Interesting Halloween Facts

By Matt Johnston, '08 | Staff Reporter

The earliest form of Halloween was celebrated by the Celts, a tribe that lived in the area of Ireland, England, Scotland and Northern France
about 2,000 years ago.

Later on, around 1000 A.D.,
a third day was added
by the church,
called All Souls’ Day.

 Ever wonder about the origins of a holiday where people dress up as monsters and walk door to door demanding candy?

 The earliest form of Halloween was celebrated by the Celts, a tribe that lived in the area of Ireland, England, Scotland and Northern France about 2,000 years ago, according to the History Channel’s History of Halloween. The Celts celebrated their new year on Nov. 1. The day was thought to be the end of summer and harvest time, and the beginning of the barren winter months. In the harsh times that the Celts lived in, winter was associated with death.

   On the eve of the Celtic new year, Oct. 31, the Celts celebrated Samhain. Samhain was the day that the Celts believed the spirits of the dead returned to the Earth for one night. Druids, Celtic priests, built huge sacrificial bonfires. The tribes of people would burn crops and animals in the bonfires as sacrifice to their Celtic deities.

 The people would wear costumes, commonly consisting of animal heads and skins, during the celebration. They would then attempt to read each other’s futures, to give each other something to hope for over the long winter months.

 The costume-wearing tradition has been carried down to present day, as well as Oct. 31’s general association with death and dark times. It is interesting to find how such an ancient holiday has survived in remnants over the millenia. Nowadays, Halloween costumes come in a variety of styles and people are no longer restricted to animal skins. In fact, a real animal skin and head costume would probably be pretty unique.

 During the first century, around 43 A.D., the Romans took over much of what had been the Celtic territory. In the time that they ruled over the ancient Celts, two Roman holidays were combined with the Celtic Samhain holiday. One was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans honored the passing of the dead. This might explain the practice today of decorating one’s lawn with fake ghosts and headstones reading “R.I.P.”

The second was a holiday to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. Pomona’s symbol was the apple, which survives to today’s October holiday when celebrators bob for apples at parties.

In the seventh century, Christianity had permeated the lands shared by Celts and Romans. The Pope of the time, Pope Bonface IV, designated a new holiday on November 1 to honor saints and martys.

It is likely that the Pope was trying to substitute a more Christian-friendly celebration for the Celtic Samhain. It was called All Saints' Day, which in Middle English was All-Hallow’s. The night before the new holiday was called All-Hallow’s Eve in Middle English, which eventually morphed into Halloween.

Later on, around 1000 A.D., a third day was added by the church called All Souls’ Day. This extra day was celebrated similarly to the old Samhain holiday. People dressed up in costumes as angels, devils and saints. They lit bonfires and marched in parades.

Together, the three days were called Hallowmas. The holidays combined into one as the centuries passed by and today we celebrate Halloween, an amalgamation of perhaps the strangest parts of all three days.

Present-day Halloween consists of getting dressed up in a large variety of costumes to run around town collecting candy. Other typical Halloween traditions include juveniles toilet papering trees, houses and and cars and smashing pumpkins. No matter how Halloween is celebrated, it will always be spooky and deal with death, the frightening, and the strange.