Halloween

Halloween - the night of October 31st - is an important festival in much of the Western world, especially the USA and Ireland. This annual night of horror is also very big business.

Most people today treat Halloween as simply an excuse for a great party: we dress in fancy costumes, eat candy and stuff and have scary fun! However the spooky festival has a long and serious tradition. On these pages I'll introduce some of the folklore surrounding Halloween along with its history and traditions.

Halloween is sometimes called Holloween. Although this spelling seems common on the net, it isn't in any of my dictionaries.

The History of Halloween

The word Halloween is short for "All Hallow's Eve". Hallowen itself has no particular importance in the Christian religion, however the day after - All Hallows Day, otherwise known as Hallowmas or All Saints Day - is considered holy. Initially November 1st was a day to remember all of the Saints (in contrast to an individual Saint's day), however this was gradually extended to include remembrance for the souls of all the departed.

The tradition and rituals of Halloween/Holloween actually go back long before Christianity, many of the customs we know today having ancient roots. To get the full background information we have to look first to the Celts.

The origin of Halloween was probably the Celtic festival of Samhain. The start of winter was represented by Samhain, which took place about the time we now celebrate Halloween.

Click here for more about Samhain.

It seems that the pagan festival of Samhain was taken up by the Romans after they conquered the British Celts. Samhain was merged with Feralia, a festival to honour the dead, and also with the Roman harvest festival. This merged Roman festival was itself incorporated by the Christians and rebranded as All Saints Day, leaving the night before to naturally become Halloween.

Christian reaction to Halloween has always been mixed. Although All Saints Day is now official Catholic doctrine, Halloween has always retained its pagan links. In the past celebration of Halloween has been suppressed by some communities.

Today, with the decline in importance of traditional Christian religions, Halloween night is a vibrant festival celebrated throughout the Western world. Our modern customs are intended not to ward off evil but to entertain. We dress up in colourful Halloween costumes (everything from witches and skeletons to cowgirls!), buy loads of scary stuff and have a huge theme party. If we're lucky it also brings us closer to our historic roots and perhaps even gives us a scary little shiver at the same time.

Happy Halloween!

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