The passing of summer to winter was a scary time more than 2,000 years ago when the chance of death loomed large over the long cold winters. The Celts of Ireland, England and northern France celebrated this transition on November 1st believing the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred on this day. Individual hearth fires were extinguished the night before and sacred community bonfires were built. People gathered to burn crops and animal sacrifices to the Celtic gods. The Celts would wear costumes, told fortunes, and left their windows open to welcome the dead back home. When the celebrations were over, they would re-light their own hearth fires with coals from the sacred bonfires to help protect them during the coming winter.
Do you ever wonder: Why do we fear the dead? What happened to Casper the Friendly Ghost? Can we leave our windows open to welcome the dead back home?
In 43 AD the Roman Empire conquered most of the Celtic territory and the ancient traditions were combined with those of the Catholic Church. Around 700 AD Pope Gregory III created All Saints Day to be observed on November 1st – also called All-Hallows Day from a Middle English translation of All-Saints. The traditional night-time celebrations became All-Hallows Eve, and eventually Halloween.
With millions of Irish immigrating to America during Ireland’s potato famine in the mid-1800s, Halloween became a popular celebration on a national scale. In the late 1800s, Americans molded Halloween into a holiday of community and neighborly parties without ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft. In the early 1900s, the focus was on games, foods of the season, and costumes. Between the 1920’s and 1950’s, the age-old tradition of trick-or-treating was revived, and families could prevent a trick, or prank, by giving a treat.
Today, Americans spend $6 billion dollars annually on Halloween, making it one of the larger commercial holidays. Trick or treating is alive and well as are the annual neighborhood block parties. Similar in many ways to the traditions of 2,000 years ago.
Jeff Bensch 