During some Celtic celebrations of Samhain, villagers disguised themselves in costumes made of animal skins to drive away phantom visitors; banquet tables were prepared and food was left out to placate unwelcome spirits. In later centuries, people began dressing as ghosts, demons and other malevolent creatures, performing antics in exchange for food and drink. This custom, known as mumming, dates back to the Middle Ages and is thought to be an antecedent of trick-or-treating.
An early 20th-century postcard of children on Halloween. By the ninth century, Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted older pagan rites.
In A. Celebrations in England resembled Celtic commemorations of Samhain, complete with bonfires and masquerades. Known as "souling," the practice was later taken up by children, who would go from door to door asking for gifts such as food, money and ale. In Scotland and Ireland, young people took part in a tradition called guising, dressing up in costume and accepting offerings from various households.
An effigy of Guy Fawkes is burnt on Bonfire Night, Modern-day trick-or-treating also has elements akin to annual celebrations of Guy Fawkes Night also known as Bonfire Night. People began to celebrate the harvest, swap ghost stories and even tell each other's fortunes.
However, those early fall festivals were known as "play parties" at the time. In the s and s, women performed rituals on Halloween in hopes of finding a husband. They also competitively bobbed for apples at parties, believing the winner would marry first. And in a ritual that just sounds downright creepy, some thought standing in a dark room with a candle in front of a mirror would make their future husband's face appear in the glass. The holiday we celebrate today really started taking off in the middle of the 19th century, when a wave of Irish immigrants left their country during the potato famine.
The newcomers brought their own superstitions and customs, like the jack-o'-lantern. Did you know that jack-o'-lanterns used to be carved out of turnips, potatoes and beets? While kids didn't trick-or-treat at that time, they did play plenty of pranks. By the end of the s, more communities ushered in a more secular and safer set of rituals. People started holding Halloween parties that featured more games, fall seasonal treats and fun costumes over witchcraft and mischievous troublemaking.
Trick-or-treating skyrocketed in popularity by the s, when Halloween became a true national event. That's a lot of miniature candy bars! Many Americans love Halloween wholeheartedly, but the day isn't an official holiday. Despite all of the festivities that happen in the evening, Halloween is still a working day and most businesses and banks follow their regular hours.
So if you're rushing home to answer your doorbell on the day, you're certainly not the only one. Product Reviews. Home Ideas. United States. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. The Rise of the Cleanfluencer. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below.
Halloween's Celtic Origins. The name was eventually shortened to "Halloween," which we know and love to this day. The pagan and Christian occasions hadn't always been back-to-back, though. Perhaps in an attempt to offset the occasion with a religious celebration, Pope Boniface IV ultimately made the call to change the observance to its current November 1 date. Halloween falls on October 31 because the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain , considered the earliest known root of Halloween, occurred on this day.
It marked a pivotal time of year when seasons changed, but more importantly, observers also believed the boundary between this world and the next became especially thin at this time, enabling them to connect with the dead.
This belief is shared by some other cultures; a similar idea is mentioned around the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which also typically occurs in October and involves saying prayers for the dead.
This is also where Halloween gains its "haunted" connotations. The early pagan holiday of Samhain involved a lot of ritualistic ceremonies to connect to spirits, as the Celts were polytheistic. While there isn't a lot of detail known about these celebrations, many believe the Celts celebrated in costume granted, they were likely as simple as animal hides as a disguise against ghosts, enjoyed special feasts, and made lanterns by hollowing out gourds hence, the history of jack-o'-lanterns.
Over time, as Christianity took over and the pagan undertones of the holiday were lessened, the basic traditions of the holiday remained a part of pop culture every year; they simply evolved and modernized. The mystical rituals of earlier times evolved into more lighthearted fun and games. For example, the somewhat heavy concept of connecting to the dead was replaced with the more lighthearted idea of telling the future.
Bobbing for apples, for example, became popular as a fortune-telling game on All Hallows' Eve: Apples would be selected to represent all of a woman's suitors, and the guy—er, apple—she ended up biting into would supposedly represent her future husband.
In fact, Halloween previously posed a huge albeit rather superstitious matchmaking opportunity for young women in the 19th century. Another popular All Hallows' Eve ritual was mirror-gazing, as people hoped to catch a vision of their future by looking into the mirror. There are also reports of fortune-cookie-like favors being given out during earlier times. People wrote messages on pieces of paper in milk, and the notes were then folded and placed into walnut shells. The shells would be heated over a fire, causing the milk to brown just enough for the message to mystically appear on the paper for the recipient.
Many people were said to dress up as saints and recite songs or verses door to door. Children would also go door to door asking for "soul cakes," a treat similar to biscuits. Technical note: Soul cakes originated as part of the All Souls' Day holiday on November 2 yep, a third holiday!
The candy-grabbing concept also became mainstream in the U.
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