It’s October again and that means Halloween is only a few days away.
Halloween is a celebration that ushers in Allhallowtide by falling on the day before the Western Christian feast of All Saints, also known as All Hallows.
The Halloween holiday is mostly a secular event in much of Europe and North America.
Samhain, a holiday celebrated by the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland, is where Halloween got its start. The new year was thought to start on the day that modern calendars would place as November 1. When the herds were brought in from pasture and land tenures were renewed on that day, it was regarded as the start of the winter season. The dead were thought to visit their houses during the Samhain celebration and those who passed away over the year were thought to travel to the afterlife. People would build bonfires on hilltops to scare away evil spirits and relight their hearth fires for the winter. They would also occasionally dress strangely to avoid being identified by the ghosts they believed to be around.
People went “a’ soulin’” for these “soul cakes” in old England when they were produced for the lost souls. With a variety of magical beliefs, Halloween, a period of magic, also evolved into a day of divination. For example, if someone holds a mirror on Halloween and walks backwards down the stairs to the basement, their next lover will appear in the mirror.
The old Celtic day of the dead can be linked to almost all current Halloween customs. Halloween is a festival with many enigmatic traditions, but each one has a history or at the very least a backstory. The donning of costumes, for example, and going door to door pleading for goodies may be dated to the Celtic era and the first few decades of the Christian era, when it was believed that fairies, witches, and devils, as well as the spirits of the dead, were out and about. To appease them, food and drinks were placed out. As the ages passed, humans started dressed like these horrifying beings and engaging in tricks in return for food and drink. This custom, known as mumming, is where trick-or-treating originated. Witches, ghosts, and skeletal representations of the deceased continue to be popular disguises. A few traditions from the ancient harvest festival of Samhain, such bobbing for apples and cutting vegetables, as well as the fruits, nuts, and spices connected with the day’s cider, are still practised on Halloween.
Today Like Mardi Gras, Halloween is regaining its status as an adult holiday or masquerade. In large American towns, men and women dressed in every possible disguise are strolling past jack-o-lanterns that have been smilingly carved and lit by candles while reenacting traditions that have a long history. On this night of reversible possibilities, reversed roles, and transcendence, their disguised antics confront, mock, tease, and appease the frightening powers of the night, of the soul, and of the other world that becomes our world. In an exuberant celebration of a holy and magical evening, they are validating death and its status as a component of life by doing this.
