Hannah Kolstad
news@greenepublishing.com
Halloween is the second largest holiday in the U.S., with only Christmas grossing more popularity. It represents a time of the year when children and adults alike can be creative and humorous, choosing unique, fun costumes, while also having a good time with friends, family and neighbors. In fact, over 90 percent of Americans celebrate this spooky holiday. But where did it originate?
Halloween began around two thousand years ago as a Celtic festival. The celebration was known as Samhain and it was celebrated near the end of summer, when the long, cold winter began to loom, just as the holiday is now celebrated on the last day of October. The Celts believed the boundaries between the living and the dead were thin during Samhain. There are two tales about how this fact affected the events of the Samhain festival. Some say the Celts wore costumes composed of animal heads and skins and danced around a roaring fire to scare the spirits away. This practice eventually gave way to the modern costumes worn today, as well as to the spooky, haunted atmosphere of Halloween. However others insist the Celts attempted to communicate with their deceased ancestors, rather than scare them away. History indicates both accounts hold a measure of truth, as the Celts were highly spiritual people.
Either way, the Celts relied heavily on priests and prophets to tell their fortunes. During Samhain, the priests, called Druids, were given special attention, as the Celts believed the veil between living and dead better enabled the Druids to make accurate predictions of the future. The Druids built large bonfires that were denoted sacred, and the Celts burned crops and animals upon the fires as sacrifice to their gods. The Celts would dance around the fires, with Druids and villagers alike telling fortunes and worshipping.
Eventually the Celtic land was overtaken by Romans, who combined two of their own festivals with the Celtic Samhain. Feralia, a day in which the Romans commemorated the dead, and a different day honoring the goddess of fruits and trees, Pomona, were mingled with Samhain to create yet another version of Halloween.
Later, the Catholic Church in Rome attempted to “Christianize” the celebration by adapting it into what was known as All Souls’ Day or All Saints’ Day, which would take place yearly on the first of November. On this day, deceased martyrs and saints were given honor and recognition. However, All Saints’ Day was celebrated much the same as Samhain, with costumes, parades and bonfires. The night before All Saints’ Day began to be called All-Hallows Eve, then later, Halloween.