Why Do We Celebrate Halloween?

Yesterday, as I was driving home from work, the radio was bombarded with advertising about where to get Halloween costumes, where the best Halloween parties would be and all of the activities associated with the holiday. As I was listening to all of the advertisements, I could not help but wonder, "what exactly does Halloween celebrate?" Moreover, when I thought of other holidays, like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc., it was easy for me to quickly point to the purpose of the holiday. However, despite celebrating it in one form or another for my entire life, I could not think of one reason as to why people dress up in scary costumes, children go from door-to-door asking for candy, or why anyone would ever say "trick or treat." My purpose for this blog is to answer all of these questions for myself and help you look smarter when you are handing out candy or are at a Halloween party.

There are two reasons why Americans celebrate Halloween: the first is the old Celtic holiday of Samhain and the second is the Christian holiday of All Hallows' Day. Many believe the origins of Halloween can be traced back to the festival of Samhain, which means "summer's end" in Old Irish. Samhain was held yearly around October 31, and the festival marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. During this time, the ancient Irish and Scottish believed spirits and the souls of the dead could more easily enter our world and could cause havoc such as damaging crops and sickness. As a result, people would leave gifts or offerings to the spirits in order to welcome them. In 19th century Ireland, candlelight prayers would be said before special bonfires and eating and drinking games began. The bonfire would attract insects, which would attract bats, and many believe this is one of the reasons that bats are closely associated with Halloween.

Dating back to as early as the 16th century, in modern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the festival included "mumming and guising." Mummers were short seasonal folk plays that would be performed by actors either going house-to-house or in a public area. Guising was a tradition where children would go door-to-door in disguise and perform a song or recite a verse in exchange for gifts, such as food, coins or treats, for their Halloween party. Whether it was actually believed or not, the tradition was that giving to the children would bring good luck and not doing so would bring difficulties. The traditional lights used by the guisers were turnips hollowed out to act as lanterns. Similar to our modern day pumpkins, a turnip would have a picture of a spirit or goblin carved into it.

However, Halloween is also before the Christian holy days of All Hallows' Day, which occurs on November 1st, and All Souls' Day, which occurs on November 2nd. The day before All Hallows' Day was referred to as All Hallows' Eve and major feasts and celebrations would occur throughout these three days to celebrate and honor the saints and pray for the living and recently deceased. "Souling" was a tradition where cakes would be baked and shared with groups of poor children who would often go door-to-door collecting cakes in exchange for praying for the givers' relatives and friends. The tradition of dressing up was created to disguise the wearer of the costume and confuse the souls of the departed who would wander the earth possibly looking for their last chance at revenge before moving on to the next world.

Both the Christian and Celtic traditions involved young children, who were usually poor, going door-to-door and asking for some type of gift. It is believed that the phrase "trick or treat" was used in both of these traditions by younger children who would threaten mischief or a "trick" if they did not receive the "treat" they came to the house for.

In America, the holiday was originally celebrated as All Hallow's Eve by churches. However, due to the large influx of Irish and Scottish immigrants during the 19th century, many believe the traditions of both of the holidays have been blended together into the current state of American Halloween.

Whether you are going door-to-door for candy, handing it out on your porch, or are having a party, I hope you learned something about the holiday and have a safe and happy Halloween!