After weeks of anticipation, the University of Connecticut has finally made it to the first major holiday of this academic year. Parties are being planned, last-minute costumes are being thrown together and the sidewalks are covered in blood orange leaves. It’s finally Halloween!
To celebrate the spookiest time of year, The Modern Monster will be covering everything there is to know about Halloween, and that means starting with a little history.
Halloween stemmed from the ancient Celtic holiday known as Samhain. Samhain is still celebrated today and it’s unsurprising how Samhain eventually turned into Halloween. The festival includes stories of fairies, shapeshifters and headless women — all figures that wouldn’t be out of place in today’s Halloween.
Samhain is celebrated during this time because it is believed that, on the night of Oct. 31, the divide between the real world and the spirit world weakens, allowing for crossover.
This idea of interaction between humans and spirits is a surprisingly common theme found around the world. China’s Hungry Ghost Festival, celebrated typically in August or September, involves appeasing or looking after ghosts that have wandered into the real world. The Japanese festival Obon and the Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, also center on the interaction between the living and those who have passed on.
It’s clear that most cultures have a focus on the dead, whether they are referred to as “spirits” or “ghosts” or another name.
It’s unsurprising that humanity has become so fixated on the concept of life after death. There are countless different explanations adopted by different cultures to explain death, with various stipulations and associated rules. Do spirits hold some sort of power over the living world, or are they completely separate? Do spirits live among us, or are they found in some other space? Are these spirits good? Are they bad? Should we be afraid?
This sort of anxiety is reflected in Puritan Christian beliefs, born out of English Protestantism and the Reformation after King Henry VIII separated himself from the Roman Catholic Church. Puritanism was quickly established as the common religion among colonial New England, Connecticut included.
New England’s fearful Puritanical nature initially prevented Halloween from gaining any sort of foothold. The Catholic holiday known as All Saint’s Day was on Nov. 1, preceded by All Hallow’s Eve on Oct. 31— Halloween. As such, the Catholic nature of Halloween didn’t agree with Puritan traditions, and it was avoided, instead finding a place in the more southern colonies.
In the 1800s, Irish immigrants began arriving in America to escape the Great Potato Famine and brought along with them many traditions that found their way into Halloween, including jack o’ lanterns. This iconic Halloween symbol originally formed in Ireland, as the Irish people carved faces into turnips to ward off evil spirits. When the tradition came to America, it was soon discovered that the native pumpkin was a much more convenient canvas.
But not all of the traditions stuck. Some of the Irish and Scottish traditions that had found their footing in America included the idea that playing pranks and causing trouble were a part of the Halloween spirit. Tricks included tipping over outhouses, removing the hinges to the gates penning in livestock and deflating tires.
The pranks eventually turned dangerous. A town in Indiana reported that a woman was scared to death after a group of boys shocked her with a carved pumpkin lantern. While mischief and mirth are still essential parts of Halloween, especially for those on the younger side, the Americans of the late 1800s and early 1900s were sick of it.
To combat the Halloween trickery going on, Anoka, Minnesota held the first ever citywide Halloween festival in 1920. By hosting games and fun events, children were given the opportunity to busy themselves in a non-destructive way, and the increased police presence in the city prevented any remaining pranksters from hatching plans. Today, Anoka is known as the “Halloween Capital of the World.”
While Halloween has certainly grown tamer — especially when trick or treating was incorporated, adding more appeal for young children — the pranks haven’t entirely been phased out. Instead, troublemakers have moved their work to the night before, on Halloween Eve, also known as Mischief Night.
Mischief Night goes by a number of names, including Goosey Night, Cabbage Night and Gate Night, the last of which may have come from when teens would remove the hinges on livestock pens, as mentioned earlier.
While Mischief Night is certainly still a thing, it’s slowly being phased out. NJ.com reported that many New Jersey towns have seen a significant decline in Mischief Night pranks all around.
“A 2013 survey by a North Carolina State University researcher found most Americans had not even heard of Mischief Night,” NJ.com said. “The poll found 7 in 10 U.S. residents knew of no name for the night before Halloween — other than it is Oct. 30.”
Personally, I’ve never heard of Mischief Night, but the sentiment still seems to persist. I grew up with an older brother whose friends were mostly older brothers themselves and I’ve certainly seen a fair share of pranks. From wearing black morph suits to hide and jump out at trick or treaters, or to writing a scary message on the wall in the midst of a Halloween sleepover, pranks are still abundant.
In fact, much of Halloween is now about the art of scaring yourself and others. My friend’s older brother may have been the one to write on the wall, but my friend was the one who initially proposed that we spend the evening playing a version of Bloody Mary — we brought the fear upon ourselves.
Superstitions and scare tactics are abound every year of Halloween. Ouija boards, haunted houses, midnight trail walks and scary movies are Halloween staples. While the holiday seems to have transitioned to focus on children, hence the trick or treating, there’s still a lot of Halloween to go around. So, if you see someone wandering around at night dressed as Art the Clown, just know they’re participating in the age-old Halloween tradition of trying to give you nightmares.