HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN

Halloween is one of the oldest holidays, its origin going back to the Celts - or even earlier, but there is no proof of that. Over the centuries, this festivity has had many influences from other cultures: Roman and Christian.

The Celts worshipped nature and had many gods, but Sun god was their favourite: he made the crops grow, thereby feeding the people and ruling their lives according to the seasons. The Celts had two main festivals during the year that coincided with the two main cycles of nature - the one around May 1st, which marked the beginning of the "season of the sun"; and the one on November 1st, which marked the end of that season and the beginning of the "season of darkness and cold". The Celts celebrated their New Year exactly on November 1st and called this festival Samhain (pronounced "sow-en"). It started on New Years' eve and lasted for three days.

On October 31st after all the crops had been harvested and stored for the long winter, the Celts would then extinguish the cooking fires in their homes and, usually dressed in costumes made from animal skins, they would go to the forest to meet the Druids, the Celtic priests. The Druids had gathered together in the hilltop in the dark oak forest - the oak tree being considered the sacred tree of the Celts. The Druids would then light new fires and offer sacrifices with crops and also animals. As they danced around the fires, the season of the sun died out and the season of darkness would begin. The next morning the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family, who would then take the ember home and with it start new cooking fires. These fires would also keep their homes warm and free from evils spirits.

When the Romans invaded the rest of Europe, they took with them many of their festivals and customs, and the Celtic festival of Samhain was assimilated to the Roman Pomona Day, a festival called after the Roman goddess of fruits and gardens and also celebrated around November 1st.

The spread of Christianity brought new celebrations, and in the ninth century the Roman Catholic Church made November 1st a catholic holiday to honour all the saints - it was called All Saints' Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Years later the Church would make November 2nd also a holy day. It was called All Souls Day and was to honor the dead. It was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as saints, angels and devils.

The new religion, however, did not make people forget their old traditions, and celebration of the ancient Samhain and Pomona Day festivals continued, mainly in Ireland. In the year 1840, there was a large migration of Irish people to the United States, and they took with them their traditions and rituals. Years later, these same traditions and rituals returned to Europe but the Irish name "All Hallow Even" for the 31st October, the eve of the catholic All Saints' Day, had meanwhile been transliterated to All Hallow's Eve, then Hallowe'en, to be finally Halloween.

This is the origin of today's festival of Halloween, with all its magic, evil spirits, ghosts, skeletons and skulls from the Celtic Samhain, Roman Pomona Day and catholic All Saint's Day.

© Dulce Rodrigues