Credits: Social Media
A whistle-stop history of Halloween, from pagan roots to reason we wear costumes
Halloween in 2024 might be bedazzled in sequins and brimming with discarded candy rappers, but the holiday has a long and strange history filled with intrigue, scares, and of course, what goes bump in the night.
Halloween is now just X away, and while the traditions are now reduced to capitalistic cash grabs, from the Starbucks Halloween merch to the new candies available, the holiday has a long and complicated history that goes back some 2,000 years. Grab your blanket, things are about to get spooky.
Halloween was once known as Samhain, a pagan holiday
Depending on where you are located, the origins of the spooky season might differ, however, most of the Western world attributes the emergence of the holiday to an ancient pagan festival.
Samhain is a 2,000-year-old pagan festival held each year on October 31 and November 1. It marked the start of the dark half of the year where the veil between worlds was said to be thinner. The Gaelic festival shared many similarities with modern Halloween, from the lit bonfires to dressing up in costumes to ward off evil.
Samhain is still celebrated today in some parts of the world, and by those who still conduct spiritual practices like witchcraft and Wicca.
The spirit of Halloween is celebrated around the world, under various names
Though Halloween is largely a Western tradition, variations of it are celebrated around the world under other names. Some traditions even go back further.
For instance, in Latin America, D�a de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a three-day celebration that begins on the evening of October 31. It’s believed that deceased relatives return to the home during this time, so families often lay out altar spaces and gifts for their sadly departed.
On November 11 each year, communities in Austria host K�rbisfest im Retzer Land, or the Pumpkin Festival. The celebration includes costumes, a lantern procession, and leaving bread, water, and a lighted lamp to help the dead back home.
With an influx of migration, many countries in Asia like China and Japan have adopted Western Halloween customs alongside their own rich traditions for honoring the dead. In Korea, they celebrate Chuseok, a Korean Thanksgiving that honors ancestors with traditional food.
Halloween came to America in the 19th century
While most Americans are probably familiar with Halloween releases like Dunkin’s Potion Macchiato, you might not be familiar with how Halloween originally came to the United States.
You see, having started in the United Kingdom, much like America itself, Halloween was brought to America with an influx of Scottish and Irish immigrants in the 19th century.
Though Cajun, Black, and other minority communities had their own traditions for honoring the dead, Halloween became the mainstream by the 20th century.
Modern Halloween traditions have strong roots
All Hallows’ Eve has dozens of traditions attached to it, but why do we carve pumpkins, dress up, and go trick-or-treating?
When it comes to pumpkins, which have a long history of their own, there are several origin stories of note. In Irish folklore, the legend of Stingy Jack, who was banished from Heaven and Hell, inspired the carving of root vegetables to ward off evil spirits. The Celtics had similar beliefs in that pumpkins lit the way for spirits coming home.
When the holiday migrated to America with the Irish, pumpkins became the gold standard of carving thanks to their wide availability.
Dressing up in costumes has a similar backstory, though no one 2,000 years ago was dressing up in pop culture-inspired costumes. Instead, the pagans believed that you had to dress like spirits to keep them away from you when the veil between worlds was thinnest.
