Halloween is yearly celebrated on October 31st, with the tradition originating with the ancient pagan Celtic festival called Samhain, during which the Celts would create bonfires and clothe themselves in costumes to scare ghosts away (Butler 67). The Celts celebrated the start of winter on November 1st, and this period was often associated with dying. There was a belief that the night before the beginning of winter, the limits between the dead and the living blurred, and ghosts returned to haunt. Lighting bonfires and wearing costumes made from animal fur and heads were believed to deter the spirits from entering the human world.
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III made November 1st the day for honoring all saints, with the All Saints Day incorporating the tradition of wearing costumes from the Samhain celebration (“Halloween 2020”). Similar to Samhain, people lit large bonfires and dressed in the costumes of saints, either angels or devils. This furthers the idea that many Christian traditions intertwine with pagan beliefs and customs. The evening before the first day of November was called All Hallows Eve, and the name later transformed into ‘Halloween’ (“Halloween 2020”). As time passed, the holiday acquired new traditions and activities such as trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins, eating treats, and creating complicated costumes and decorations (McGinnis). Recently, some of the costumes have been criticized for enabling gender stereotyping as well as the pressure to abide by gender roles within the expectations of costume choices (Sullivan et al. 60). Despite the scrutiny, modern Halloween is a celebration of friendship and longstanding tradition even though its roots are what make the day exciting but also scary due to the ancient myths.
Works Cited
Butler, Jenny. “Neo-Pagan Celebrations of Samhain.” Trick or Treat? Halloween in a Globalizing World, edited by Malcolm Foley and Hugh O’Donnell, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009, pp. 67-83.
McGinnis, Brit. “How Halloween Has Changed in the Past 100 Years.”Stacker, 2020.
Sullivan, Jacqueline, et al. “Female Disempowerment Disguised as a Halloween Costume.” The Open Family Studies Journal, vol. 9, 2017, pp. 60-75.
“Halloween 2020.”History, 2020.