The History and Customs of Halloween

The history of Halloween goes back approximately 2,000 years ago when the Celts noted the end of summer as well as the harvest by associating it with death. October 31 was Samhain when otherworldly spirits were supposed to inhabit the earth. The celebrants as it were, wore costumes often dressing as wild animals, and lit bonfires. All Saint’s Day replaced the Celtic’s history and customs of Halloween, when the Pope at the time apparently tried to influence the Celtic customs. It was referred to as All-hallows Eve and eventually became known as Halloween.

Although masking of oneself was a European tradition meant to “fool” ghosts from recognizing you, the U.S. now uses masks as tradition, or customs of Halloween, without realizing the importance that masks had to those involved in making the history and customs of Halloween. Thus you can see how our Halloween was carved from ancient religious beliefs and rituals.

Other customs of Halloween used to center on food being left out for said ghosts, so that they would remain there, eat the food, and go away satisfied, rather than to bother the residents that lived in the home. When immigrants from Europe began to populate the United States, they brought with them the history and customs of Halloween. Now eventually Americans celebrated Halloween by dressing in costumes and performing minor acts of mischief. They began to go from house to house asking for food or money.

Eventually Halloween was no longer filled with the superstitions that were found in Europe, and became more of a night of revelry and parties. Somewhere in the 1930’s to the 50’s the practice of going door to door was revived with small treats being given to children in order to stave off any “tricks” that may be played on the resident.

What we now view as a comical face carved out of pumpkins is also wrapped in the history and customs of Halloween, since they also had their beginnings with the Celts. The Celts would carve a skeletal head out of turnips or rutabagas on All Hallows’ Eve. They did this again in order to frighten off various ghosts who were known as headhunters in various myths.

Most of the above will now make sense to you as to why we go from house to house yelling “trick or treat” while we are dressed in costumes and masks to do so. Many of the homes we visit have carved pumpkin “heads.” And, even though most of us no longer believe that we need to scare demons, most of the costumes are of witches, ghosts, goblins, skeletons and assorted demons, all of which go back to the history and customs of Halloween.