By L.J. Gambone
For the Apple Valley Review
Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween in the way of costumes, parties and decorations, according to national statistics. We can thank the ancient Celts for this economy-stimulating holiday, which has become the second largest festive celebration in the U.S.
Halloween is said to have been borne out of the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), which took place ever year on Nov. 1. The purpose of the festival was to bid adieu to the harvest season and welcome in the bleak and cold winter, which was symbolic of death.
The Celts, who hailed from Ireland, northern France and England, subscribed to a belief that on the last night of the year, dearly departed souls showed up on the earth as ghosts to wreak havoc on the living.
Part of the Samhain festival involved crop burning and animal sacrifices to Celtic gods. Costumes were typically worn in the form of animal heads and skins.
Around the middle of the 19th century, Celtic immigrants (who fled Ireland due to the potato famine of 1846) brought their Samhain tradition to the United States. Americans quickly embraced the holiday and began dressing up in costumes and going trick-or-treating. It was typical to ask for food or money back in those days rather than candy.
By the late 1800s, Halloween had morphed into a light-hearted celebration that focused on fun, community get-togethers and friendly pranks on family and neighbors. Parties to celebrate the holiday started happening around the early part of the 20th century, complete with costumes, food, games and lots of candy.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween was in full swing and had expanded to include town parties and parades. Trick-or-treating, which had become a thing of the past up until that time, also was revived.
The practice of trick-or-treating actually was started in England during the country’s All Souls’ Day parades, which was a similar celebration to the Celts’ Samhain festival. Throughout the parade, downtrodden town folk begged for food and were given pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives.
This was called “going a-souling” and was eventually mimicked by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given coins and food items.
Dressing up in costume at Halloween comes from both the Europeans and the Celts. In centuries past, people were afraid they would run into ghosts on Halloween if they went out in the dark. In an effort to hide from them, they would wear masks so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.
People kept ghosts away from their homes by placing bowls of food outside their doors to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.
While such ghostly activities may have faded into history, carving pumpkins, bobbing for apples, attending haunted attractions and watching horror films continue to keep the Halloween tradition alive around the world.
— L.J. Gambone is a freelance reporter for High Desert Media Group. Visit her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/victorvalleyhappenings.