Why do we celebrate Halloween?
You might be wondering how the year’s most spooky holiday got its start as Halloween approaches.
When did children first start trick-or-treating, for instance, and why do we carve pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns?
Actually, there are a few opposing hypotheses on the origins of Halloween. The most well-known theory holds that Halloween derives from the 4,000-year-old Celtic custom of “Samhain,” which celebrates the onset of winter and the end of summer.
Because of this, the Celts observed Samhain on the night that marked the transition from summer to winter. They lit enormous bonfires in honour of their gods and prayed to be protected from evil spirits during the next winter.
They held that the dead came back to life on October 31st, which subsequently developed into a convenient date for the festival because the Celts observed their new year on November 1.
While some academics argue that All Hallow’s Day originated as a Christian feast, others contend that the ritual of Samhain, which has pagan origins, later became Christianised. In many of the western nations where the custom took hold, it developed into a secular holiday where people engage in jubilant celebrations to honour the long-standing custom against ghosts.
Traditions on Halloween
How did Halloween get its name?
Until the Scots started calling it “Hallow-e’en” in 1773, Halloween, according to The Oxford English Dictionary, was known as All Hallows’ Eve.
Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, composed the poem “Halloween” in 1786 and is credited as being the first author to put the words together.
But why are candies given on this day?
Halloween has come to be associated with enjoyable costume parties and trick-or-treating, but according to Morton, that wasn’t always the case.
For many years, Halloween was a day when pranksters played practical jokes on gullible bystanders. Pranks increased to the point where they were costing cities millions of dollars by the 1930s.
Trick-or-treaters are encouraged to leave treats or small toys by using the phrase “trick or treat. Trick-or-treating was first used as a reward. In the 1930s and 1940s, it gained momentum in the United States, and the rest is, well, history.
Costumes on Halloween
To frighten away the dead, people used animal skins and heads as costumes in the original version of the custom. It was believed that stray spirits would mistakenly believe that persons wearing strange disguises were also spirits and would release them. People nowadays dress up in rather less gory ways.
Halloween is a free-for-all invitation to play pretend by dressing up as someone. But from whence did people start dressing up for Halloween? We don’t really know why we wear them, though.
The 1920s saw children dressed in sheets and acting the part of ghosts in publications. They might even be related to a bygone Christmas custom in which dressed-up kids would put on plays for their neighbours in exchange for gifts.
Carving jack-o’-lanterns
It became customary to carve jack-o-lanterns with ominous features around 1895. In the UK, they were initially made from turnips (neeps), but in the US, pumpkins were used instead. They were carved, made into lanterns, and carried by “guisers” to fend off evil spirits. Additionally, because they are said to represent a soul that has been turned away from both paradise and hell in the Christian tradition,
Decor with skulls, ghosts and skeletons
On Halloween, fake human bones are sometimes displayed in absurd ways, but they are actually a holdover from the ancients’ grave preoccupation on the dead appearing on October 31—either in spirit or with whatever remains of their physical bodies. The Christian tradition of Golgotha, or Calvary, the hill on which Jesus was crucified, may also be referenced in the skull’s iconography.
Superstitions – avoiding black cats, witches and scarecrows
On Halloween, fake human bones are sometimes displayed in absurd ways, but they are actually a holdover from the ancients’ grave preoccupation on the dead appearing on October 31—either in spirit or with whatever remains of their physical bodies. The Christian tradition of Golgotha, or Calvary, the hill on which Jesus was crucified, may also be referenced in the skull’s iconography.
The Halloween origin narrative featured “bogies,” or bad spirits, who are still around today as black cats, witches, and other objects viewed as omens or personifications of that evil. Scarecrows are utilised on Halloween to frighten away evil spirits as well as birds.
Conclusion
There have been Halloween celebrations for over a thousand years. Originally a religious holiday, it gradually lost its religious overtones as it became more and more secular throughout the ages. Today, Halloween is seen as a fun occasion where people dress up, especially kids.
