Where did fall festivals like Halloween come from?

Ever wonder why people dress up in costume for Halloween? Have you ever thought about where the practice of bobbing for apples or trick-or-treating originated? Are you curious as to why some don’t celebrate Halloween at all? When I was growing up, everyone in my small town celebrated Halloween in some way. Many families got together to go “trick or treating” and some got together for parties. My friends and I dressed in many different kinds of costumes—from Wonder Woman to Dracula. Underlying sinister meanings supposedly surrounding the holiday never entered our minds. We were just a bunch of kids out to get some candy. What could be evil about that?

As I grew older, I became more aware of a growing movement to ban Halloween altogether. Churches in the area charged that Halloween was a holiday for Satanists and Wiccans. They warned parents that their children would be kidnapped by these cults and offered as sacrifices to evil gods. Frightened by these scare tactics, many began to decline away from the traditional trick-or-treating in favor of neighborhood or family events. Not satisfied with that, churches continued to use scare tactics, quoting Bible verses to “not imitate evil” and telling families that demons could invade their souls if they simply even dressed as ghosts, witches, devils, monsters, or anything traditionally scary.

Halloween seems to have originated 2000 years ago in the Celtic culture. The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of a cold, dark winter which they usually associated with death. Not being knowledgeable in science and the rotation of the earth and seasons, they believed that the reason for the days getting shorter and the nights getting longer was that the sun was losing its power. They believed that on the night of October 31, the ghosts of the dead came back to cause these things to happen. So they celebrated with a festival where they built big bonfires, offered sacrifices to the otherworldly spirits and dressed in costumes to frighten these spirits away and also to avoid being recognized by spirits because they feared leaving their homes. They thought the spirits would mistake them for fellow spirits and leave them alone.

The Romans also celebrated a day in late October to honor the dead and a holiday honoring Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees of which the symbol is an apple. When Romans invaded and conquered the Celtic lands, the festivals of both cultures were combined. The combination of the two celebrations is believed to explain the tradition of “bobbing” for apples, which is still done on Halloween today.

When Christianity began to spread into the Celtic lands around the 800’s, Pope Boniface IV is credited with trying to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a church-sanctioned holiday—the way many clergymen today try to replace traditional Halloween festivities with Church Fall Festivals—by designating the November 1 (Celtic New Year) as All Saints' (Hallows) Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. Later, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead, just as their Celtic ancestors had done. Many Celts still celebrated old customs on the night before, October 31. This came to be known as All Hallows Eve. The three celebrations of All Hallows Eve, All Saints, and All Souls eventually became known as Hallowmas.

The tradition of trick-or-treating dates back to the early All Soul’s Day in England, during which poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits

As European immigrants came to America, they brought their traditions with them and as communities became more and more blended, so did the festivities of all holidays. In the late 19th century, Halloween began to become more of a community and neighborly celebration. This attitude toward the holiday describes the way it is perceived today as well. Many parents fear for their children’s safety and avoid practices such as traditional trick-or-treating. Many churches condemn the celebration and offer other festivities as alternatives to celebrating what they consider a dark holiday. Halloween is more about parties and fellowship than satanic rituals or ghosts. Most people who celebrate Halloween these days do not even think about “darkness”. Most are thinking of candy and fun.

Whatever your beliefs, fall can be a time of reflecting on the year and preparing for the winter season’s joys and uncertainties. There are many beautiful things about this season to celebrate: the changing of the leaves, the shorter days and longer nights, the cooler weather. Whether you celebrate traditional Halloween or prefer the term “Fall Festival”, future historians will be reading how today’s attitudes and customs kept the traditional Halloween evolving!