“There is much that is mystifying, interesting and beautiful in the beliefs on which the festival of All Hallows was originally based.” That was the opening line of the Washington D.C. Sunday Star from Oct. 26, 1913. A little over a hundred years later, the Daily Campus is exploring the history of “All Hallows Day,” now known as Halloween. In this special issue of This Week in History (now branded as This Day in History, for today only), we’ll dive into what may just be the scariest day of all.
There’s a classic debate over the origins of Halloween, with many claiming it is a Christian holiday and others arguing it is “pagan.” As with most things in history, the correct answer is a confusing middle ground. It turns out that humans are good at detecting change, whether it be our ability to recognize the darkening colors of leaves or the gradual browning of grass as winter approaches. Throughout history—and essentially without fail—all cultures and peoples have viewed the change of season with either suspicion, joy or relief.
It was in that most foundational human perspective that the “pagans” formed the roots of the holiday. You may be wondering why “pagans” has been in quotes thus far, and that’s because there is far more nuance to the people who established so much of Western culture. The Celts of Britain and Ireland, a people sadly without much written history, were likely the first to celebrate something like what we now know as Halloween. These hardy people called it “Samhain,” a festival that greeted the coming of winter and the end of the harvest season. However, Samhain has more history than one may expect.
For starters, who lived before the ancient Celts? To answer that question is to attempt to piece together a history that took place before there was history. Yet, the Mound of Hostages on the Hill of Tara in Ireland suggests that there were indeed people celebrating some form of Samhain far before the Celts arrived in the British Isles.
Although difficult to prove, it is suggested by some historians that the Celts viewed the duration of a day a little differently than we do today. For their communities, the night preceded the day. For example, modern humans likely agree that the end of the day is nighttime, a time of rest and darkness. However, in Celtic tradition, a night was simply a time of waiting for the sun. It was the starting point of a new morning.
Remarkably, the crest of the Mound of Hostages always aligns with the rising sun around Samhain, and the hill likely served among many others as ritual grounds for the festivities to come during Samhain. Being perhaps 5,000 years old, the hill is an enigma and sets the history of Halloween very far back in humanity’s history.
Like many other spiritual festivals, the arrival of Christianity altered the communal perception of the day and the reasons for its celebration. While the Celts likely burned livestock for offerings and shared food with deceased ancestors to honor them, so did the Christians who formed All Saints Day on Nov. 1 and All Souls Day on Nov. 2. These days largely continued some aspects of Celtic tradition, including dressing up to ward off spirits (which is the root of modern costumes and trick-or-treating) and honoring ancestors.
However, the ancestors that were to be honored shifted from familial lineages to the growing list of Christian saints, thus the name All Saints Day.
You may be wondering: “Why is Halloween celebrated on Oct. 31 if All Saints Day is on Nov. 1?” To that question, we return to the evening before All Saints Day and Samhain, known as All Hallows Eve. As mentioned previously, the night was a time of new beginnings in Celtic tradition, and so too in the Christian tradition, in which All Hallows Eve was likely viewed as a vigil day (one of fasting and reflection) to prepare for All Hallows Day. Even in Christian history, which typically is well documented, it is foggy as to how All Hallows Eve came to be, yet for centuries it remained as a night of celebration, reflection and preparation for people across the British Isles.
Finally, by the 1830s, with new waves of Irish and British immigrants coming to the United States, the modern version of Halloween took shape. As Catholic traditions solidified, the phrase “God has your soul, Beans and all” became a popular saying and reflected the motivation for many Christians to be charitable with their food on the day. And thus, though you’re hopefully finding better candy than beans tonight, This Day in History marks another scary, yet charitable evening in the long lineage of Halloween.