The Origins of Halloween by Eileen O'Finlan

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In my new historical novel, The Folklorist, main character, Charlotte Lajoie, puts together an exhibit on the history and evolution of Halloween for the New England Folklife Museum where she works. To accurately describe the exhibit, I had to do research on the subject. For this I relied heavily on a wonderful book by Halloween expert Lisa Morton called Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween.

I could not possibly relate all I learned in one blog post, so I will just offer an overview of the origins of the Halloween. 

As many people know, the holiday we celebrate on October 31st had its beginnings in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which means "summer's end." A Druid religious holiday, it was a three-day festival celebrating the reaping of an abundant harvest and the belief that souls journeyed to the other world, which they called Tir na tSamhraidh (Land of Summer) at this time. They believed that the veil between this world and that one was very thin at Samhain, allowing the dead to return to the living, and creatures called sidh (fairies) to cross to our side. On Samhain, a gathering was held that featured feasting, sports, repayment of debts, and legal trials, followed in some cases, by executions. Story-telling featured prominently at the festival, most stories having an eerie, supernatural element to them. Fortune-telling was also a favored element of Samhain.

Interestingly, by the 7th century, when the Celtic lands were Christianized, Samhain didn't totally disappear. It was transformed, yet it remained a religious holiday. By the 8th century, Pope Gregory III moved the feast of All Saints to November 1st, and 100 years later Pope Gregory IV declared it a universal Church holiday. Because "hallow" comes from the Old English word "halga", meaning holy, the night before All Saints Day became All Hallows' Eve, eventually morphing into Hallowe'en and finally Halloween.

Like Samhain, it was a three-day celebration consisting of All Hallows' Eve, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day. Though the Church purposely supplanted Samhain with these three days, the Celts were unwilling to entirely give up their ancient roots. They celebrated with traditional foods reminiscent of those used for the ancient festival and retained the mix of joyful celebration and somber contemplation of death.

By 1350 the Black Death had killed 60% of Europe's population. Popular culture changed along with this calamity bringing about a morbid fascination and obsession with death. The invention of the printing press allowed for the dissemination of artwork. Especially popular was an image known as the Danse Macabre which featured skeletons and Grim Reapers. These images soon became incorporated into the All Hallows' Eve festival especially since the belief that the dead cross over at this time had not left the Celtic lands. 

With the tens of thousands of women executed for witchcraft in the 1480s,  another Halloween icon arose - the witch. Suspected witches were often accused of causing or spreading the Plague and were believed to have a close association and sometimes a sexual relationship with devil. They soon became incorporated into the holiday as well. The traditional  image of the witch with a broom, cauldron, and cat, all symbols of female housekeeping, began to appear at this time.

It was in the mid-19th century that Halloween finally made its way to America along with Irish and Scottish immigrants.  As the newly emerging middle-class tried to imitate the British, they became fascinated with Queen Victoria's 1869 Halloween visit to Balmoral Castle in Scotland reported on in American newspapers. If the queen could celebrate Halloween, so could they!

By the early 20th century, Halloween was becoming established in America, though it was still very much an adult affair. That's not to say kids had no part in it. Children's Halloween parties became popular by the by the 1920s. On the downside, teen boys became so enamored of Halloween pranks that they grew in intensity and became so out of control that by the 1930s Halloween was nearly outlawed.

Civic organizations saved the day by offering parties, parades, costuming, carnivals, and contests to supplant the pranking. Handbooks, popular from 1915 to 1950 were written with instructions on how to celebrate the holiday. In the 1930s, neighbors pooled resources to create "house-to-house parties" in which groups of kids were taken from one house to the next, each house hosting a different theme - the precursor to trick-or-treating.

 

Finally, Halloween in America as we know it today came into its own shortly after World War II with the development of suburban neighborhoods and the ability to safely trick-or-treat for candy.

So, as you celebrate Halloween this year, remember you are taking part in a holiday with a long, varied, and fascinating history! 

 

Ancient Celts--Tricia McGill

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While searching around during research for an entirely different subject I stumbled upon some notes I took long ago on the Celts whose tribal societies lived throughout Europe centuries before the birth of Christ. Often described by Ancient Greek and Roman writers as ferocious warriors there was certainly more to these people than warfare. Farmers, miners, seafarers and traders, they produced amazing works of art and jewellery. Their bards would recite many tales of their gods and heroes at their resplendent feasts. 

By the 1st century BC, the Romans controlled most of Gaul but under pressure from tribes to their north the Celtic Helvetii tribe attempted to migrate out of Switzerland. Confronted by Ceasar’s forces some Celts rebelled under the leadership of Vercingetorix. Julius Caesar, now the governor or Gaul, and known for his speed and decisiveness in battle had six Roman legions under his control and saw a perfect chance to gain great glory.

The ancient Greek writer Strabo said the Celts had little on their side in a fight except strength and courage, but were easily outwitted. The Celts were no match for the disciplined Roman army and especially strategic generals such as Caesar.

It seems that Celtic warriors liked to make a tremendous noise on the battlefields, beating their wooden shields while yelling to intimidate their enemies. They also favoured a trumpet called a carnyx which consisted of a 12-foot-long thin bronze tube, bent at right angles at both ends. The lower end terminated in a mouthpiece, and the upper end flared out into a bell which was most often decorated to look like the head of a wild boar. Historians believe it likely had a tongue which would flap up and down thus increasing the noise produced by it. 

The religion of the Celts remains somewhat a mystery. They did worship both gods and goddesses and we know that their religion was based on nature. They rarely built stone temples, instead visited shrines set in remote places, such as clearings in woods, rivers and springs, or near lakes to worship their gods and to make offerings. Celts saw water as a transition between this world and the next. In the 1st century BC Celts in parts of Wales threw weapons, chariot and horse harness as well as certain tools into water as offerings to their gods. Perhaps they saw this as a way to seek protection against the Roman armies or were giving the gods their spoils of war.

Celts lived on farms in small villages. In the 5th and 6th centuries BC leaders in different parts of Europe built vast hill forts. Later they often lived in a fortified town while in Scotland they built defensive stone towers. From the most humble to the wealthiest their burials took very careful preparation and is testimony to the belief in life after death. Bronze funerary carts found in some Celtic graves show a goddess directing the procession to lead a soul of the deceased person into the next life. Some classical writers and Irish poets also recorded their ideas of an afterlife, which included the concept of a soul passing from one body to another or of the soul continuing to control a person’s body after death. They might enjoy a land of peace and harmony after death, or warriors could carry on enjoying the combat they loved through life on earth.

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