The "een" part of the word is a contraction of "eve" — or evening before. This comes from the fact November 1 is All Saints' Day, a Christian feast dedicated to celebrating the faithful departed, including all the saints.
In Christian tradition, people start celebrating major feasts the night before they take place — take Christmas Eve, for instance. Historians have linked Halloween to Samhain, the Celtic festival of the summer's end celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man.
According to Celtic mythology, the veil between the Otherworld and our world thins during Samhain, making it easier for spirits and the souls of the dead to return. People would make offerings of food in order to get on the good side of these spirits and departed ancestors, according to the Mirror. Pope Gregory IV switched it to the current date in , according to Britannica. His reasons were unclear, although influence from Celtic factions of the church and the fact that it makes sense to commemorate death during the fall are possibilities.
Halloween has come to be most closely associated with the pumpkin, but apples have played an important role in its history. After all, apples make numerous appearances in Celtic mythology and are often connected to the Otherworld. The reason? Well, the practice used to be considered a form of divination performed around Halloween, according to NPR.
That's right — people would dunk their heads in a vat of water and try to bite into floating fruit in a quest to figure out their future spouse. Ladies would mark an apple and toss it into the tub. The thinking was they'd be destined to whoever pulled it out of the water. Modern day, intricately designed pumpkin creations certainly make for impressive decorations.
But back in the day, folks in Ireland dubbed their carved, fiery turnips "jack-o'-lanterns" thanks in part to an ominous legend. One night, a conniving local drunkard named Jack trapped the Prince of Darkness in a tree by hacking a sign of the cross into the bark. Between and , the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration.
In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. Thus, a new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Speaking of commercial success, scary Halloween movies have a long history of being box office hits. A sequel to that—"Halloween Kills," the twelfth film in the "Halloween" franchise overall—was released in The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits.
The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry.
On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.
On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter. Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.
We avoid crossing paths with black cats , afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages , when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into black cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians , who believed that triangles were sacred it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe.
And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt. Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday—with luck, by next Halloween—be married.
Many people were said to dress up as saints and recite songs or verses door to door. Children would also go door to door asking for "soul cakes," a treat similar to biscuits. Technical note: Soul cakes originated as part of the All Souls' Day holiday on November 2 yep, a third holiday! The candy-grabbing concept also became mainstream in the U.
As for the costumes, they evolved, too. While they began as earnest tributes to saints, that tradition likely fell out of favor at some point…until young Scottish and Irish pranksters got the idea to dress up in scary-looking garb again as a way to spook unsuspecting neighbors. And just like that, thanks to these local hooligans, Halloween costumes became scary, spooky, funny, and creative all at the same time.
Halloween obviously remains a popular holiday in America today, but it actually almost didn't make it across the Atlantic. The Puritans were disapproving of the holiday's pagan roots, so they didn't take part in the celebrations. But once Irish and Scottish immigrants began to arrive in America in greater numbers, the holiday made its way back into the zeitgeist.
The very first American colonial Halloween celebrations featured large public parties to commemorate the upcoming harvest, tell ghost stories, sing, and dance. It's estimated that by the early 20 th century, Halloween was celebrated across North America by the majority of candy-loving, costume-wearing people. And this year, once again, we'll all be enjoying our favorite candy and admiring our neighbors' decorations on October 31—and the only spooky spirits we'll be talking about are the witch and ghost costumes our friends are wearing.
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