Halloween: The World's Oldest Holiday
posted:Friday, October 31, 2003
by Vanessa Cole
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Halloween dates back over 2000 years, a celebration originating with the Celts, a tribal group that dominated central Europe in the Iron Age and spread their culture to Ireland, England and Scotland in the 5th century BC.
The festival of Halloween, then known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in), was a religious ceremony to signify the end of summer, the completion of the harvest and a solemn preparation for the hard, cold winter when nights became longer, food became scarce and people feared the dark.
The Celts were a mystical and superstitious race whose world was closely associated with nature. All living and non-living things had spirits: trees, rocks, animals and water, and there was a thin line between the real and the supernatural. In the Celtic religion, the New Year began November 1, and the last night of the year, October 31, became symbolic with death.
They believed the spirits of the dead came back to earth on this night to roam among the living and cause mischief. The Druid priests would hold a community bonfire, with everyone dressed in costumes made of animal heads and skins, so as not to be recognized by the dead. People would extinguish their home fires, leaving food and wine outside for the roaming spirits, hoping to prevent them from entering their houses, then join the ceremony where the priests would make predictions about the year to come. Each family would then relight their hearths from the sacred bonfire in the hope this would protect their homes from the frightful and uncertain winter ahead.
The Romans had conquered the Celts by 43 AD and ruled the area for 400 years. They incorporated several of their own ceremonies into the Celtic festival of Samhain. The Romans also celebrated the passing of the dead in late October in a festival called Feralia. Another feast was celebrated during this time to honor Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees, whose symbol was the apple and synonymous with the harvest.
Christianity began to spread to Britain by 800 AD. As a way to Christianize the Celtic ritual of Samhain, Pope Boniface IV declared November 1 a day to honor all saints and made attendance at mass mandatory. The day was called All Hallows or All Hallowmas, Middle English for All Saints Day.
The night before became known as All Hallows Eve and eventually Halloween. In 1000 AD, the church would make November 2, All Souls Day, a day to honor the dead. Despite their efforts, the traditions of Samhain carried on and the three days of All Hallows Eve, All Saints and All Souls, called Hallowmas, were still celebrated with bonfires and costumes. These European traditions evolved over the centuries and were brought to the United States and Canada with the settling of the British colonies and later with the immigration of the Irish in the 1850's. Today it is the second largest commercial holiday in the US.
The Catholic celebration of All Saints and All Souls was brought to Mexico and Latin America with the arrival of the Spanish in the New World. The Aztecs already had a festival dedicated to children and the dead, held in the Aztec month of Miccailhuitontl, equivalent to our calendar month of July and named for the goddess Mictecacihuatl, known as the Lady of the Dead.
Again, in an attempt to Christianize existing rituals of pagan worship, the church combined the Aztec festival with their own. The Spanish priests changed the Aztec ceremony from the beginning of summer to coincide with their own ceremony that honored the dead, All Souls Day, celebrated at the end of summer. Today, the first two days of November are celebrated all over Latin America and in Hispanic areas of North America as Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead. It has become a holiday of cultural importance and in rural areas of southern Mexico, such as Oaxaca, where indigenous populations are more prevalent, the holiday has significant religious importance.
Different in tone from the northern European fear of the spirits of the dead, the Aztec/Spanish tradition embraces the spirits of loved ones passed and uses this time to reminisce and remember their time among the living. The idea is that on this day, the dearly departed return to visit their earthly domain, so relatives left behind must make a welcoming gesture for their arrival.
Elaborate altars are displayed with photographs and mementos of the deceased, and offerings of their favorite food and drink, as well as other worldly pleasures such as tobacco, alcohol and music are made available for their enjoyment. Gravesites are spruced up and laden with flowers that commemorate the dead: the traditional marigold, dating back to the Aztecs, and chrysanthemums, the flower representative of the month of November.
Candles are lit to help guide the loved one's journey. Family picnics are held featuring meat pies and baked goods, pan de muerto, atole and sugar candy in the shape of skulls. The skull candy is quite expensive; it is considered a special treat to receive one with your name emblazoned on the forehead. While seemingly macabre, Day of the Dead is in fact a celebration of life.
Not just a child's game of Trick or Treat or a tongue-in-cheek look at death, Halloween and Day of the Dead are interconnected through time. Their origins stem from sacred religious ceremonies and represent man's nebulous coexistence with the spiritual world. This Halloween, if you leave your home during the night, you may decide to wear a mask so the roaming spirits won't recognize you. You can then wake up in the secure light of day and offer a piece of sugar bread or a shot of tequila to your favorite spirit, then relight your hearth in anticipation of a safe and plentiful winter.
Sources: History of Halloween as featured on The History Channel and Day of the Dead by Ricardo Salvador
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