TheNightling
@TheNightling
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This is a Tumblr post I made under the name Thenightling (TheNightling, same as my Discord name) back in 2024. (Note: I wonder if I should have used TheNightling here?)
A brief history of Halloween
On a Halloween group that I follow on Facebook someone seemed sincerely curious about the origin of Halloween and got some snarky answers to just Google it so here's a very abridged version. It's very abridged so I don't cover everything and some of it may be streamlined but I cover what I can.
_____________
The earliest Halloween celebrations were the Gaelic festival called Samhain (pronounced as Sow-in). Samhain was to celebrate the start of winter, the end of the harvest season. It was also a time to honor the dead.
The Ancient Celts believe there were two times during the year that magical entities such as Sidhe (faeries), goblins, and spirits were likely to enter the human world. This was in Spring and Autumn.
The Spring version is Beltane Eve and Beltane Day (April 30th and May 1st). April 30th is also known as Walpurgisnacht in Germany and Beltane is also known as May Day in some countries.
And in Autumn there was Samhain, which in modern times is October 31st and November 1st.
The Celts believed this was a time when magical energy was at its strongest and the veil between worlds such as the afterlife or the faerie realm was at its thinnest.
________________________________
The Catholic adoption of Samhain into All Hallow's Eve:
Christian holidays overlap Ancient Pagan ones such as Christmas and Yule (Yule or Jul is actually used as the word for Christmas in many countries). So Catholics placed All Hallow's Eve and All Hallow's Day over Samhain. All Hallow's Eve meant All Saint's Eve or the Eve of all Saints.
________________________________
El Día de Muertos or el Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead)
When the Spanish came into, what is today, Mexico they brought Catholicism with them which mingled with some of the indigenous folk beliefs already present. El Día de Muertos or el Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) is celebrated on November 1st. In Mexico this is a Multi-day event to celebrate the Day of The Dead, All Saint's Day and all Soul's Day.
One day is for partying and celebrating life and conquering fear of death while another is for revering the dead and tending to graves.
Different parts of Mexico celebrate differently but there are often candied sugar skulls, parades, skeletons on the news and in newspapers. And parties.
________________________________________
Hungry Ghosts Festival:
In China and some other parts of Asia there is the Feast of the Hungry Ghosts also called the Hungry Ghosts Festival. This is usually not celebrated at the same time as modern, American, Halloween, but it may have had some influence in its conception.
_______________________________________
The Jack-o-Lantern.
Originating with the folktale of Stingy Jack we get the Irish custom of the Jack-o-Lantern. According to Legend Jack bested The Devil and cheated him out of his soul but he was not good enough for Heaven so he was doomed to wander as a ghost.
The Devil (or one of his demons) taunted him by tossing him an ember from Hell to guide his way. Jack placed the ember inside a turnip that he carved into a lantern.
Jack was a coward so people figured out they could drive him away by carving a sinister face into a hollowed out turnip and place a small candle inside of it. Jack would mistake this as the lantern of another wandering ghost and avoid it.
Over time the custom of carving Jack-o-Lanterns was believed to not just drive away old Jack but other wandering spirits. It became a protection ward against evil.
The earliest known jack-o-lanterns date back to at least 1658.
When the Irish came to America they found that it was easier to carve a pumpkin than a turnip and was (apparently) just as effective (if not more so) in driving away malignant spirits. The change-over to Pumpkins happened between the eighteenth and nineteenth century though even today you will find some turnip Jack-o-lanterns.
These were not strictly for Halloween yet.
The Dutch colonists (now Americans) started to adopt the Irish custom of carving Jack-o-lanterns out of pumkins in Upstate New York in the 1790s or earlier.
Thanks to writers like Washington Irving and his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Jack-o-laterns became a fixture of Hallowe'en by 1820. It was believed that on this night it was more likely that the spirits of the dead would return and so people wanted a little extra protection. Or they liked the novelty of the spooky decoration.
______________________________________
Hallowe'en
The word Hallowe'en came about in the nineteenth century and in the late nineteenth century in New England they started to sell Hallowe'en postcards and even artificial jack-o-lanterns manufactured in Germany.
Halloween parties became popular in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.
They were usually masquerades or costume parties. At these parties unwed girls would do rituals like standing in a darkened room with a candle and mirror, in the hope that the reflection would transform into her future husband. There would be games like bobbing for apples and telling ghost stories (which was also a Christmas tradition at the time). And they would eat things like sweets and pumpkin pie and drink things like warm, sweet, apple cider (Usually non-alcoholic here in the US unless it is called hard cider. Apple Cider here in the US usually just means juice made from whole, pressed apples). Though there are Many people who still drink apple cider, in more recent times Pumpkin Spice has become the beverage flavor of choice even if it's just those spices in the apple cider.
But with these parties came mischief.
___________________________________
Modern American Trick-or-Treating:
In the 1930s in America the custom of Trick-or-treating started to spread from small rural communities in New England and into the wider scape of America.
Many people attribute Trick-or-treating to the Ancient custom of leaving offerings out for spirts. (Which can be traced back to Ancient Egypt in origin). But the American version was an invention to deter teenage pranksters.
The theory was that if these rowdy teens were distracted with the bribe of candy they wouldn't make mischief like throwing eggs, smashing windows, or causing other trouble.
"Give me a treat or I'll pull a trick on you." is essentially what "Trick or treat" means but most pranks were actually harmless.
There were similar Trick-or-treat-like customs in those days for Thanksgiving and even Christmas (which later faded from cultural consciousness but my grandfather taught me about the Thanksgiving version). While in the UK there was Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th). "Penny for the Guy" might have been the cross-the-pond inspiration for Trick-or-Treat.
Trick-or-treating didn't actually start in the US. The first record of modern Trick-or-treating was actually in Ontario, Canada in 1911 and then it trickled its way into the US by the 1930s.
_________________________________
Germany's influence:
Before Word War 2 most Hallowe'en merchandise came out of Germany. This included printed color postcards (popular in New England), and paper Mache artificial Jack-o-lanterns (the first mass produced artificial Jack-o-lanterns), toys, sculptures, and cardboard and paper cutouts for windows and doors.
The first collectable Halloween merchandise came from Germany even though Germany would not celebrate "American style" Halloween until the 1990s.
In the 1990s after the success of movies like Hocus Pocus and Nightmare before Christmas that was when American style modern Halloween started to catch on in Germany.
________________________________
Halloween:
In the 1940s American Hallowe'en postcards started to drop the ' in Hallowe'en to save money on ink. By the 1950s almost all Hallowe'en merchandise had dropped the ' and the word became Halloween. The dictionary does say both are still correct, mind you.
___________________________________
The rise of Pumpkin Spice:
Pumpkin spice is just the mixture of warm, sweet spices found in pumpkin pie. Today if the mixture is added to a beverage or confection dried pumpkin or pumpkin pulp is added to give it a stronger, more distinctly pumpkin-y flavor. (See Starbucks Pumpkin Spice lattes, and Hood brand Pumpkin spice non-alocholic eggnog).
The flavor consists of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and sometimes dried pumpkin, sugar, and / or roasted chicory. (I prefer it without roasted chicory, by the way.).
The flavor is similar to gingerbread but perhaps a bit heavier on the cinnamon and in recent times tends to have actual pumpkin added to make it more distinctly seasonal.
In the 1990s Pumpkin Spice became a fashion in the world of coffees and teas and exploded in popularity. Until then it was mostly found in pastries and pumpkin pie. Now it's a seasonal novelty found in practically everything and in certain long-shelf-lifed products, can even be found all year long.
Pumpkin spice, interestingly enough, is made up of spices traditionally used by Neo Pagans and Wiccans to bring about good luck and ward off evil and hexes.
So you are actually drinking (or eating) a protection ward against evil.
And there you go. A brief, abridged, history of modern Halloween.
For a kid-friendly education on the subject of the history of Halloween I recommend the fictional (yet educational) novel and animated movie, The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury.
A brief history of Halloween
On a Halloween group that I follow on Facebook someone seemed sincerely curious about the origin of Halloween and got some snarky answers to just Google it so here's a very abridged version. It's very abridged so I don't cover everything and some of it may be streamlined but I cover what I can.
_____________
The earliest Halloween celebrations were the Gaelic festival called Samhain (pronounced as Sow-in). Samhain was to celebrate the start of winter, the end of the harvest season. It was also a time to honor the dead.
The Ancient Celts believe there were two times during the year that magical entities such as Sidhe (faeries), goblins, and spirits were likely to enter the human world. This was in Spring and Autumn.
The Spring version is Beltane Eve and Beltane Day (April 30th and May 1st). April 30th is also known as Walpurgisnacht in Germany and Beltane is also known as May Day in some countries.
And in Autumn there was Samhain, which in modern times is October 31st and November 1st.
The Celts believed this was a time when magical energy was at its strongest and the veil between worlds such as the afterlife or the faerie realm was at its thinnest.
________________________________
The Catholic adoption of Samhain into All Hallow's Eve:
Christian holidays overlap Ancient Pagan ones such as Christmas and Yule (Yule or Jul is actually used as the word for Christmas in many countries). So Catholics placed All Hallow's Eve and All Hallow's Day over Samhain. All Hallow's Eve meant All Saint's Eve or the Eve of all Saints.
________________________________
El Día de Muertos or el Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead)
When the Spanish came into, what is today, Mexico they brought Catholicism with them which mingled with some of the indigenous folk beliefs already present. El Día de Muertos or el Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) is celebrated on November 1st. In Mexico this is a Multi-day event to celebrate the Day of The Dead, All Saint's Day and all Soul's Day.
One day is for partying and celebrating life and conquering fear of death while another is for revering the dead and tending to graves.
Different parts of Mexico celebrate differently but there are often candied sugar skulls, parades, skeletons on the news and in newspapers. And parties.
________________________________________
Hungry Ghosts Festival:
In China and some other parts of Asia there is the Feast of the Hungry Ghosts also called the Hungry Ghosts Festival. This is usually not celebrated at the same time as modern, American, Halloween, but it may have had some influence in its conception.
_______________________________________
The Jack-o-Lantern.
Originating with the folktale of Stingy Jack we get the Irish custom of the Jack-o-Lantern. According to Legend Jack bested The Devil and cheated him out of his soul but he was not good enough for Heaven so he was doomed to wander as a ghost.
The Devil (or one of his demons) taunted him by tossing him an ember from Hell to guide his way. Jack placed the ember inside a turnip that he carved into a lantern.
Jack was a coward so people figured out they could drive him away by carving a sinister face into a hollowed out turnip and place a small candle inside of it. Jack would mistake this as the lantern of another wandering ghost and avoid it.
Over time the custom of carving Jack-o-Lanterns was believed to not just drive away old Jack but other wandering spirits. It became a protection ward against evil.
The earliest known jack-o-lanterns date back to at least 1658.
When the Irish came to America they found that it was easier to carve a pumpkin than a turnip and was (apparently) just as effective (if not more so) in driving away malignant spirits. The change-over to Pumpkins happened between the eighteenth and nineteenth century though even today you will find some turnip Jack-o-lanterns.
These were not strictly for Halloween yet.
The Dutch colonists (now Americans) started to adopt the Irish custom of carving Jack-o-lanterns out of pumkins in Upstate New York in the 1790s or earlier.
Thanks to writers like Washington Irving and his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Jack-o-laterns became a fixture of Hallowe'en by 1820. It was believed that on this night it was more likely that the spirits of the dead would return and so people wanted a little extra protection. Or they liked the novelty of the spooky decoration.
______________________________________
Hallowe'en
The word Hallowe'en came about in the nineteenth century and in the late nineteenth century in New England they started to sell Hallowe'en postcards and even artificial jack-o-lanterns manufactured in Germany.
Halloween parties became popular in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.
They were usually masquerades or costume parties. At these parties unwed girls would do rituals like standing in a darkened room with a candle and mirror, in the hope that the reflection would transform into her future husband. There would be games like bobbing for apples and telling ghost stories (which was also a Christmas tradition at the time). And they would eat things like sweets and pumpkin pie and drink things like warm, sweet, apple cider (Usually non-alcoholic here in the US unless it is called hard cider. Apple Cider here in the US usually just means juice made from whole, pressed apples). Though there are Many people who still drink apple cider, in more recent times Pumpkin Spice has become the beverage flavor of choice even if it's just those spices in the apple cider.
But with these parties came mischief.
___________________________________
Modern American Trick-or-Treating:
In the 1930s in America the custom of Trick-or-treating started to spread from small rural communities in New England and into the wider scape of America.
Many people attribute Trick-or-treating to the Ancient custom of leaving offerings out for spirts. (Which can be traced back to Ancient Egypt in origin). But the American version was an invention to deter teenage pranksters.
The theory was that if these rowdy teens were distracted with the bribe of candy they wouldn't make mischief like throwing eggs, smashing windows, or causing other trouble.
"Give me a treat or I'll pull a trick on you." is essentially what "Trick or treat" means but most pranks were actually harmless.
There were similar Trick-or-treat-like customs in those days for Thanksgiving and even Christmas (which later faded from cultural consciousness but my grandfather taught me about the Thanksgiving version). While in the UK there was Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th). "Penny for the Guy" might have been the cross-the-pond inspiration for Trick-or-Treat.
Trick-or-treating didn't actually start in the US. The first record of modern Trick-or-treating was actually in Ontario, Canada in 1911 and then it trickled its way into the US by the 1930s.
_________________________________
Germany's influence:
Before Word War 2 most Hallowe'en merchandise came out of Germany. This included printed color postcards (popular in New England), and paper Mache artificial Jack-o-lanterns (the first mass produced artificial Jack-o-lanterns), toys, sculptures, and cardboard and paper cutouts for windows and doors.
The first collectable Halloween merchandise came from Germany even though Germany would not celebrate "American style" Halloween until the 1990s.
In the 1990s after the success of movies like Hocus Pocus and Nightmare before Christmas that was when American style modern Halloween started to catch on in Germany.
________________________________
Halloween:
In the 1940s American Hallowe'en postcards started to drop the ' in Hallowe'en to save money on ink. By the 1950s almost all Hallowe'en merchandise had dropped the ' and the word became Halloween. The dictionary does say both are still correct, mind you.
___________________________________
The rise of Pumpkin Spice:
Pumpkin spice is just the mixture of warm, sweet spices found in pumpkin pie. Today if the mixture is added to a beverage or confection dried pumpkin or pumpkin pulp is added to give it a stronger, more distinctly pumpkin-y flavor. (See Starbucks Pumpkin Spice lattes, and Hood brand Pumpkin spice non-alocholic eggnog).
The flavor consists of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and sometimes dried pumpkin, sugar, and / or roasted chicory. (I prefer it without roasted chicory, by the way.).
The flavor is similar to gingerbread but perhaps a bit heavier on the cinnamon and in recent times tends to have actual pumpkin added to make it more distinctly seasonal.
In the 1990s Pumpkin Spice became a fashion in the world of coffees and teas and exploded in popularity. Until then it was mostly found in pastries and pumpkin pie. Now it's a seasonal novelty found in practically everything and in certain long-shelf-lifed products, can even be found all year long.
Pumpkin spice, interestingly enough, is made up of spices traditionally used by Neo Pagans and Wiccans to bring about good luck and ward off evil and hexes.
So you are actually drinking (or eating) a protection ward against evil.
And there you go. A brief, abridged, history of modern Halloween.
For a kid-friendly education on the subject of the history of Halloween I recommend the fictional (yet educational) novel and animated movie, The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury.
