Halloween: Ancient Religious Roots and Traditions Essay

Introduction

• Attention Getter: We all think of Halloween as an innocent children’s holiday, but what if I told you it originates from a highly violent pagan festival
• Audience Analysis: Halloween is a long-established American tradition where families and communities celebrate by decorating their homes, dressing up in costumes, trick-or-treating, and of course watching scary movies for all ages. Most people have only a superficial understanding about the origins of this popular holiday and its secular traditions.
• Speaker Credibility: Practically everyone has experience with Halloween traditions at some point in their lives. However, I took the time research many aspects of the holiday to understand its comprehensive meaning and evolution through history.
• Preview: After conducting in-depth research, in the next few minutes, I will inform you about the history of Halloween, how the modern trick-or-treat tradition came to be, and the practice of wearing costumes.
• Transition: We’ll start with learning about the holiday’s history.

Halloween’s most ancient origins can be traced to the Gaelic festival of Samhain, celebrated from October 31st to November 1st, marking the end of the harvest season. Having Celtic pagan origins, it is associated with important events in Irish mythology. It is thought that during the festival, the world of pagan gods was visible to humankind, resulting in supernatural activities along with ghosts and spirits returning to earth. While little is known, it is believed that cattle were brought, and animal sacrifice occurred to appease deities. Massive bonfires were lit, and people presumably dressed in costumes and left offerings to protect against the evil spirits (Lang, 2018). With the spread of the Catholic church as Rome conquered the Celtics in 43 A.D., Celtic traditions were appropriated and reframed. In 609, Pope Boniface IV declared a celebration named All Saints’ Day or All-hallows in Middle English, which was then moved to November 1. Homage paid to martyrs and saints during the celebration closely represented the appeasement of ghosts during Samhain. Eventually All-hallow’s Eve became the secular holiday of Halloween, with its religious roots largely ignored (History.com Editors, 2020a).

• Transition: As mentioned earlier, during the early festivals of Samhain, the Celtics would dress up in primitive costumes as a manner of disguise against spirits and ghosts. It can be assumed that these costumes were scary in nature to ‘fit in’ with the spirits of the otherworld. During the Christian adoption of the tradition, dressing up was much less common (Cerini, 2020). The modern secular custom did not emerge until the early 20th century when the first community Halloween event was held in Anoka, Minnesota in 1920. To prevent social unrest and hooliganism that usually occurred on the night of October 31st, a major event was held with scary decorations, costume contests, and parades (Frazer, 2019). Eventually other towns adopted the practice, and modern Halloween was born. At first, costumes were elaborate and truly horrifying. However, as tradition and secularism caught on costumes were made more widely available, people began dressing up as popular media stars and fictional characters. In the 1980s, there was a shift in Halloween practices as urban legends began to spread and there was a scare of the so-called Tylenol murders in 1982. Adults began hosting at-home Halloween parties for children, leading to more adult participation in costume dress-ups. Currently, the Halloween holiday industry is booming, with an approximate $9 billion ($86.79 per person) spent annually on costumes and decorations (Fraser, 2019).
• Transition: As most people know, for children, putting on costumes is only part of the fun, with the main tradition being trick-or-treating. The trick-or-treat custom is a common tradition on Halloween as children travel from house to house, knocking and pronouncing the phrase “trick or treat.” In modern contexts, a treat is usually a piece of candy or a small toy which is then given by the homeowner. Meanwhile, the trick part of the phrase represents a playful veiled threat, which is purely traditional not intentional, suggesting that if no treat is given, some mischief will be done (History.com Editors, 2020b). The tradition goes back to the 16th century, when Christians celebrating All Saints’ Day. They would go door to door singing songs and reciting verses for the souls of the departed, in exchange receiving a baked treat known as soul-cakes. This was also known as Hallowmas bridging the gap between paganism and Christianity, and was referenced in the Shakespearean play Two Gentlemen of Verona (Fraser. 2019). By the 20th century, the secular tradition became established, particularly in suburban America. It was popularized in the 1950s by Disney comics and cartoons. At the peak of the post-war baby boom, the custom reclaimed its place and became a standard practice for millions of households. An estimated $2.6 billion is spent annually on Halloween candy, making it the second-largest commercial holiday (History.com Editors, 2020b).

Conclusion

• Review: Overall, Halloween is a modern secular holiday with ancient religious roots and traditions. Many of the customs taken for granted served a specific purpose just centuries prior.
• Audience Analysis: Those who have heard the information today are aware of the origins of the holiday, which may lead them to reconsider how they celebrate going forward.
• Memorable Closing Statement: Even if in modern day we are not yet realizing it, we are contributing to the rich history of this ancient celebration by practicing these customs and traditions.

References

Cerini, M. (2020). From pagan spirits to Wonder Woman: A brief history of the Halloween costume. CNN Style.

Fraser, E. (2019). The history of Halloween costumes. SYFY.

History.com Editors. (2020a). Halloween 2020. History.com.

History.com Editors. (2020b). How trick-or-treating became a Halloween tradition. History.com.

Lang, C. (2018). What is Samhain? What to know about the ancient pagan festival that came before Halloween. Time.