By Samantha:
Halloween is just around the corner, shops are loading their windows with witches hats, broomsticks, plastic spiders and all manner of ghoulish costumes. Here in the UK, scorn is poured on the holiday, mainly due to the fact the meaning of Halloween is largely unknown and often misunderstood.
Many consider it to be an Americanisation and to some extent it is, others simply do not want to open their doors to mischievous children in cheap rubber masks. The true history of Halloween was lost long ago in a flurry of commercialisation, buried under a deluge of tawdry plastic decorations and begrudgingly given sweeties.
The belief that Halloween is an American invention is widespread but the roots of the holiday lay closer to home than you may realise. Halloween has evolved from the pagan festival known as Samhain, an end of harvest celebration. Samhain was celebrated in Europe long before the colonisation of the Americas. Traditionally, the holiday was a time to build the stockpiles of crops and meat for the winter months.
Samhain was not only a celebration of harvest but also a time to remember the dead and for divination. Places were set at tables for dead relatives and various methods of fortune-telling were employed to foretell the name of a future spouse or the number of children you would have.
The seasonal fruits gathered for the harvest were often used in these folk rituals. Apples were peeled in one continuous piece and the peel was thrown over one shoulder, the shape of the fallen peel was said to indicate the first letter of your future partner ‘s name. Other divination methods included interpreting the movements of roasting nuts, and watching the swirls of egg whites added to water, the patterns were said to reveal the number of children a person would have.
It was once a common belief that October 31st was the day the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead was weakest, perhaps even non-existant.
This made contact with lost loved ones easy but also made spirits a real threat to a community and it ‘s crops. This is where the tradition of costume and disguise comes from. People wore monstrous costumes in attempts to scare, mimic or simply hide from the invading spirits. These costumes have evolved and merged with the medieval tradition of “souling”, a tradition which saw poor people go begging on November 1st and exchange prayers for the dead for food.
Trick-or-treating as we know it today only came into being in America in the early 1900 ‘s . Although similar traditions had long been observed across Europe they were largely forgotten by the early 20th century. The appearance of Trick-or-treating in the UK is largely to blame for the misconception that the entire Halloween holiday is an American creation.
The word ‘Halloween’ is an abbreviation of ‘All Hallow ‘s Eve’ which in turn denotes that October 31st is the the eve of ‘All Hallows Day’, a holiday more commonly known today as ‘All Saints Day’. This convenient overlapping of ancient pagan festivals and more recent christian ones came about simply because Pope Gregory IV moved the feast of All Saints Day from May 13th to November 1st so the festivals fell together.
By doing so he was able to begin the long process of amalgamation that resulted in the modern Halloween festival, a confusing mish-mash of christianity, paganism and commercialisation. Some elements of the pagan harvest festival are still visible.
The candy apple for example links back to the harvest celebration side of the festival, the use of scarecrows again has roots in the harvest. Bonfires are another common thread, although now mainly used for entertainment, historically, the bonfire was used to cleanse and bond the village. The bones of slaughtered livestock were burnt and the fireplaces of all the houses in a village were put out and re-lit from the communal flame, a powerful symbol of community bonding.
One of the most recognisable symbols of Halloween, the Jack ‘o’ Lantern is once again, widely considered an American invention and to some extent, it is. However, the folklore and history of pumpkin carving once again comes from the early pagan traditions of Ireland.
Traditionally, turnips were used rather than pumpkins to make a quick, cheap and disposable lantern. The carving of a scary face into the lanterns can be linked to the early spirit defence beliefs or to an old Irish folk tale.
The tale tells the story of a lazy farmer named Jack who traps the devil with a cross. Jack only agrees to release the devil in exchange for a promise never to take his soul. Eventually, when Jack dies of natural causes, he cannot enter heaven because he has led such a sinful life but he cannot enter hell due to his earlier pact with the devil. Confused as to where to go and scared by the darkness of the limbo in which he finds himself, Jack asks the devil how he is to light his way. The devil mockingly gave Jack an everlasting ember from the fires of hell and sends him on his way. Jack makes a lantern out of a turnip and the devil ‘s ember and forever wanders the earth looking for a resting place.
Despite the profusion of carved pumpkins at Halloween few know the folklore behind their spooky vegetable.
So it seems that the Halloween we celebrate today draws influence from all manner of places, not just 20th century America. The holiday itself is a European creation and is usually associated most closely with Ireland.
The trick-or-treating, despite similar practices in the UK hundreds of years ago, is largely an Americanisation. The imagery is a combination of ancient folklore and modern influences from horror films . The name is an abbreviation of a old christian festival and the fortune-telling practised on October 31st for hundreds of years still exists today, albeit in a watered-down and entertainment based form.
It has to be said that Halloween as we know it is largely influenced by early 20th century American traditions. The true traditions of Halloween, honouring the dead, fortune-telling, the ritual cleansing are rapidly being abandoned in favour of fun-sized mars bars and animatronic zombies. Perhaps the old ways will make a comeback, after all there is a vogue for all things retro at the moment. I suppose it depends if you classify ancient Irish folk beliefs as retro or not
Samantha is an expert Research and Theatre consultant. Her current interests are UK shortbreaks including Alton Towers and Theme Park Breaks.