History of Halloween

Halloween is a fun holiday for many people, especially little kids who like to go trick-or-treating (or trunk-or-treating as many people are doing nowadays) and getting candy, dressing up, and basically having a fun time. But not many people know much about the history of Halloween.

Anciently, in Ireland, the Celts celebrated a holiday called Samhain (pronounced Saw-wein) that was the end of their harvest time, and the beginning of winter, the dark time of the year. They had bonfires to celebrate the time, and they had the belief that at Samhain, the veil between the living and the dead grew thin, that the spirits of the departed could come back and walk among the living.

When the Romans invaded Britain, their holidays (Pomona and Lemuria) merged with Samhain, and then when Christianity came to Europe and Britain, Samhain evolved into All Hallow's Day, the day before All Hallow's Day becoming All Hallow's Evening, or All Hallow's Eve, which eventually evolved into Hallowe'en, or just Halloween.

Many traditions evolved, but still kept some form of what they were originally. Bobbing for apples, for example, came from the Roman festival of Pomona, which celebrated the goddess of fruits. Trick-or-treating, despite the saying being less than 80 years old, came from "souling" for "soul cakes" back in the middle ages when young people would go a-souling, begging for soul-cakes, and then praying for the departed relatives of the people who gave them soul cakes, so that they could be rescued from purgatory.

It's interesting to learn where our traditions come from, and what old festivals evolved to make them what they are today. Learn more HERE.