Halloween's
origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland,
the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the
harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was
often associated with human death.
Celts
believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds
of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they
celebrated Samhain, when it was believed
that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. To commemorate the event,
Druids built huge sacred bonfires,
where the people gathered to burn crops
and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration,
the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and
attempted to tell each other's fortunes.
By 43 A.D.,
the Roman Empire had conquered the
majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the 400 years that they ruled
the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the
traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally
commemorated the passing of the dead.
The second was a day to honor Pomona,
the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and
the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the
tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on
Halloween.
On May 13,
609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated
the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast
of All Martyrs Day was established
in the Western church.
Pope Gregory III (731–741) later expanded the
festival to include all saints as well
as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1. By the 9th century the
influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually
blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites.
In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to
honor the dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to
replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned
holiday. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in
costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was
also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas
(from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night
before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be
called All-hallows Eve and,
eventually, Halloween.
