By Shilo Hurst (‘29)

Image Courtesy of The Bengal’s Purr.

       Halloween is the one night a year when our society looks forward to being terrified. This may seem strange, but it actually has more depth than you might think. Halloween is a tradition that dates back around 2,000 years, to the Celts. Celtic traditions state that from October thirty first to November 1st, spirits of the dead are able to return to the world of the living. To ward off bad spirits, the citizens wear costumes and light bonfires in a festival known as Samhain. 

In the 7th century CE, Pope Boniface IV declared May 13th to be All Saints Day, a holiday that celebrates the ascension of saints to heaven. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III declared that All Saints Day be moved to the first of November, and the night before was declared All Hallows Eve, aligning it with the original dates of Samhain. This all set the stage for modern-day celebrations of Halloween to be put into effect. 

Not much changed through the eighth to the fourteenth centuries, but by the time the first American settlers arrived in Jamestown in the early 1600s, All Hallows Eve (Halloween) had gained some popularity in European areas of Celtic origins, like Ireland, France, and the United Kingdom. In the newly settled areas of America, most people in the European colonies did not celebrate Halloween for religious reasons, but it was soon popular in the Southern colonies. In 1692, the Salem Witch Trials began, which only reinforced the idea of supernatural evil or monsters being able to enter the world of the living. Considering the heritage, the American people come from Britain, which, being a part of the UK, descended from Celtic people. Because of this connection, many traditions from Samhain still influenced the day of All Hallows Eve, and as a result, Halloween has held an air of superstition to it.  

During the Great Potato Famine in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century, many Irish people fled to America and brought their traditions with them. All Hallows Eve soon became a night of parties and fun to celebrate the harvest, where many people would dress up in costumes, tell scary stories, and play games. Another tradition brought by the Irish was “guising,” where a person would dress up in costume and perform some kind of trick, like singing a song, for the crowd to reward them with a treat. This sparked the tradition of “Trick or Treating,” as we know it today. Going back to the medieval era, another tradition called “souling” has obvious ties to trick or treating as well. Souling was a practice that revolved around the poorer members of society performing on the porch of the wealthy, and the wealthy were expected to provide some form of treat for the performers, usually a special cake called soul cakes.

 Since the 1950s, trick or treating has been one of the most popular Halloween traditions, and Halloween has finally become what it is today. Halloween has a rich and long history, stemming from religions and traditions usually forgotten. But even if these traditions have been somewhat lost to time, we still celebrate Halloween as a part of our culture, to have fun, and to keep just a bit of superstition alive in our modern world.