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Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a
celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some
claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some
ancient pagan ritual?
The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic
Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1,
"All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in
honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer
officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the
Celtic New year. 
One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who
had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living
bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for
the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended
during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night
of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make
them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish
costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as
possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.
Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was
not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could
relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept
burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.
Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was
thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits.
Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.
The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first
century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other
Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor
Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the
apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for
apples on Halloween.
The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more
ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up
like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish
immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite
pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence
gates.
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the
Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On
November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village
begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants.
The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would
promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it
was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that
prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.
The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the
tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and
trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an
image of a cross in the tree's trunk,trapping the devil up the tree.
Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again,
he would promise to let him down the tree.
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to
Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because
he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light
his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a
hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.
The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the
immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful
than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit
with an ember.
 So, although some
cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself
did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts
celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And
today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for
the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.
References: Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of
Everyday Things, 1987; and Dr. Joseph Gahagan, University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Personal letter, 1997
Here's Some
No-Sugar Trick-or-Treat Ideas!
Halloween Word Search
Poem:
Halloween Frights
by Shana Wilson
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