and have a party. The Ancient Celts would be proud.
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* The Celts were inhabitants of the British Isles, France, Spain, Germany, and parts of Turkey who replaced the indigenous peoples about the Eighth Century B.C. The Romans managed to destroy most of the Celtic culture when they conquered the lands. By the Ninth Century Celts were found primarily in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
James Shockley writes a monthly history column. He lives in Blacksburg.
