Halloween Secrets
Oct. 29, 2015
Scott Bruce
Just what are the origins of Halloween? Some say it’s derived from the ancient Celtic
harvest festival of Samhain (SAH-win). Others say it‘s more closely connected to the
night before All Saints’ Day celebrated by Catholics since the 7th century.
According to Scott Bruce, associate professor of history at CU-Boulder, the truth can
be found in all of the above.
CUT 1 “Our modern holiday, Halloween, is most commonly associated with ancient
Pagan rituals practiced by the Celts 2000 years ago in the Roman period. (:10) The
name Halloween itself speaks to the Christian origin of our modern holiday.
Halloween comes from All-hallows Eve and all hallows refers to the Feast of All
Saints, a Christian feast day that falls on November first.” (:23)
The Celtic festival was held in late fall to mark the end of the harvest and the
beginning of winter, a time associated with darkness and death.
CUT 2 “We have to remember that as the seasons changed, and as the harvest time
came and animals were slaughtered and people got ready for the winter and the day
light receded and night encroached upon them, this had a far greater effect on the
pre-modern psyche than it does to ours. (:17) We live in a time when we control
light. For them that time of the year was much more loaded. The darkness weighed
upon them.” (:24)
In medieval times it was believed that ghosts and other spirits were present in
people’s lives and even more so after the Catholic church proclaimed Nov. 2 as All
Souls’ Day to honor the dead.
CUT 3 “In the medieval imagination, much more so than the modern imagination,
the dead were present in the lives of people and at no time more than that time of
the year when the days began to get shorter. (:12) Ghosts figure very prominently in
stories told by the monks - ghosts of dead people who were suffering who came
back and said please pray on my behalf. So there’s the sense then that in late
October and early November, the dead are afoot, the dead around and your
obligation towards the dead is much more acute than any other time of the year.”
(:29)
This might also be when the tradition of trick or treating began, says Bruce. He says
in the Middle Ages, especially in northern Europe, poor people at the time of All
Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day would go from house to house and expect to receive
an offering of food.
CUT 4 “This was called ‘souling.’ And the piece of food that they received was usually
a little wafer with a cross on it that was called a soul cake. In popular tradition the
giving of the soul cake to a poor individual was an act of alms giving, it was good for
the soul of the giver, but a soul cake consumed represented a soul being released
from purgatory.” (:21) Now some historians, it tenuous, but some historians like to
see the origin of trick or treating as this very act of moving from residence to
residence and obtaining something, “ (:28)
And Bruce says that some historians think the lighting of Jack-O-Lanterns can also
be traced to the Middle Ages.
CUT 5 “Now there were no pumpkins in Europe in the Middle Ages but allegedly
those people who went souling, who went door to door, had to carry with them
some kind of light. Legend has it that these people carried around hollowed out
gourds with candles inside to light their way as make shift lanterns, as it were. And
this may be the origin of Jack-O-Lanterns.” (:21)
While Bruce could not find a precedent for dressing up in costumes some historians
think people in Celtic times believed that if they wore ghoulish costumes they would
scare the spirits away.
Bruce says modern day Halloween began in the 1920s and has become a very
popular day. It is second only to Christmas in holiday revenue bringing nearly $8
billion every year, according to the National Retail Federation.
-CU-