Halloween has a long history; its evolution is fascinating – The Killeen Daily Herald

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Its a lot of other peoples too, considering Americans spend around $6 billion every year on it, making it second only to Christmas commercially.

While Halloween as we know it is more of a (relatively) modern concept, it has a long and, frankly, fascinating history going back more than 2,000 years.

We really have the Celts to thank for Halloween. They celebrated their new year on Nov. 1 (heralding harvests end and winters beginning) and held their Samhain (pronounced sah-win) festival the night before (Oct. 31).

It was also believed that on this night, the veil between the living and dead was thinner and spirits returned to earth.

There were bonfires, costumes in the form of animal skins (and heads), crop burning and animal sacrifices to their pagan gods and the priests attempted to gain insight to the future through fortune telling.

Enter the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church, which, in an attempt to Christianize the heathens, blended the Celts ritual celebrations with theirs. The Celts New Year became All Saints Day (or All-Hallows), and Samhain became All-Hallows Eve (or, as we know it, Halloween).

Flash forward to Colonial America, where Halloween was really more celebrated in the southern colonies than those in the north (due to their strict religious beliefs).

These celebrations, though, really didnt resemble what we know today, focusing more on public events, ghost stories, and fortune telling.

It wasnt until later in the 19th century and the influx of Irish immigrants that the idea of Halloween really took off. Even then, it wasnt until the early- to mid-20th century that the Halloween as we know it now really took shape.

Trick-or-treating dates back to the Middle Ages. As it was widely believed that ghosts roamed the earth on Samhain, people dressed in costume to repel the spirits. Poor children would go door to door offering prayers for food (in the form, usually, of soul cakes and ale), a practice known as souling or going a-souling, and this morphed much later into our candy-begging tradition, only really gaining traction as recently as the 1950s.

Halloween costumes, once again, have origins dating back to the ancient Celts, who, as mentioned, would wear animal skins (and heads) during the Samhain festival. And, because of the predominating belief that spirits were able to break through the earthly veil, people would don masks when leaving their homes in the hope that they would fool the spirits into believing they were spirits themselves.

By the Middle Ages, those who went a-souling typically dressed as saints. It wasnt until the 1920s that commercial costumes really became available; these were made of paper, and were essentially aprons with images such as pumpkins and black cats printed on them that could later be discarded.

I would be remiss if I didnt mention one of the most widely recognized Halloween masks, from the appropriately named 1978 movie Halloween. The mask that the psychotic slasher Michael Meyers wears was, in actuality, a $2 William Shatner-Captain Kirk mask that had been spray-painted white, lending to its creepy air and leading to the production of Michael Meyers masks in their own right that are still popular today.

Jack-o-lanterns have an interesting backstory, as well, though they only go back a few centuries, beginning with the legend of Stingy Jack, a piece of Irish folklore that has its roots in the 18th century.

Stingy Jack loved his booze, and once invited the devil to share a drink with him. He didnt want to pay (he was Stingy Jack, after all), so he convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin. Jack instead kept the coin and placed it near a silver cross, preventing the devil from reverting to form. Jack agreed to release the devil only if he was left alone for a year and that if he died the devil wouldnt claim his soul.

After a year, Jack tricked the devil again, with the same stipulations, to which the devil agreed. Jack died shortly thereafter. The devil was upset over the way hed been tricked, but had given his word to leave Jacks soul unclaimed; there was no place for such a devious, manipulative figure in Heaven, either, and so Jack was sent off into the night with only a burning coal to light his way, which he placed inside a carved-out turnip. He has been roaming the earth ever since, becoming known as Jack of the lantern, eventually shortened to Jack-o-lantern.

In an effort to ward Stingy Jack away (and other spirits), people in Ireland and Scotland made their own versions of Jacks lantern by carving faces into root vegetables (such as turnips and beets) and potatoes. The tradition came with them when they immigrated to America, and the vegetables were later replaced by the native North American pumpkins that we use today.

So this Halloween, curl up with a scary movie, don a William Shatner mask, raid your kids Halloween candy and carve yourself a turnip to ward away Stingy Jack. Youll be carrying on long (and fascinating) traditions.

Stephanie Ratts GRISSOM is a Herald correspondent.

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Halloween has a long history; its evolution is fascinating - The Killeen Daily Herald