Halloween History
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From communion with the dead to pumpkins and pranks
Halloween is a patchwork holiday
Sticks together with cultural, religious and the called traditions that spanned centuries
It all began with the Celts, a people whose culture had spread across Europe more than 2000 years ago
October 31st was the day they celebrated the end of the harvest season
and a festival called Samhain
That night also marked the Celtic New Year
It was considered a time between years
A magical time when the ghosts of the dead walked the Earth
It was the time when the veil between death and life was supposed to be at its thinnest
On Samhain, the villagers gathered and lit huge bonfires
to drive the dead back to the spirit world
and keep them away from the living
But, as the Catholic Church's influence grew in Europe
It frowned on the pagan rituals like Samnhain
In the 7th century the Vatican began to merge it with a Church sanctioned holiday
So November 1st was designated "All Saints' Day"
to honor martys and the deceased faithful
Both of these holidays had to do with the Afterlife
and about survival after death
It was a calculated move
On the part of the Church
to bring more people into the fold
All Saints's Day was known then as Hallowmas
"Hallow" means "Holy" or "saintly"
so the translation is roughly "Mass of the Saints"
the night before, October 31st, was All Hallows' Eve
which gradually morphed into "Halloween"
The holiday came to America with the wave of Irish immigrants
during the potato famine of the 1840s
They brought several of their holiday costumes with them
including bobbing for apples and playing tricks on neighbors
like removing gates from the front of houses
The young pranksters were masked so they wouldn't be recognized
But over the years the tradition of harmless tricks
grew into outright vandalism
Back in the 1930s it really became a dangerous holiday
I mean, there was such a hooliganism and vandalism
Trick or treating was originally an extorsion deal
Give us candy or we'll trash your house
Store keepers and neighbors began giving treats or bribes
to stop the tricks
and children were encouraged to travel from door to door for treats
as an alternative to trouble making
By the late 30s, trick or treat became a holiday greeting