Before Trick-or-Treating: The Strange History of Halloween

Halloween is one of those holidays that seems to have always been around. Every October, pumpkins appear on porches, children start planning their costumes, stores fill up with candy, and television stations dust off every scary movie they can find. We tell ghost stories, visit haunted houses and, for one night, seem perfectly comfortable surrounding ourselves with ghosts, witches, skeletons and all things supernatural.

But Halloween wasn't always about trick-or-treating and fun-sized candy bars. The holiday has a long and somewhat complicated history that stretches back hundreds of years and combines seasonal celebrations, religious traditions, folklore and an enduring fascination with the dead and the supernatural.

The story is often traced back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), which marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. For the Celtic people, this wasn't simply the beginning of a new season. Winter could be a difficult and dangerous time, and the transition from the productive months of the year into the darker, colder months was significant. Crops had been harvested, livestock were brought in from summer pastures and preparations were made for the coming winter.

Samhain was traditionally observed around the beginning of November, with celebrations beginning on the evening before. As with many seasonal transitions, this one became associated with the supernatural. Later Irish and Scottish folklore describes Samhain as a time when supernatural beings were particularly active and when the boundary between the human world and the otherworld was less secure. The dead and other supernatural beings were believed to be able to appear among the living, and precautions were sometimes taken to protect people and their homes.

This is where one of the most well-known concepts about Halloween originates—the idea that October 31 was a night when the living could interact with the dead. It is often said that the ancient Celts believed the "veil" between the worlds was thin during Samhain. Although this is a popular modern interpretation, historical evidence is more complex. Much of our understanding of Samhain comes from medieval Irish texts and later folklore rather than detailed ancient Celtic records. Nonetheless, the connection between this seasonal festival, the dead, and the supernatural is well established in the traditions that evolved around it. Additionally, consider that during winter, people were more aware of the possibility of death, and confronting one's mortality often led to thoughts of death, the afterlife, and those who had already passed.

Bonfires were an important part of Samhain celebrations. Large communal fires were built, and there are accounts of people taking embers from these fires back to their homes. Fire had both practical and symbolic importance, providing warmth and light as well as representing protection and purification. People also participated in feasting and other celebrations, and traditions involving disguises developed over time.

The costumes associated with Halloween are often linked to the idea of disguising oneself from supernatural beings. People in Ireland and Scotland eventually developed traditions known as guising, in which people dressed in disguise and went from house to house performing songs, poems or tricks in exchange for food or other rewards. The reasons for dressing up were varied, and it would be misleading to say that everyone was simply pretending to be a ghost so the ghosts wouldn't recognize them. Like most Halloween traditions, the practice evolved over time and probably had several influences.

As Christianity spread throughout Britain and Ireland, older seasonal customs didn't simply disappear. Instead, they became intertwined with Christian traditions. All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day, came to be celebrated on November 1, while All Souls' Day was observed on November 2 as a day for remembering and praying for the dead. The evening before All Saints' Day became known as All Hallows' Eve, which eventually developed into Hallowe'en and then Halloween.

The relationship between Samhain and these Christian holidays is sometimes presented as a simple case of the Church replacing an ancient pagan holiday, but the actual history is more complicated. Christian traditions and older seasonal customs overlapped and influenced one another over a long period of time. Some practices continued, some changed and others were given new meanings. This blending of traditions is one reason Halloween has such a fascinating history.

The association with the dead continued through the Christian observances surrounding All Souls' Day. In medieval England and other parts of Europe, a tradition known as souling developed in which poor people and children would go from house to house receiving food in exchange for prayers for the dead. One of the foods associated with this practice was the soul cake. At the same time, traditions such as guising and other forms of visiting from house to house were developing in Ireland and Scotland.

Eventually, these customs would contribute to the tradition that we know today as trick-or-treating, although the phrase itself is considerably more recent. Halloween celebrations in America included children going door to door, costumes, parties and various forms of mischief well before "trick or treat" became the standard phrase. The custom became particularly widespread in the United States in the decades following World War II, when communities embraced it as a way for children to participate in the holiday and, perhaps just as importantly, to keep Halloween mischief under control.

The development of Halloween in America was gradual and varied depending on where you lived. Puritan communities in colonial New England generally discouraged Halloween-type celebrations, while other parts of the colonies developed autumn celebrations that incorporated different European customs and local traditions. Halloween was most popular in Maryland and the southern colonies where different European ethnic groups and Native Americans meshed their beliefs. People gathered for harvest celebrations, told stories, played games, danced, sang and sometimes practiced various forms of fortune-telling.

Halloween became increasingly popular in America during the nineteenth century, particularly as millions of Irish immigrants arrived following the Great Famine. They brought their customs and traditions with them, and Halloween gradually became more widespread. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was also a movement to make Halloween less frightening and less focused on superstition. Instead, communities began emphasizing parties, parades and other celebrations.

That didn't mean the supernatural disappeared completely. It simply became more of a form of entertainment.

And then there are the pumpkins.

The jack-o'-lantern is another Halloween tradition with roots in Ireland, although the original lanterns weren't made from pumpkins. People traditionally carved turnips and other root vegetables, sometimes placing candles or embers inside them. One popular Irish folktale tells of a man named Stingy Jack, who was clever enough to trick the Devil but managed to make enemies on both sides of the afterlife. According to the story, Jack wasn't allowed into Heaven, while the Devil refused to let him into Hell, leaving him condemned to wander in darkness with only a burning ember to light his way.

That ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip, and eventually the story became associated with the carved lanterns people made to frighten away Jack and other wandering spirits. When Irish traditions came to America, the turnip was replaced by the pumpkin, which was larger, more plentiful and considerably easier to carve.

There is also an interesting connection between the jack-o'-lantern and the older practice of carrying embers from communal fires. The two traditions aren't necessarily the same custom, but both involve carrying a small light through the darkness, and both became part of the folklore surrounding the season.

Halloween also developed a reputation as a good night for fortune-telling and divination. Young people in particular used Halloween games and traditions to try to discover what the future might hold, especially when it came to romance and marriage. Apples, nuts, mirrors and other objects were used in various games designed to reveal the identity of a future spouse or provide clues about what was to come.

The idea makes sense when you consider the older traditions surrounding this time of year. Halloween sits at a seasonal crossroads, and people have always been interested in what happens at times of transition. The harvest is ending, winter is beginning and a new year is approaching. If you believed the supernatural world was particularly active at this time, it wasn't much of a leap to believe that perhaps you could also get a glimpse of the future.

Of course, our version of Halloween is considerably less concerned with predicting the future and much more concerned with finding the best possible candy haul.

By the twentieth century, Halloween had largely transformed into the holiday we recognize today. Community celebrations, parties, parades, costumes and eventually trick-or-treating became the dominant traditions. The religious and supernatural aspects faded into the background, although they never disappeared entirely. Instead, ghosts, witches, haunted houses and other supernatural themes became part of the entertainment surrounding the holiday.

And maybe that's why Halloween has managed to stick around for so long.

We live in a very different world from the people who celebrated Samhain centuries ago. We understand the changing seasons, we have electricity and modern medicine, and when something strange happens in the middle of the night, we usually have a perfectly reasonable explanation for it.

Usually.

Yet every October, we willingly surround ourselves with reminders of the supernatural. We hang ghosts from our trees, put skeletons in our yards, carve faces into pumpkins and tell stories about people who died long ago. We watch movies about haunted houses and spend money to have someone deliberately scare us.

After spending as much time as I do researching strange stories, I think part of the appeal is that Halloween gives us permission to wonder about things we don't normally think about. Death, the unknown and the possibility that there might be something beyond what we can see are questions people have been asking for centuries. The stories and traditions may change, but the curiosity remains.

Perhaps that's what makes Halloween different from most other holidays. It isn't really about proving that ghosts exist, and it isn't necessarily about being afraid. It's about allowing ourselves, for one night, to consider the possibility that the world might be a little stranger than we normally allow ourselves to believe.

The people celebrating Samhain could never have imagined modern Halloween. They couldn't have imagined children dressed as superheroes going door to door for candy, inflatable skeletons taking over suburban front yards or stores selling enough Halloween decorations to make it look like an entire cemetery has moved into the neighborhood.

But they understood the darkness.

They understood the changing seasons, the uncertainty of winter and the fact that death was never very far away. They gathered around fires, shared food and stories, remembered those who had died and took part in traditions that helped them face the unknown.

We've simply changed the decorations.

So this Halloween, go ahead and have the bonfire, carve the pumpkin, tell a ghost story, try your hand at a little fortune-telling and eat a completely unreasonable amount of candy. You don't have to believe in ghosts to enjoy Halloween, but there's something fun about remembering that underneath all the costumes and candy is a tradition that has been evolving for centuries.

We've always looked into the darkness and wondered what might be there.

And maybe that's why, even after all these years, Halloween still feels just a little different from every other night of the year.

Because you never know.

There might be nothing lurking just beyond the edge of the light.

Or there might be.

Either way, I'd probably turn the light on.

Happy Halloween

And as always...

Keep lurking.

— Jamie