Who Invented Halloween?

Imagine my surprise on my first Halloween here in the States — a fun-filled masquerade a day away from two of Luxembourg’s most somber occasions: All Saints’ Day (on November 1st to honor saints) and All Souls’ Day (on November 2nd to pay our respects to our ancestors at their grave sites). Nothing could spare us from this yearly obligation of church-going in the cold, under dreary, rainy skies, in a guaranteed morose mood.

All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day

Fast forward 20 years: strolling through New York’s West Village on Halloween — a parade! What are the roots of these contradictory celebrations, I wondered? Then one year later, my Desirée requested that we visit the Sleepy Hollow Headless Horseman-Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze for her birthday, which also happens to be on Halloween.

Sleepy Hollow Headless Horseman-Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze

This was a mesmerizing site and a spectacular display of all things pumpkin and Halloween. The experience exposed people’s craving for carved pumpkins, haunted house decorations, and scary costumes. I set out to uncover why these opposite celebrations share similar origins.

Desirée: Goddess of Light

2000 years ago, the Celts celebrated two seasons: summer (ending October 31) and winter. The Druids believed that the line between the summer and winter world was the thinnest on New Year’s Eve (also called Hallowmas), and celebrated the feast of Lord Samhain (Summers End). Samhain, the Lord of Darkness or the Lord of the Dead, roamed the earth during the hours of darkness and reigned over the long winter months. The souls of those who died in the past year would rise in search of the passageway from the netherworld while Lord Samhain would attempt to capture them and bring them to his world of darkness. People put lights in their windows to help the dead find their way, and offered large sacrifices of crops and animals. Miming was the children’s practice of disguising themselves in costumes and going door-to-door singing songs to the dead in return for cakes — today’s trick or treating.

Samhain: the Lord of Darkness

In early AD, Romans came to the Celtic territories of modern-day England, Scotland, and Northern France and were the first people to influence the celebration of Samhain. They brought their own holidays: Feralia (the Roman day to honor the dead in late October), as well as another holiday to honor Pomona (the Roman goddess of fruit and trees). It is possible that this Roman influence is the reason apples are given out and bobbed for on Halloween?

Celebration of Samhain: Pomona, Roman Goddess of Fruit and Trees

Around 600 AD, and with the intent of giving a positive, spiritual Christian alternative to this pagan ritual, Pope Boniface IV moved All Hollows Eve and All Saints’ Day from May 13th to November 1st to honor saints and martyrs. A couple hundred years later, Pope Gregory II moved the holiday again and created a second holiday, All Souls’ Day, on November 2nd to honor the dead. This may well have been influenced by the ongoing Day of the Dead celebrations of the ancient Irish, Scots, and others in Europe. With the overwhelming expansion of Christianity in Europe, All Saints’ Day became the dominant if not the only holiday. Standing against this, many Protestant Christians celebrate October 31th as Reformation Day in honor of reformers such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others who spearheaded the Reformation in the 1500s.

Day of the Dead Celebrations

During the mid 1800s, Irish immigrants brought their traditions across the ocean, yet Halloween celebrations did not become popular until the 1930s. Jack-o’-Lanterns featuring similar Celtic origins were originally carved from hollowed-out turnips. They represent Stingy Jack who negotiated with the Devil and managed to swindle him. Upon his death, God could not accept him into heaven and the Devil took revenge by refusing him access to hell. Yet the Devil gave Stingy Jack a burning ember to warn others of his misdeeds and Jack was doomed to roam the worlds between good and evil.

Stingy Jack

Today’s celebrations maintain the aspects of darkness, evil spirits, and people rising from the dead and roaming at night, as evidenced by current Halloween decorations, haunted houses, horror movies, cédant based costumes, and the like.

Halloween represents a 5 billion dollar business, the second largest grossing commercial holiday after Christmas, with a quarter of the yearly candies sold. Also, new traditions are rising, such as the annual Jimmy Kimmel’s Parents Ate the Kid’s Candy video compilations and the European retail industry attempting to introduce Halloween celebrations.

European Halloween Images