Halloween History

As we all wander around the supermarket, prodding pumpkins and buying skeleton costumes for 31 October, it might be a good point to reflect on the origins of Halloween.

Our ancient forbears, the Celts, celebrated Samhain on October 31st. This festival was actually their version of new year in that it marked the end of the sun season or summer and the entrance of the season of the dark, or winter. Essentially then, what we’re doing is marking the beginning of the Celtic New Year on November 1st.

Because the Celts believed that evil spirits had power during winter darkness, they felt that the long dark nights were sacred to the dead and the malevolent spirits that lived in the natural world around them. Above all, they thought that one night a year, Samhain night, the barriers between our world and the spirit world were at their weakest and spirits could walk the earth more powerfully than men. As a result they built bonfires to frighten the spirits away, and feasted and danced around the fires both to celebrate that they were alive and to make a food offering to the spirits that would keep them round the fire’s ashes through the winter – hoping for more – instead of hanging around the houses in their settlements.

The Christian Church, which had a habit of adopting pre-Christian festivals into its own calendar, turned Samhain into the vigil of All Saints' or Hallowe'en, a celebration of the role of the saints in turning away evil from Christian homes.

Halloween History

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