The History of … Halloween

It was a very exciting holiday this year at our house because so many people made such an effort to come up with clever ways to get candy to the kids.  With COVID raging it was wonderful to have something normalish to lift spirits.  It did get me thinking about the history of Halloween.

It appears that Halloween comes from a combination of Celtic and Roman holidays updated by the Catholic Church.  The Celts who lived in present day Europe over 2500 years ago believed in a god of the dead called Samhain.  It was believed that every year Samhain fought with the sun and the sun lost which meant there was less light during the winter.  The Celts had a rite in the fall to help the sun.  They built huge fires which they thought would free the sun.  Since they also believed that Samhain sent the dead to pick out who would die in the coming year they would wear costumes and masks so they would not be recognized and picked to die.

When the Romans’ conquered the Celts about 2000 years ago they brought their own traditions.  They had a harvest festival called Pomona where they gave each other apples and another fall celebration to honor the dead called Parentalia.  Over time, all three events combined to form one large holiday.

In the 800s the Catholic Church wanted to change this holiday and make it more focused on Christianity.  They wanted to make it about the saints.  It was called All Saints Day or All Hallows Day.  Therefore, the day before was known as All Hallows Eve.  This day that came from the ancient ideas of dead walking the earth, costumes and even apples became Halloween.