historyThe Public Domain Reviewc. 500 BC–1919 · Ireland, Scotland, Wales, United States
Halloween grew from older autumn rites: Celtic Samhain, Christian feasts and a mix of folk customs
Halloween grew out of older autumn festivals, especially the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest and the start of winter around late October and early November. When Christianity spread, the Church placed All Hallows Eve on October 31, followed by All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2, so older rites were absorbed into a church calendar of remembering the dead. Folk customs in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany then added divination games with apples, nuts, cabbage and mirrors meant to reveal future spouses. Trick-or-treating and costumes are much more recent, mostly developed in the United States in the nineteenth century, when Irish and Scottish immigrants brought customs across the Atlantic.
Samhain marked the boundary between the harvest year and the dark half of the year, when people believed the boundary between the living and the dead was thin. After Christianity spread, church feasts for the saints and the dead were placed in the same season, so the older customs continued alongside them. Immigrant communities in the nineteenth century then carried these traditions to the United States, where they were reshaped into the modern holiday.
Knowing the layers explains why Halloween feels both ancient and modern: its dark imagery and divination games are old, while its commercial costume culture is largely an American development of the last two centuries. It also shows how the church often adapted older festivals rather than replacing them.
Many Christian holidays were placed on older seasonal festivals, a pattern visible in Christmas near the midwinter solstice and in Easter's spring customs such as the egg game.
Ruth Edna Kelley wrote the book about Halloween's history in 1919, at the age of twenty-six.
Image: The Public Domain Review
