Say “Halloween,” and many people envision glowing jack-o-lanterns, lavish costumes and children holding bags of candy corn. For many college students across the nation, it is a ritual of block parties and binge drinking.”Normally, I go around and try to find the coolest party around,” junior Charles Silverman said. “I put on the silliest clothes I have so I can get into any party.”
People today may celebrate Halloween by dressing up, although the holiday has a long tradition that has evolved over centuries.
“People think Halloween is pagan or anti-Christian,” said Martha Bayless, director of medieval studies at the University. She added that it is, in fact, a holiday of mixed Christian and Celtic origin that has been around for years.
She said its origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhaim (pronounced sou-ween) nearly 2,000 years ago in Ireland. The Celts celebrated the new year on Nov. 1, which marked both the end of summer and harvest and the beginning of the cold, dark winter, a time commonly associated with death.
Bayless said it was a day when Celts believed the worlds of the living and the dead united. To commemorate the day where the ghosts returned to earth, the Celts built large bonfires to “light up the night” for spirits.
According to the History Channel when Christianity spread into Celtic lands, Nov. 1 became All Saints’ Day, a day to honor saints, and Nov. 2 became All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. All Souls’ Day was celebrated similar to Samhain with bonfires and dressing up in costumes as angels and devils.
Bayless added these costumes originated from the Christian tradition of “dressing up as ghosts to appease the spirits” so the ghosts would mistake people for fellow spirits. This is how All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day came to be called Hallow’s Eve, or Hallowmas.
While some Christians still view Halloween as a celebration of the dead, Norma Joyce, the Elder Priestess of Women in Conscious Creative Action sees it differently.
“I personally think Christianity is a religion of fear,” Joyce said, “but Wiccans are joyful people because we believe in life.” She said Wiccans celebrate Hallowmas or Sanheim based on the Celtic astrological degrees of the stars and this year they will celebrate it on Nov. 6.
For Wiccans, Hallowmas is the time when the two worlds, the other side and astral plain, are closest. It is also a time to contact the dead through ritual ceremonies. At the end of their rituals, they celebrate with food.
Other Halloween traditions, such as eating candy, emerged later.
According to The History Channel, trick-or-treating originated in America. As millions of Irish immigrants fled the potato famine of 1846, Halloween traditions spread across the country. Americans dressed up in costumes and went from house to house begging for food and money, eventually leading up to modern day trick-or-treating tradition.
By the 1800s, Halloween had became a holiday of social gatherings instead of a tradition of appeasing ghosts and spirits. In the 20th century, superstitions and religious beliefs dissipated and Halloween became the commercial holiday we know today.
“It’s bound to happen in our culture, where we are not taught that it’s a sacred time,” Joyce said.
Christine Cruz is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.