By Joeelle Beale
Echo Staff Reporter
What does one think of when it comes to Halloween? Is it witches, goblins, zombies, candy, or Chucky, the evil doll? Or is it a mixture of everything? As much as these things are a part of Halloween, there is so much more that the average person might not know. What made Halloween? How did it even begin?
It all started during the time of the Celts and then kept changing into the holiday that is now All Hallows Eve.
Beginning at the time of the Celts, they had this holiday called Samhain, which might have contributed somewhat to Halloween, as told by Hilary Smith from “World History Encyclopedia.” It began on October 31 to celebrate the in-between point of the fall equinox and winter solstice.
The reason for this is because of the way the Celts calculated time. Time was based on seasons, in which they could tell how long the sun would stay up per season. Samhain was the last part of the year, where fall turned to winter and days were shorter than night. As a result, there were huge festivals that occurred. They had feasts with drinking, lots of food, and other miscellaneous events such as court trials and discussions about who would be the new leader.
In addition, they had bonfires, but not with smores. They would do different dances around the fire, wearing animal costumes.
Behind all these activities, there was this sense of spirituality in each tradition. The portals from the underworld to the human world were open. Spirits could come, both good and bad, and enter the human world.
Fearing the conflict between those entities, they would rather have it be a peaceful time. Even their myths had a few spirits traveling in between the human realm and the underworld. For example, one is about two spirits in love, who must turn into swans to be together. But they can only do it during Samhain when the portals are open.
Another one has to do with a battle between two beings: a spirit (Aillen) and a human (Fionn mac Cumhail). Every Samhain for nine years, Aillen destroys Tara, “a spiritual center in Ireland,” as quoted in the “World History Encyclopedia.” Eventually, Fionn stops him before he can go back to the underworld by wounding him.
As time went by, the Celts were conquered by the Romans in the first century A.D. However, they still refused to adapt to the customs of the Romans. Rather than causing conflict with the Celts a few hundred years later, the Pope Gregory III decided to just modify the holiday a little bit. He decided to move the holiday All Saints Day to November 1 from May 13.
The villagers had little treats for the dead and did prayers for them. They even dressed as saints and ran around the fire, as told by Ellen Feldman in “American Heritage.” Then fast forward to the 1800s when the Irish were struggling with famine.
When the Irish came to America, they had left behind a lot of things since there was a lack of potatoes due to famine in the country. They were poor, but still carried some of those Celt/Roman Catholic traditions. The girls peeled apples, put hands in an unknown substance while blindfolded, carved pumpkins, etc. The boys played pranks, messing with toilets, and farmer tools. And this continued even into the 1900s, except with more intensity.
There was vandalism that occurred, ringing false fire alarms. Even trick or treating, a tradition started in 1920, became allegedly deadly. A boy, aged 5, was said to have died from heroin that he got from his uncle, although it was thought the boy had it in his candy, according to “American Heritage.”
The holiday has a past filled with mystical and joyful traditions. A lot of the modern-day customs that occurred can be traced all the way back thousands of years ago. It is thanks to the Celts, the Christians, and the Irish to help form All Hallows Eve. So if there is a little pumpkin that is showing its friendly smile to someone, at least now they’ll know the tale of All Hallows Eve.