If you don't like Halloween, we can't be friends. I don't care if you're celebrating with a drunken costume party, pumpkin carving, door-to-door candy begging, or a more intimate event like watching horror movies alone, but the most awesome of all holidays should be treated with respect. But where did Halloween come from and how did it become similar to the modern holiday that we celebrate now?
The origins of Halloween are surprisingly slippery. October 31 next door on a Christian religious holiday, and it's around “harvest time,” which would generally explain the date, but no one really knows why we put on costumes and beg for candy. There are plenty of theories out there describing how modern Halloween traditions may have evolved from various ancient traditions, religious practices, or folk practices, but the first direct evidence of anything resembling modern “Halloween” dates back no older than the 1800s, and even then it didn’t become widespread for another 100 years.
In short, the history of Halloween as we know it is a murky and confusing set of practices that probably have more to do with the Peanuts comic strips published in the 1950s than with medieval Catholicism or pagan rites.
Theoretical history of Halloween
Most frequently repeated The origin story of Halloween states that the holiday began with the celebration of Samhain (pronounced sah-win or sow) by the Celts in Ireland, England and Northern France. The date November 1 or October 31 is roughly halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, and ninth-century Irish literature describes gatherings and celebrations to mark Samhain, the day on which ancient burial mounds were opened, and with them portals to the Otherworld, the land of the gods and the dead. Later, the theory goes, these customs were Christianized, renamed “All Hallows' Day” and “All Hallows' Eve” by the early church, and that's where we got Halloween. Sounds plausible enough…
…but that's probably not what happened. The idea that Halloween originated from pagan rituals usurped by Christians originated with the Welsh scholar Sir John Rhys, and he did not back up his theory with a ton of evidence. Some modern historians argue that there is little connection between Celtic festivals and early Christian customs, and that medieval Christian festivals real plan for the holiday. Medieval Christians celebrated All Saints' and All Souls' Days during the celebration of Allhallowtide—a time of the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead—by holding public festivals focusing on dead souls and decorating skeletons. But they didn't get it from the Celts, or so the theory goes.
In any case, both All Souls' Day and Samhain likely have deeper roots than written historical records. Harvest festivals were common in many places, and they may have been something of a Halloween parties, but maybe not. We don't know. The holiday falls at the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, the time between life and death when both pagan and Christian minds turn to the inevitable end of things. Halloween traditions seem to pay homage to this “in-between” place, and while we know little about how the ancients celebrated “halfway between the solstice and the equinox,” it probably wasn't by dressing up and trick-or-treating.
Proven Halloween History
Regardless of where it began, by 835 AD All Saints' Day (November 1) had become an official Catholic day of obligation, and All Saints' Day practices such as church bells ringing for souls in purgatory and black-clad criers taking to the streets to remind people to think of the dead are small Similar to Halloween. If you squint.
Another tradition of that time was the baking of “soul cakes” in memory of the dead. This led to the fact that “soul“, where groups of children would go from house to house asking for cakes in exchange for praying for the dead. Later soulers also carried carved lanterns made from hollowed-out turnips. Is this the origin of trick-or-treating and Jack-O-Lanterns? Maybe… but then again, probably not. It doesn't seem like souling kids wore costumes, although they did “dress up” or “mommy.” (dressed in costumes and pestered neighbors for food) and/or money) was practiced in various places in Europe during another holidays, especially Christmas.
Another theory about the origins of Halloween costumes has its origins in late medieval French tradition. Creepy dance– dance of death. Perhaps in response to the Black Plague ravaging Europe, 14th-century artists depicted a personification of Death flanked by figures of the pope, emperor, king, child and worker—people from all walks of life—dancing toward the grave. Live versions of the Danse Macabre were performed at village performances, no doubt to everyone's delight and horror. The grotesque yet comical performance reminded people that Death will come for everyone, but also that we should have as much fun as possible before the inevitable, and there is nothing more “Halloween” than this. But again, this is just a theory.
The Origins of Halloween in America
In colonial America, Halloween was not widely celebrated. While New England Puritans generally discouraged anything fun like wearing costumes, dancing with Death, or carving pumpkins, more liberal colonists in New York, Maryland, and further south may have brought some Halloween-like activities overseas from their villages in Germany or Ireland. We really don't know, but with the possible exception of a few groups of die-hards, Halloween celebrations weren't a big deal in either the US or Europe until the late 1800s.
The earliest American expression of Halloween-like events, held in late October or early November, were “game parties” or fall festivals celebrating the harvest. These meetings, immortalized in Washington Irving's horror tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollowoften included ghost stories, attempts at fortune telling, bobbing apples, practical jokes and attempts to scare people – events reminiscent of a proto-Halloween, where you can see the holiday taking shape.
What are your thoughts so far?
It was only after mass immigration to Ireland in the 19th century that we see Halloween celebrations labeled as such. Beginning around the 1850s, Irish immigrants came to the country to escape the potato famine. These immigrants brought Halloween celebrations to the United States, but they do not appear to have brought Halloween costumes or candy with them.
Possible origins of trick or treat
All of our modern ideas that Halloween traditions are derived from one ancient practice or another can be examples of gathering evidence to support the conclusion that our modern Halloween traditions are derived from one ancient practice or another. have deep pedigree first and foremost. But what if they don't?
“Trick or treat” is the most famous expression of Halloween, but despite historical examples of costumed revelers and/or people going door to door to beg for treats during the holidays, there does not appear to be a direct the connection between these old practices and modern trick-or-treating. Yes, it's a bit like soul, but in America, it seems, no one has ever practiced soul. Eat there is no evidence that anyone wore Halloween costumes in the US, UK or Ireland before 1900. either, leading a little Halloween scientists suggest that American children have developed trick-or-treating and costume-wearing skills. regardless any ancient tradition. This is actually the coolest theory: American kids invented Halloween from scratch.
The first mention of Halloween candy collection in costumes appeared in a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario in 1911, but the practice remained so obscure that there is no mention of anything similar in Ruth Edna Kelly's 1919 history of the holiday. Halloween book, and none of the many Halloween cards printed in the 1920s feature any pranksters. The practice does not seem to have become widespread until the late 1930s, when the first mentions of it appeared in national publications, and it did not really become widespread until the early 1950s, when it appeared in Peanuts comic And Disney cartoon.
From here, everything we call “Halloween” comes into focus: ghosts, parties, scares, candy – all stemming from comic books, movies, advertising campaigns for candy companies, and everyday people who seem to actually enjoy dressing up in costumes.
Halloween: a national holiday
Ultimately, we know little about the origins of Halloween because its meaning and the way we celebrate it are constantly changing: it used to be a day of parties celebrating the harvest, during which people told fortunes to each other; then the day came when the kids could go trick or treating; then adults started using it as an excuse to dress up in sexy Martha Washington costumes and get drunk. Parents went crazy over razor blades in candy and invented “trunk or treat”; overambitious suburbanites began turning their homes into elaborate ghost houses; and so on, and so on. No ancient pagan rituals are required, just people figuring out what works for them.
Many other major holidays are related to religion or are meant to commemorate a specific historical event – these are descending holidays where the Pope or government has decreed that everyone gets a day off on that specific date and observes it in a certain way. But Halloween is folk holiday, so there is no official list of rules telling us how we supposed in memory of this or even any reason why we must celebrate it. But every year we do it anyway, perhaps out of a collective desire to get some candy or do something witchy before it gets too cold to go outside.
