Origin of name
The term Halloween, originally spelled Hallowe’en, is shortened from All Hallows' Even – e'en is a shortening of even, which is a shortening of evening. This is ultimately derived from the
Old English Eallra Hālgena ǣfen.It is now known as "Eve of" All Saints' Day, which is November 1st.
A time of pagan festivities,
Popes Gregory III (731–741) and
Gregory IV (827–844) tried to supplant it with the Christian holiday (
All Saints' Day) by moving it from May 13 to November 1.
In the 800s, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the
Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were once celebrated on the same day.
History
Halloween has origins in the ancient festival known as
Samhain (pronounced sow-in or sau-an),which is derived from
Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end". This was a
Gaelic festival celebrated mainly in
Ireland and
Scotland. However, similar festivals were held by other
Celts – for example the festival of
Calan Gaeaf (pronounced kalan-geyf) which was held by the ancient
Britons.
The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year". The celebration has some elements of a
festival of the dead. The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the
Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home whilst harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces. Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter
livestock for winter stores.
Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames. Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.
Another common practise was
divination, which often involved the use of food and drink.
The name 'Halloween' and many of its present-day traditions derive from the Old English era.
Symbols
On All Hallows’ eve, many Irish and Scottish people have traditionally placed a candle on their western window sill to honor the departed. Other traditions include carving lanterns from
turnips or
rutabagas, sometimes with faces on them, as is done in the modern tradition of carving pumpkins.
Welsh,
Irish and
British myth are full of legends of the
Brazen Head, which may be a
folk memory of the ancient Celtic practice of
headhunting. The heads of enemies may have decorated shrines, and there are tales of the heads of honored warriors continuing to speak their wisdom after death. The name jack-o'-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of
Stingy Jack, a greedy, gambling, hard-drinking old
farmer. He tricked the
devil into climbing a tree and trapped him by carving a
cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a
curse on Jack, condemning him to forever wander the earth at night with the only light he had: a candle inside of a hollowed turnip. The carving of
pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America where pumpkins are both readily available and much larger- making them easier to carve than turnips. Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their doorstep after dark. The American tradition of carving pumpkins preceded
the Great Famine period of Irish immigration and was originally associated with
harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 1800s.
The
imagery surrounding Halloween is largely a mix of the Halloween
season itself, works of
Gothic and
horror literature, in particular novels
Frankenstein and
Dracula, and nearly a century of work from American
filmmakers and
graphic artists, and British
Hammer Horror productions, also a rather commercialized take on the dark and mysterious. Modern Halloween imagery tends to involve
death,
evil, the
occult,
magic, or mythical
monsters. Traditional characters include the
Devil, the
Grim Reaper,
ghosts,
ghouls,
demons,
witches,
goblins,
vampires,
werewolves,
zombies,
skeletons,
black cats,
spiders,
bats, and
crows.
Particularly in America,
symbolism is inspired by classic horror films (which contain
fictional figures like
Frankenstein's monster and
The Mummy). Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn
husks, and
scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween.
The two main colors associated with Halloween are orange and black.
