Halloween, is a contraction of All Hallows’ Eve, and observed on October 31, the evening before All Saints’ Day or All Hallows’ Day. It is also known as All Saints’ Day or Hallowmas.
The celebration marks the day before the Western Christian feast of All Saints and All Souls’ Day on November 1, and initiates the season of Allhallowtide, which lasts three days, and concludes with All Souls’ Day. Therefore, giving the holiday on October 31, the name of All Hallows’ Eve, which means the evening before All Hallows’ Day.
Halloween is considered a powerful turning point in the Wheel of the Year, signifying the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Halloween is the time when people release and let go of negative and lower energies that hold them back, and celebrate the new energy that will eventually take its place.
Samhain, pronounced sow-in, is one of the four Greater Sabbaths among Wiccans. Samhain is typically a time to celebrate the lives of those who have passed on, and often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders, friends, pets, and other loved ones who have died. Aligned with the contemporary observance of Halloween and Day of the Dead, in some traditions the spirits of the departed are invited to attend the festivities. It is seen as a festival of darkness, which is balanced at the opposite point of the Wheel by the festival of Beltane, which is celebrated as a festival of light and fertility.
Some Neo-pagans believe that the veil between this world and the afterlife is at its thinnest point of the year on Samhain, making it easier to communicate with those who have departed.
The tradition of Halloween is said to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1, as a time to honor all saints. Soon after, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a children’s holiday of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, wearing costumes, and asking for treats.
Celts and Druids
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. 2,000 years ago, the Celts, who lived in the areas of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.
November 1 marked the end of autumn, the harvest and the beginning of the dark, and cold winter; a time of year often associated with death. The Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to Earth. Ancient Celts marked Samhain as the most significant of the four quarterly fire festivals, taking place at the midpoint between the fall equinox and the winter solstice. During this time of year, hearth fires in family homes were left to burn out while the harvest was gathered.
After the harvest work was completed, revelers joined the Druid priests, to light a community fire using a wheel that would cause friction and spark flames. The wheel was considered a representation of the Sun and used alongside prayers. Cattle were sacrificed, and participants took a flame from the communal bonfire back to their home to relight the hearth.
Besides causing trouble and damaging crops, the Celts believed that the presence of otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. Because they were entirely dependent on the volatile environment, the prophecies were an important source of comfort during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, the Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. There was a Celtic tradition of celebrating the end of the year by dressing up as evil spirits. The Celts believed that, as we moved from one year to the next, the dead and the living would overlap, and demons would roam the earth again. Therefore, dressing up as demons was a defense mechanism. If they encountered a real demon roaming the Earth, the demons would think you were one of them.
When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
Early texts present Samhain as a mandatory celebration lasting three days and three nights, where the community was required to appear before the local kings or chieftains. Failure to participate was believed to result in punishment from the gods, usually in the form of illness or death.
There was also a military aspect to Samhain in Ireland, with holiday thrones prepared for commanders of soldiers. Anyone who committed a crime, or used their weapons during the celebration faced a death sentence. Some documents mention six days of drinking alcohol to excess, typically mead or beer, along with gluttonous feasts.
Because the Celts believed that the barrier between worlds was breachable during Samhain, they prepared offerings that were left outside villages and fields for faeries, or Sídh – a Gaelic word meaning a hill or mound under which faeries live.
It was expected that ancestors might cross over during this time, and Celts would dress as animals and monsters so that faeries were not tempted to kidnap them.
Monsters and Mythological Creatures
Some monsters were associated with mythology surrounding Samhain, including a shape-shifting creature called a Púca that receives harvest offerings from the field. The Lady Gwyn is a headless woman dressed in white who chases night wanderers, and is accompanied by a black pig.
The Dullahan sometimes appeared as an impish creature, and sometimes headless men on horses who carried their heads. Riding flame-eyed horses, their appearance was a death omen to anyone who encountered them.
A group of hunters known as the Faery Host might also haunt Samhain and kidnap people. Similar are the Sluagh, who would come from the west to enter houses and steal souls.
One of the most popular stories told during the Samhain festival was of “The Second Battle of Mag Tuired,” which portrays the final conflict between the Celtic pantheon known as the Tuatha de Danann, and the evil oppressors known as the Fomor. The myths state that the battle unfolded over the period of Samhain.
The most famous Samhain story is ‘The Adventures of Nera,’ in which the hero Nera encounters a corpse and faeries, and enters the Other-world.
Samhain appears in the adventures of mythological Celtic hero Fionn mac Cumhaill, when he faced the fire-breathing underworld dweller Aillen, who would burn down the Hall of Tara every Samhain. It also appears in another Fionn mac Cumhaill legend, where the hero is sent to the Land Beneath the Wave. It also features descriptions of the hero’s holiday gatherings.
Roman Empire
By 43 CE, the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of the Celtic territory. In the course of the 400-years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, in late October, when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and this is probably why the tradition of bobbing for apples is practiced on Halloween.
Dark Ages
As the Middle Ages progressed, so did the celebrations of the fire festivals. Bonfires known as Samghnagans, were more personal Samhain fires nearer the farms, and had become a tradition, to protect families from faeries and witches. Carved turnips called Jack-o-lanterns began to appear, attached by strings to sticks and embedded with coal. Later Irish tradition switched to pumpkins.
In Wales, men tossed burning wood at each other in violent games, and set off fireworks. In Northern England, men paraded with noisemakers.
The tradition of ‘dumb supper’ began during this time, in which food was consumed by merrymakers, but only after inviting deceased ancestors to join in, giving the families a chance to interact with the spirits until they left after dinner. Children would play games to entertain the dead, while adults would update the dead on the past year’s news. At night, doors and windows would be left open for the dead to come in, and eat cakes that had been left for them.
In Scotland there was the practice of guising, which means disguising, which began in the Middle-Ages, and this resembles today’s trick-or-treating. Children, and sometimes poor adults would dress up in costumes, and go around door-to-door during Hallowmas, begging for food or money in exchange for songs and prayers often said on behalf of the dead. This was called souling and the children were called soulers.
The British precursor of Halloween was called Mischief Night. Starting around the 15th century men and teenage boys on the Isle of Mann, Wales, and Cornwall would go through their villages in a fairly drunken mass on All Saints Eve, making scary noises and knocking on and rattling doors and shutters. Like their Celtic kin in Ireland, they often lit their way with a Jack-o-lantern — a hollowed out turnip with a candle inside that they often used to bang on the shutters with. The Jack-o-lantern wasn’t specific to the holiday, it was just a cheap, make-shift lantern that country-folk used to walk through the misty countryside at night. When their descendants settled in America, they brought Mischief Night and the Jack-o-lantern with them, and due to similar cultures and a mutual dislike of the Anglo-Saxons, they intermixed in marriage and traditions, and having no need for turnip lanterns anymore, because of the pumpkins in America, turned the Jack-o-lantern from a tool into a fall decoration.
Christianity
During the 9th century, Pope Gregory moved the celebration back to the time of the fire festivals, but declared it All Saints’ Day, on November 1. All Souls’ Day would follow on November 2. However, neither holiday did away with the Pagan aspects of the celebration. October 31 became known as All Hallows Eve, and contained much of the traditional Pagan practices, before being adopted in 19th-century America through Irish and Scottish immigrants bringing their traditions across the ocean.
The Catholic Church began appropriating holidays and other day of the dead festivals from European Pagans, and made a Christian version of it, just to make it easier to convert the Pagans to Catholicism. They turned the demon dress-up party into All Hallows Eve, All Soul’s Day, and All Saints Day, and had people dress up as saints, angels, and some demons as well.
Christians disapproved of Paganism, and they merged Pagan festivals with Christian holy days. Pope Gregory IV officially moved the All Saints Day to November 1 in 835 CE, and it remains a Catholic holy day even now.
Unfortunately, for Pope Gregory IV, it did not work quite as he expected. The Celts went on celebrating Samhain on the evening of October 31, and All Saints Day on November 1. 700-years-later, the Church fractured between Catholics and Protestants. Protestants, who don’t believe in saints, ditched all saint related holy-days, but kept Samhain. By that point they did not even remember the holiday was called Samhain, which was only brought back by the Neo-pagan Revival of the early 20th century, and instead, they called it the Saints’ Evening, or Hallow E’en.
Irish and Scottish Practices
Trick-or-treating is said to have been derived from ancient Irish and Scottish practices in the nights leading up to Samhain. Merry Olde England and Ireland continued to associate the end of October with the wandering dead. They set out gifts of food to mollify hungry spirits, and as time wore on, people began dressing in creepy costumes and go begging for the treats. This practice was called Mumming; it entitled putting on costumes, going door-to-door, and singing songs to the dead, afterwards cakes were given as payment, similar to trick-or-treating.
Halloween pranks also have a tradition in Samhain, though in the ancient celebration, tricks were typically blamed on faeries.
Traditional Irish Barmbrack-made without yeast, is Ireland’s favorite fruit cake with a long and interesting history behind it. Brack has been made for Irish holidays such as Halloween, which originates from the Celtic harvest celebration of Samhain, where the bread was called báirín breac, meaning speckled bread. This name referred to the dotted appearance of the bread with chunks of dried fruit. An item is placed inside the bread, and the person who receives it considered to be fortunate.
The word, Halloween, is an Americanization of the Scot’s Hallow’een, the Scottish dialect for Hallow’s Eve. Almost everything about Halloween is entirely American origin, especially Trick-or-Treating. This was improvised by Methodist ministers and YMCA youth directors in the early 20th Century, and introduced to be more wholesome, and with less vandalism; an alternative to Mischief Night. Anything not of recent American origin originated in Calvinist Scotland in the late 1600s and 1700s.
Scottish Halloween in America, consisted of a party with games like bobbing for apples, and a similar game involved hanging treacle scones. The night would end with scary ghost stories around the fireplace. In Scotland, children dressed up in bright, flamboyant, harlequin-type clothing with masks, like for a masked ball, and make the rounds of the neighbors where they would have to sing a song, tell a story or joke, or do a dance, in return for a sweet. It was a vestige of the once common practice of wassailing that took place on all major feast days in Europe during the Middle Ages.
American Festivities
The first Halloween-like festivities in America started in the southern colonies. People began to celebrate the harvest, swap ghost stories, and tell each other’s fortunes, likely from their countries of origin. However, those early fall festivals were known as ‘play parties’ at the time.
In the 1700s and 1800s, women performed rituals on Halloween in hopes of obtaining information about their future husbands. Single ladies would throw apple peels over their shoulders, hoping to see their future husband’s initials in the shapes of the peels where they fell. Or cracking eggs into a bowl in hopes that their future husband’s initials would appear. At parties, they competitively bobbed for apples, believing the winner would marry first. And also performed a ritual, by standing in a dark room with a candle in front of a mirror that would make their future beloved’s face appear in the glass.
By the end of the 1800s, more communities started partaking in a more secular and safer set of rituals. People began holding Halloween parties that included harmless games, autumnal seasonal treats, and creative costumes, over witchcraft, and mischievous trouble-making.
In the 1920s, souling was replaced with pranking, but the shenanigans only got worse the following decade, when the Great Depression hit. Youth-fueled mischief devolved into vandalism and violence, they overturned cars, trashed houses, and even harassment and assault became common.
By the 1930s, trick-or-treating increased in popularity, and Halloween became a national event. Trick-or-treating became widespread in the U.S., after the Second World War, when rationing ended, and candy was once again readily available.
At first, costumed children went door-to-door for things like coins, toys, nuts, and fruit. By the 1950s, candy manufacturers saw an opportunity to seize upon the youth-centric holiday to capitalize on sales. Halloween candy campaigns emerged in full force, parents saw a cost-effective treat that was easy to distribute.
Candy
Candy wasn’t given out during trick-or-treating until the 1920s, but neighbors did hand out a different kind of sweet to 19th-century beggars — a round pastry called a soul cake. The cake was made with nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and raisins, and stamped with a cross on top that symbolized a soul being saved from Purgatory. The earliest soul cakes were placed outside homes to prevent mischievous spirits from playing tricks on All Souls’ Day, and eventually, sweet buns were baked for real-life trick-or-treaters.
Americans purchase nearly 600-million pounds of candy a year for Halloween. An incredible 90-million pounds of chocolate candy is sold during Halloween week. Over 10% of annual candy sales happen the days leading up to Halloween — that’s nearly $2 billion dollars in sales. Chocolate is the preferred choice for many. Of the $1.9 billion sold in Halloween candy each year, $1.2 billion is on chocolate candy, and only $680 million on sugar candy.
The top selling candy is Candy Corn. Americans purchase over 20-million pounds of it a year. After Candy Corn, the leading best sellers are as follows: Snickers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kat, and M&M’S. Candy Corn is the most searched for candy term in Google; it’s even more popular than candy apples, gummy worms, and candy pumpkins.
Wunderle was the first company to sell Candy Corn; the tri-colored kernels of orange, yellow, and white, were made of sugar and corn syrup, according to the National Confectioners Association. The inventor of Candy Corn is George Renninger, an employee at Wunderle Candy Company in Philadelphia. Around 1898, the Cincinnati, Ohio factory named Goelitz Confectionery Company began making Candy Corn. Goelitz company has the longest history of making Candy Corn. The treat was so successful that it carried the company through two world wars, and the Great Depression. Turn of the century ads and packaging of Goelitz’s Candy Corn from the 1920s, displayed a rooster and the motto, “King of the Candy Corn Fields.” Candy Corn was called ‘Buttercreams,’ which took the place of marzipan candies, made from almond paste. They could be molded into shapes, and were often sold in the shape of little vegetables. Buttercream was much cheaper, and it could be molded into a kernel shape, but still remain chewable.
In the first half of the 20th century, Candy Corn was a ‘penny candy.’ Kids could buy these treats in bulk for very little money, and the candies could be eaten year-round, rather than only on Halloween, which wasn’t yet associated with candy. Candy Corn might appear at Halloween parties, but also at celebrations for Thanksgiving, and Easter.
The day of the year with the most candy sales is October 28th. And of all the 365-days in the year, the top five candy selling days are all in October. The average American household spends $44 a year on Halloween candy.
Consumer Spending On Halloween
According to Statista: “Consumer spending on Halloween candy in the United States 2017-2022. During the 2022 Halloween season, consumers in the United States will spend about 3.1 billion U.S. dollars on candy; this was slightly higher compared to 2021, and sales have risen for the first time, a second year in a row.”
Americans purchase nearly 600-million pounds of candy each year for Halloween. Equivalent to the weight of six ocean liners.
WOW! That’s a hell of a lot of candy!!
Whether or not you believe in things that go bump in the night, it’s always fun to learn the origins of Halloween, and trick-or-treating throughout the years. The holiday has am interesting, and far spookier back-story than many know.
While you’re out and about accompanying your children knocking on doors, or at a party dressed up as a vampire, pirate, or witch, during the ghostly celebrations of Halloween, look out for ghosties and ghoulies. Then remember that in the past, people used to fear them.