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Halloween is known as the night when kids
dress up in their best scary costumes and go
trick or treating. We take a look at the origins
of this blood curdling tradition.
Fright Night!
Origins of Halloween
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of
Samhain
(pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000
years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom
and Northern France, celebrated their new year on Nov 1.
This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the
beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was
often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the
night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds
of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of Oct
31, they celebrated
Samhain
, when it was believed that the
ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing
trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of
the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic
priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people
entirely dependent on the natural world, these prophecies
were an important source of comfort and direction during the
long, dark winter.
Honouring the dead
By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of
Celtic territory. In the course of the 400 years that they ruled
the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined
with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was
Feralia
, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally
commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day
to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The
symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this
celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of
‘bobbing’ for apples that is practiced on Halloween.
I need a disguise
The tradition of dressing up in costumes for Halloween has
both European and Celtic roots. Winter was an uncertain and
frightening time hundreds of years ago. Food supplies often
ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short
days of winter were full of constant worry. It was the belief that
people would encounter ghosts who came back to the earthly
world on Halloween. To avoid being recognised by these ghosts,
people would wear masks when they left their homes after
dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.
On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people
would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the
ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.