Everyone knows and loves the popular holiday Halloween, however, its origins are much more interesting than you may think. Halloween is a holiday beloved by many, but few actually know how it came to be, so what is the true origin of a holiday that so many people around the world enjoy? 

BACKGROUND 

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31st, in which children will dress up in costumes and collect candy from their neighbors. For many people, it is a holiday that we look forward to all year, as it is fun to celebrate with friends and family. Is it not just an American holiday, but is actually celebrated in several other countries as well. 

CELTICS

The Celtics were a group of several tribes of people who lived in what is now northern France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom over 2,000 years ago. 

ORIGIN

What is widely considered as the original Halloween holiday was actually a Celtic holiday named Samhain, with celebrations dating further back than 2,000 years ago. Samhain was actually more of a new year celebration than the spooky, scary Halloween we know today, but even back then, it still had an eerie feeling about it. They celebrated the new year on the 1st of November, marking the end of the summer and the beginning of the winter, what they believed to be the season of human death. On October 31st, the day we consider to be Halloween, they believed that the world of the dead and the living became one. Spirits were thought to damage crops and cause trouble; the Celtics also believed that the spirits being there allowed their priests to better see the future. Prophecies were seen as very important to their community, as winters were often hard and predictions offered comfort to the worried people. Huge fires were created by the Druids, or Celtic priests, and they burned animals and crops to sacrifice to the deities. The Celtics also dressed up in costumes, like we still do today!

MODERNIZATION 

In the seventh century, the Catholic church created All Saints Day, celebrated on November 1st. It was created to commemorate the saints of the church. In the ninth century, as Christianity spread into Celtic areas, old Celtic traditions blended with new Christian traditions. After that, the church created All Souls Day to remember the dead, it was celebrated on November 2nd. This was likely done to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a more church approved one. All Saints Day was also referred to as All-hallows, because of this, the day before it (originally Samhain) became All-hallows Eve. Eventually, this morphed into the word Halloween, the one many are familiar with. This was the first real modernization of Halloween. 

TRICK-OR-TREATING

Trick-or-treating is a tradition everyone knows, but many may not be aware that it actually started in the Middle Ages. In early England and Ireland (during All Saints Day), poor people would go to the houses of rich people and be given pastries; in exchange, the poor people would pray for the souls of their dead relatives. Later, children adopted this tradition and instead started asking for food, gifts, and eventually, candy. 

AMERICA AND THE “TRICK” OF TRICK-OR-TREAT

Halloween was largely unheard of in America until the mid 19th century, when a wave of new Irish immigrants arrived because of the famine. These new immigrants celebrated Halloween just as they did in Ireland, by pulling pranks. Early Halloween “tricks” mostly consisted of placing wagons and even livestock on farmers’ barn roofs, tipping over outhouses, and uprooting crops. By the early 20th century, these tricks became a little more severe with vandalism, random acts of violence, and assaults. 

After years of history, revisions, and traditions, Halloween has become the holiday that we all know and love today.