History of Halloween

Halloween is a beloved holiday in America today, full of fun costumes, trick-or-treating, and lots of scary movies. What most probably don’t know though, is that Halloween traces back to thousands of years ago with an ancient festival and the celebration of ghosts coming to roam the earth.

The earliest traces of this holiday was the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of fall and beginning of winter. They believed winter to represent death and sickness so they believed that on this day, the border between the living and the dead wavered, letting ghosts return to the earth.

They celebrated by letting the druids, Celtic priests, build up huge fires in which the citizens would sacrifice crops and animals to their deities. The Celts would wear costumes of animal skins, probably a main source of our tradition of dressing in costume. 

Another interesting part of Samhain was that the Celts believed with ghosts roaming the earth, the druids would be able to predict the future easier. So, they took this day and would try to make predictions about everyone’s futures around the huge bonfires.

The festival began to change when the Romans conquered the Celtic territory and mixed up a few traditions to form a more familiar type of holiday. They mixed in two of their holidays which focused on the dead and the Roman goddess of fruits and trees. 

All Soul’s Day was another form of this holiday, coming into play in the 9th century. When Christianity spread to some Celtic territories, just like with the Romans, some traditions and celebrations mixed into something new.

This holiday was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with costumes and bonfires. The costumes this time however, resembled more of angels and devils. 

Another name used for All Souls day was All-hallows, with the day before being called All-Hallows Eve. All-Hallows Eve is what actually became the Halloween we know and love today.

Throughout the following years, up until the 19th century, the traditions began developing… well, traditionally. The telling of ghost stories was introduced by colonial England, trick-or-treating came from games of dressing up and doing tricks to get some treats, and the practice of giving out candy came once again, from England, with their tradition of “souling.”

Souling involved people in need approaching the houses of the wealthiest. They would promise to pray for their dead family members, and would be given cake in return.

As you can see, Halloween comes from all over the world and took a while to become the freaky and fun holiday we know it today.