The celebration we call Halloween is actually around 2000 years old. It began as a Celtic celebration of the end of harvest and the start of a new year. Bonfires were lit and the Celts wore costumes because they believed nighttime was dangerous and at this time of year, there were spirits around because the veil between living and dead was thin. The costumes would trick the ‘ghosts’ into not knowing who anyone living was.
Of course, when religion got into it, Pope Gregory III decided November 1 was All Saints Day and left some of the traditional things in to appease the Celts. The evening before All Saints Day was call All Hallows Eve. What was once called Samhain, was combined with Roman festivals already in place: Feralia, a day celebrating those that passed in the year, and Pomona, the goddess of trees and the apples (that is why we still hear of bobbing for apples).
When the celebration came to the Americas, with so many mixed Europeans, there came to be an American version which celebrated the harvest and people would gather and share stories of their dead, they would tell each other their fortunes, and there would be singing and dancing. Because of the different cultures mixed in, Halloween became a day where children did trick or treating, pumpkins were carved, costumes were worn and there were many treats shared. What the Celts marked as a time of the beginning of cold winter nights, Halloween changed. But there are still many symbolic Halloween things.
Today we add our own unique take on decorations and celebrations. We mix thanksgiving décor with Halloween décor; we paint ghosts even though we know ghosts either do not exist or do not look like Casper. In the 1800s, religious leaders banned some of the celebrations and suggested family and friends’ get-togethers and more of a happy party atmosphere and less about superstitions and fortune telling. And then a traditional food was encouraged. There were cakes called “Soul Cakes” that were made for all the passersby and children who would come begging for prayers for their past love ones in return for the soul cakes. I made it a time of giving rather than taking. I wish I had known about soul cakes. Now that I do, I am going to make some for a gathering of neighbors we are having tonight.
May you make tonight special I some way for yourself if not for anyone else.
©Carol Desjarlais 10.31.23
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