History Of Halloween Essay

The History Of Halloween Halloween is a night of candy, costumes, and fun that only comes around once a year on October 31st. This is a time when people get a chance to dress up and disguised himself or herself as someone or something else. People can go to parties, haunted houses, or go trick-or-treating. Halloween is a holiday for all aged, but is most popular for younger children. The holiday and tradition of Halloween is full of history, ancient religious beliefs, and stories. Although today, Halloween seems like a day to dress up and party, Halloween wasn’t always celebrated like that. The holiday began with group of Celtic farmers in Ireland over 2,000 years ago. The Celts referred to the day as Samhain, the Celtic word for
summer’s end. This day marked the end of the summer harvest, and marked the beginning of the cold winters. This was also a time associated with human death due to the fact that people usually get sick during the wintertime. During this time when humans got sick they usually died.
The Celts believed that the 31st was the day when the dead would return to earth this allowed the spirits of the dead to rise and be among the living.
The Celts would build large bonfires to ward away evil spirits and to make animal sacrifices in hopes for good crops and good fortune that coming year. The Celts believed that the presence of the spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. They would also dress up in animal skins and wear masks to disguise themselves as spirits. They would dance, sing, and tell each other fortunes around the fire. Although this may seem grotesque, Geo
Athena
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Trevarthen said, “Celtic tradition doesn’t experience darkness as automatically evil or frightening. It can be the fertile dark as well as the chaotic dark and these aren’t so far apart.” (Trevarthen 3). This quote represents how during this time this was socially expectable and was the normal. Although today in America no one would ever consider an animal sacrifice. But in other countries today this ritual is still popular. In the 8th century, Christianity became the dominant religion and Pope Gregory III named November 1st “All Saints Day” or “All Hallows Day.” He did this in hope of turning the Celts away from their Pagan beliefs and practices. The Celts eventually accepted the holiday but hung on to their tradition, soon to be called All Hallows Eve and shortened to Halloween. During the 19th century, Halloween made its way to America when a potato famine brought billions of Irish immigrants and their families along with their traditions to the United States.
When the idea of Halloween first came to America people were unsure of what to think and how to celebrate it. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. And because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones. Enough time has passed now that when people think of Halloween they usually are unaware of what the ritual of Halloween actually used to be. The large bon fires were replaced with Jack-O’-Lanterns and animal skins changed to costumes. Today, Halloween is the most popular unofficial holiday all over the world, especially in America. People spend an estimated 6 billion dollars a year on candy, costumes, decorations, and even movies with Halloween
themes. The Jack-O’-Lantern comes from an Irish legend about a man named Jack. The story goes that, “Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket
Persa 3 next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years. When Jack did die, God would net let him into the gates heaven because of the sins Jack has committed. So Jack turned to the devil and asked him to let him into the gates of hell. The devil was still upset with Jack and turned him away too. The devil sent Jack off into the night and left him with one burning coal to help him find his way. Jack put the coal in a carved out turnip and has been roaming the earth trying to find a place to finally rest.” (Halloween). In Ireland they did not have pumpkins, so they carved into turnips, or potatoes and placed the carving on their windows to warn away evil spirits. When the immigrants came to American they discovered the native fruit pumpkins and found it was much easier to carve into pumpkins instead. And so the tradition lives on in American there is an estimated 50,900 acres of pumpkins harvested in the U.S. in 2013 (Roberts). The tradition of pumpkin picking and pumpkin carving is still popular today. Over time as Halloween has transformed, so has the superstitions that are related to Halloween. One of the most popular superstitions is to avoid black cats. Black cats are thought to bring a person bad luck if discovered. This superstition comes from Middle Ages when people believed that witches avoided exposure by turning themselves into cats. Another superstition is to avoid walking under ladders. This superstition came from the ancient Egyptians who believed that triangles were a sacred symbol. Some other superstitions are people avoid breaking mirrors, spilling salt, and stepping on cracks in the road. These superstitions become more popular during the time of Halloween. There are some
Persa 4 superstations that have been forgotten over time and in the past many people believed to be true. For example in the 18th century in Scotland, fortune-tellers would tell a single young woman to name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than exploding would represent the girl’s future husband.
The holiday of Halloween has changed a lot in 2,000 years from an animal and crop sacrifice, to what now is a day to dress up in costumes, trick or treat, and party. The superstitions related to Halloween have also changed over time. Even though there has been a great deal of change over time, most traditions kept their original Celtic roots.