About Halloween

Halloween is a traditional celebration held on October 31st. Today, Halloween is an excuse for Halloween
theme costume parties, and entertainment with horror films, haunted houses and other activities around
the popular themes of ghosts, witches, Dracula, werewolves and the supernatural. Children love to dress
up in halloween costumes and go from door-to-door in their neighborhood following the old tradition of
trick-or-treating, collecting sweets and gifts, sometimes money.

Halloween began as an ancient Celtic festival in Great Britain and Ireland, and has survived most strongly
among Irish, Scottish and Welsh communities. Immigrants from these communities carried the tradition to
North America where it has gained in popularity. In turn, as part of American pop culture, Halloween has
spread in popularity to most corners of the English speaking western world, and increasingly into Western
Europe in recent times.

Originally Halloween was a pagan festival, around the idea of linking the living with the dead, when contact
became possible between the spirits and the physical world, and magical things were more likely to
happen. Like most pagan festivals, long ago it was absorbed into the festivals of the expanding Christian
church, and became associated with All Hallows Day, or All Saints Day, which eventually fell on November
1 under the Gregorian calendar. A vigil for the festival was held on All Hallows Evening on October 31. In
the vernacular of the times, All Hallows Evening became Hallowe'en and later the Halloween we know
today.

The celebration of Halloween survived most strongly in Ireland. It was an end of summer festival, and was
often celebrated in each community with a bonfire to ward off the evil spirits. Children would go from door
to door in disguise as creatures from the underworld  to collect treats, mainly fruit, nuts and the like for the
festivities. These were used for playing traditional games like eating an apple on a string or bobbing for
apples and other gifts in a basin of water, without using your hands. Salt might be sprinkled on the visiting
children to ward off evil spirits. Carving turnips as ghoulish faces to hold candles became a popular part of
the festival, which has been adapted to carving pumpkins in America.

Halloween is usually celebrated by both adults and kids. Some families celebrate by having costume
parties and playing special games like bobbing for apples and telling ghost stories. Sometimes children go
"trick or treating" - knocking on doors in their trusted neighborhoods collecting candy. Other times they
may attend a community party instead. Parents should use common sense when supervising their child's
Halloween activities.

In earlier years, Halloween was a time for playing harmless pranks. However, in more recent times,
Halloween pranks have sometimes gotten out of hand - causing damage and injury to others.

Schools usually prefer to celebrate Halloween by having children dress as storybook characters. In this
way, children are still allowed to "dress up, " and the holiday becomes both fun and educational.

Halloween - its Origins and Place in The World Today

It is not hard to imagine anyone reading the title above and immediately thinking of
Halloween activities like "trick or treating", pumpkins as lanterns and all sorts of costumes,
especially those of the ghostly variety.

But, most of the above are creations during the relatively recent 20th Century, and to find
the origins of Halloween we have to go back much further, and particularly across the seas
to find the beautiful, green and verdant island, known as Ireland.

The early Irish people were Celtic tribes, similar to those found in Scotland, Wales, Breton
(Northern France) and Galicia (an ancient region of N W Spain). The Celts embraced
Paganism, one of many hundreds or even thousands of belief systems that were very
common in the days before the three Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam,
and are still popular today (eg: Wiccan). The Pagan Celts all spoke Gaelic, although with
some differences in each location. No one at that time, however, had yet heard of Halloween.
Paganism comes from the Latin word "paganus" meaning country dweller or rustic. It is a
term which, from a Western perspective, has modern connotations of spiritualist, animistic or
shamanic practices or beliefs of any folk religion, and of historical and contemporary
polytheistic religions in particular.

The Irish Celts had two particularly important Festival celebrations, one which celebrated the
arrival of Spring, of renewal, is called Beltane and is on May First with dancing, feasting and
the traditional Maypole. The other celebrates the end of the harvest, and arrival of Winter,
on the 1st of November and is called Samhain. Incidentally, in the Gaelic language still in use
in much of Ireland today, the word for November, is Samhain. Samhain is also generally
regarded as the beginning of the Celtic New Year.

By the way, Celtic in all this is pronounced with a hard 'c', as in 'car', whereas in the famous
Boston Celtics basketball team, and Glasgow Celtic soccer team it is a soft 'c' the same as in
'Caesar'. Their origins are the same, just different pronunciations.

The ancient Celtic tribes believed that the dividing line between the living and the dead
became dangerous for the living on 31st October, when the change in the weather had
become much cooler (colder) leading to sicknesses and damage to crops. So, they tried to
ward off the perceived evil spirits by lighting bonfires where the bones of slaughtered
livestock were thrown. Just like at modern Halloween, at these new festivals, masks and
costumes were worn, making them look like evil spirits, in an attempt to placate them and
send them far away.

One of the names for these festivals (feast days) was on the eve of Samhain, 31st October,
about to be the eve of All Hallows Day, and soon to be known as Halloween.

With the advent of Christianity, in the first Millenium, celebrations had begun of a Festival
called All Saint's Day, which was also known as All Hallows or Hallowmass, and was
celebrated on 13th May. (Hallow means to make Holy.) The day before All Hallows was called
All Hallows Even, and hence shortened to Hallowe'en, and then to the Halloween we have
today.

All Saint's Day is a feast held in honour of all saints, known and unknown. In terms of Roman
Catholic theology, the feast commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in
Heaven. (In the RC Church, Sainthood is bestowed on a person who has died, after
performing great and wonderful deeds on earth. This process is called beatification.)

The day after All Saint's Day is known as All Soul's Day, and commemorates those who have
died, but who have not yet been purified and gone to Heaven. In many parts of the world,
especially South America and other largely Catholic countries (such as The Philippines) this
day is also known as the "Day of the Dead".

Until the ninth century, when Pope Gregory IV moved All Saint's Day to 1st November, from
13th May, it had really been a festival of Pagan traditions, held just after Beltane on 1st May.

Now that All Saint's Day was on 1st November, it was also on the same day as Samhain. As
stated above the day before All Saint's Day (or All Hallows Day), was All Hallows Even, which
became shortened to Hallowe'en and thus, Halloween. Gradually, many of the Pagan
traditions of Samhain, begun to be incorporated into Halloween, particularly the attempts to
ward off the evil spirits, as described earlier, with the costumes and masks.

Of course, the main modern Halloween activities for children today, especially in North
America, are 'trick or treating', lantern lighting and dressing in often ghoulish costumes. It
appears that this did not really start until the early part of the 20th Century. The first known
reference to what is really ritualised begging on Halloween, was reported in 1911, in a
Canadian newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, not far from the border with upstate New York.
The paper reported that it was normal for the smaller children to go street guising on
Halloween between 6 and 7pm, visiting shops and neighbors, to be rewarded with nuts and
candies for their rhymes and songs.
Origins of "Trick or Treat"

Guising comes from an old Scottish practice, when children in Scotland and northern England
would wear a costume or disguise, at Halloween, when they went out for their special treats.
The major difference to the 'trick or treat' practiced today in America, is that in Scotland
(and probably Ireland too), the children are only supposed to receive treats if they perform
for the households to which they go. This normally takes the form of singing a song, reciting
a poem or even a joke. Occasionally a particularly talented child might do card tricks or play
a musical instrument, but most children will receive their treat for doing something quite
simple. There was no practice of performing a trick on the householder or neighbour.

Another interpretation of the origins of 'trick or treat', is said to come from the practice of
dressing up in costumes and begging door-to-door for treats on holidays. This goes way back
to the Middle Ages, and even includes Christmas wassailing - carol singing.

Trick or treating has some resemblance to the old Irish and British practice of 'souling', when
poor folk would go door-to-door on Hallowmass (1st November), and be given food in return
for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (2nd November). This practice was even common
throughout much of continental Europe, even as far as the south of Italy. It�s even
mentioned by Shakespeare in his comedy, The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

The halloween trick element of the practice seems to be very modern, and probably in the
1930s in the United States, although exactly where, is unknown for certain. Even how it
started is also rather a mystery, although it seems it may have begun when children were
refused treats in the years of the Great Depression, and some decided to take their revenge
by playing tricks on the householders. These were however, harmless fun tricks like spraying
a little water, or going back after the door had been shut, knocking on the door or ringing
the bell and running away. Unfortunately in some places these tricks have become nothing
short of vandalism, and in the UK these days, the police regularly issue warnings before
Halloween that anyone caught vandalising would be dealt with severely, with the full force of
the law.

As kids and parents take to the streets for Halloween trick-or-treating, Halloween safety
becomes the primary concern. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an estimated 36.1
million children (ages 5-13) hit the streets in 2006 (down from 41 million in 2002) looking to
calm their sweet tooth strapped with their best costumes for Halloween. Either way,
remember to take lots of pictures - more and more families are adding them to their holiday
photo cards.

It's rather sad that in today's world, the fun element of Halloween activities seem to have
disappeared in some places. Not only in North America but in most countries, parents nearly
always feel compelled to accompany their children, who might otherwise not be safe. Who
can blame them, for today we read far too often of crimes where young children are the
victim? Whether these crimes actually are more common or whether our media now reports
it more, is a moot point, but who would want to take the chance?

So, let's try to make the best of it. Let's have a better understanding of Halloween's origins,
Halloween's activities, and let's place greater emphasis on the treat rather than the trick,
and above all, let's all have fun!