Do you know how the celebration of Halloween or Witches’ Night came about? I invite you to take a tour from its origin.To this day, all this mixture of parties, jokes and costumes is far from what the origins of Halloween were, which have actually been lost in time and are mixed with a bit of religion, a lot of paganism and sometimes even fear.For centuries, this mysterious night has had many changes derived from the mixture of traditions and cultures of Western countries, which make Halloween a very special celebration full of traditions that have been transformed little by little.The roots of Halloween come from the United Kingdom for more than 3,000 years, according to the University of Oxford.
Its name comes from an English phrase “All Hallows’ Eve”, which would translate as eve of all saints. The Catholic Church instituted “All Saints’ Day” as one of its celebrations, in honor of those who “enjoy eternal life in the presence of God” and who do not appear in saint lists or whose name is not known.Halloween becomes a “scary” day when 18th-century historians link it to an ancient pagan festival: a Celtic ritual called Samhain. This lasted three days and began on October 31. According to some scholars, it was a tribute to the “King of the Dead”. In this ritual, spirits were believed to walk the Earth as they traveled to the afterlife, along with other creatures, such as fairies and demons. This ritual served to say goodbye to summer and welcome autumn.The Celts sacrificed animals to the gods and gathered around bonfires, they also wore costumes (believed to be animal skins) to confuse spirits, or probably to avoid being possessed. It is also believed that they personified the dead with masks that they wore during the celebration, and many cultures allowed young people to dress as women and vice versa, thus breaking the social establishment. It is believed that the Celts who dressed up went from house to house making jokes and nonsense in exchange for food and drink. From what we can say before that, that was a primitive form of the famous and current “trick or treat”.Samhain was transformed when Christian authorities appropriated pagan festivities. With the conquest of Celtic territory by the Roman Empire, this festival was mixed with other festivals of Roman origin such as the Harvest Festival. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III changed the original date of “All Saints’ Day” from May 13 to November 1 to honor in a single day all those martyrs who had given their lives for their faith. This movement united the celebration of Samhain with All Saints’ Day and mixed pagan and Christian traditions.Thus, Samhain continued to be celebrated with bonfires, costumes and parades, but it began to be called “All Hallows’ Eve”, which ended up leading to “Halloween”.Some historians have pointed out that the celebration was changing from country to country, from region to region and in the meantime, it even altered its meaning.Halloween came to the United States during the Great Famine (1845-1849) in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and more than a million people emigrated to this country. And they brought with them their history and traditions. According to some historians, the celebration peaked after World War II, when food rationing ended.Today, Halloween is the largest non-religious holiday in the United States.
Over the years, this tradition has spread to other countries, many of them Latin American.And if you really want to celebrate this tradition in a big way, here I suggest some ideas to have a great time in the company of your friends:
- Get a terrifying costume, you will surely manage to scare more than one.
- Decorate your house with Halloween motifs and prepare a scary menu.
- Carve pumpkins with your friends, it could be something very creative and entertaining.
- Visit a haunted house. You can usually find a decorated house within your own community that will surely make you tremble with fear!!!
- Tell scary stories. Paranormal stories always tend to provide a high level of attention and suspense.
- Watch horror movies. You can’t let the celebration go by without seeing a classic horror movie like Halloween, Trick r’ Treat, Hocus Pocus, Hubie Halloween, among many others.
Although it has changed a lot over the centuries, Halloween is still a celebration that provides a space for adults and children to play with their fears and fantasies and make fun of them. It gives us a reprieve from social norms that inhibit contact between strangers and bridges religion, nature, death, and even romance.
Very surely that is why it is the most important non-religious celebration in the United States.
Very surely that is why it is the most important non-religious celebration in the United States.
Happy Halloween!
Claudia Von Borstel
I am Claudia Von Borstel. Marketer. Mom of twins, blue mom. I love cultural and gastronomic diversity. I love music and confess a deep love for tacos.
