Halloween History
From the Celtic festival of Samhain to souling, guising and trick-or-treating: how All Hallows’ Eve came to be.
Halloween, or in other words All Hallows’ Eve, is a time for trick-or-treating, ghost stories, costumes, pumpkin carving, haunted houses, and so on. But as we enjoy ourselves on this festive holiday, the history of how it came to be doesn’t really come to mind. So let’s go back 2,000 years and work our way into the future.
It all started at an ancient pre-Christian Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced “sah-win”). The festival was a celebration for the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. It was a time to stock up on supplies and prepare for winter. It was also rumored that the Gaels believed that on October 31st, the boundaries between the living and the undead would overlap, and the undead would come back to life, and with them came havoc and sickness. During this time they would wear masks and costumes to appease and/or mimic the evil spirits.
However, Nicholas Rogers, a history professor at York University in Toronto and author of “Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night” (Oxford University Press, 2003), said “according to the ancient sagas, Samhain was the time when tribal people paid tribute to their conquerors and when the sidh (ancient mounds) might reveal the magnificent palaces of the gods of the underworld.” Which means there is no hard evidence that Samhain was specifically devoted to the dead or ancestor worship.
Costumes and trick-or-treating go back to the practice of “mumming” and “guising”. Originally people would go door to door, asking for food. This was known as “souling” in Britain and Ireland. Earlier costumes were often woven out of straw. People would wear costumes to perform skits and plays.
The “trick” in trick-or-treating was taken very seriously by the late 1800s. The pranks included tipping over outhouses, opening farmers’ gates, and egging houses. By the 1920s and 1930s, acts of vandalism got more serious. “Some people believe that because pranking was getting out of hand, parents and town leaders began to encourage dressing up and trick-or-treating as a safe alternative to doing pranks,” Santino says.
As for modern Halloween, Santino, writing in Garland, 1996, noted that “Halloween beliefs and customs were brought to North America with the earliest Irish immigrants, then by the great waves of Irish immigrants fleeing the famines of the first half of the nineteenth century. Known in the North American continent since colonial days, by the middle of the twentieth century Halloween had become largely a children’s holiday.”
Sources: livescience.com, halloweenhistory.org
Questions people ask
What is Samhain?
Samhain, pronounced SAH-win or SOW-in, is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest and the start of winter. It falls on 1 November, with celebrations beginning on the evening of 31 October because the Celtic day began at sunset. It is also the Irish and Scottish Gaelic name for November.
Did Halloween come from Samhain?
Samhain is believed to have influenced Halloween, along with the Christian feasts of All Saints’ and All Souls’ days, though some scholars think its role has been overstated. Most American Halloween customs arrived with Irish and Scottish immigrants in the 19th century, who brought customs such as guising with them to North America.
Where does trick-or-treating come from?
Trick-or-treating may have grown out of guising, in which people went door to door in costume, usually reciting verses in exchange for food. Guising is first recorded in 16th-century Scotland. Historians treat that link as possible but not certain. The custom may have begun as a way to imitate or hide from the spirits believed to roam at Samhain.
