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Trick or treating, Halloween costumes, costumes for kids, partners, and families, and Halloween decorations. If you grew up and celebrated Halloween the same way as we do now, you most likely would think it was always celebrated like this.
But in reality, Halloween has changed a lot over the years.
If you could travel back in time and watch the Halloween origin, you wouldn’t even be able to recognize this holiday.
Halloween simply never gets boring, and kids get a chance to eat a lot of candy and dress up and, trick or treating, decorate their houses with some crazy scary stuff.
But have you ever wondered where did this Holiday come from? What was its origin? And what is the history behind it?
So, before you start making a list of Halloween costume ideas and plan what Halloween movies to watch on Netflix, you might be interested to read on to get to know the true Halloween story.
What is halloween? How did it all start?
As it is celebrated in the United States today, Halloween is a time when we can all revel in the darker, creepier aspects of life while also consuming copious amounts of candy.
It’s a lot of fun, a touch creepy, and not severe. However, historically, the holiday was religious and held a prominent place in the culture of those who observed it.
The origins of Halloween can be traced back to the ancient Celtic feast of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).
On November 1, the Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year.
On this very day, when the summer and the harvest ended, it marked the beginning of the cold winter season often associated with darkness and human death.
The Celts believed that this night before the New Year, the boundary between the two worlds that separated the living and the dead became blurred.
On the night of October 31st, they celebrated Samhain, when they believed that the dead returned to the Earth as Ghosts.
Apart from causing havoc and destroying crops, Celts believed that the presence of otherworldly spirits made it easier for Druids or Celtic priests, to make future forecasts. These forecasts were a source of consolation for people who were completely reliant on the turbulent natural environment during the long, dark winter.
Druids erected massive sacred bonfires to celebrate the festival, where people came to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic gods. The Celts dressed up in animal heads and skins and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes during the festival.
They re-lit their hearth fires, which had been extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire after the festival was done to help protect them over the approaching winter.
The Roman Empire had captured the majority of Celtic land by 43 A.D. During the 400 years that they governed the Celtic kingdoms, two Roman celebrations were mixed with the customary Celtic Samhain celebration.
The first was Feralia, a day in late October when Romans honored the deaths of their ancestors. Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees, was honored on the second day.
What is the reason behind celebrating halloween on October 31?
The ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, which is the earliest known root of Halloween, took place on October 31.
It was a vital time of year when the seasons changed, but it was also a period when watchers believed the veil between this world and the next thinned, allowing them to communicate with the dead.
Several other cultures echo this belief; for example, during the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, which takes place in October and involves praying for the dead, a similar thought is stated. This is also where the “haunted” ideas of Halloween come from.
The history of halloween activities
Because the Celts were polytheistic, the early pagan feast of Samhain included many ritualistic practices to contact with spirits.
While little is known about these rituals, many believe the Celts dressed up in costume (granted, it was probably as simple as animal hides) to ward off ghosts, ate special feasts, and carved gourds into lanterns (thus the history of jack-o’-lanterns).
As Christianity took hold and the holiday’s pagan overtones faded, its essential traditions remained a part of pop culture year after year; they merely developed and modernized.
Earlier mysterious rites gave way to lighter amusements and games. The somewhat ominous concept of interacting with the dead, for example, was replaced with the lighter concept of foretelling the future.
For example, on All Hallows’ Eve bobbing for apples became famous as a fortune-telling game: apples were chosen to represent all of a woman’s suitors, and the guy—er, apple—she ended up biting into was presumably her future husband.
Halloween was a significant (though somewhat superstitious) mating opportunity for young women in the nineteenth century.
Mirror-gazing was another common All Hallows’ Eve tradition, with people hoping to receive a glimpse of their destiny by looking into the mirror.
There have also been tales of fortune cookie-like treats being distributed in the past. People penned messages on milk-soaked pieces of paper, which were then folded and stuffed into walnut shells.
The shells would be roasted over an open flame, causing the milk to be brown just enough for the message to appear mystically on the recipient’s paper.
The history that lays behind halloween costumes and trick or treating
Many people were believed to dress up as saints and go door to door reciting hymns or poetry. Children would often go door to door requesting “soul cakes,” a biscuit-like goodie.
Technical note: Soul cakes started on November 2 as part of the All Souls’ Day holiday (yeah, a third holiday!), but as the notion expanded into trick-or-treating, they finally became a component of Halloween night.
In the early to mid-1900s, the candy-grabbing concept grew popular in the United States, with families giving goodies to youngsters hoping that they would be immune to Christmas pranks.
The Halloween costumes, and Halloween party ideas, on the other hand, have developed as well. While they began as sincere memorials to saints, the tradition is likely to have fallen out of favor over time… until a new generation of Scottish and Irish pranksters came up with the idea of dressing up in terrifying costumes to scare unsuspecting neighbors.
Halloween costumes became terrifying, creepy, humorous, and inventive all at the same time due to these neighborhood hooligans.
Day of the dead isn’t actually considered halloween
Despite their superficial similarities – sweets, skeletons, costumed people, and other graveyard and death images — Halloween and Day of the Dead (Da de Los Muertos) are quite different festivals. While Halloween encourages people to be afraid of the dead, Da de Los Muertos honors the dead.
The Nov. 2 event is a day when people in Mexico, Central and South America, and increasingly in the United States, honor their ancestors and loved ones who have died by inviting their souls back into their homes to be part of the family once again.
It’s an Aztec ritual that stretches back thousands of years. The schedule of the feast of the dead was modified to correspond with All Saints Day and All Souls Day as the Catholic faith became more entrenched in South America. This link is one of the reasons why people get the two festivals mixed up.
Block Buster halloween movies
Spooky Halloween movies have a long track record of being box office blockbusters when it comes to financial success.
The “Halloween” franchise, based on the 1978 original picture directed by John Carpenter and starring Donald Pleasance, Nick Castle, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Tony Moran, is a classic Halloween film.
In the film “Halloween,” a little child named Michael Myers murders his 17-year-old sister and is sentenced to prison, only to return as a teen on Halloween night to seek out his old house and a new target. In 2018, Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle starred in a sequel to the original “Halloween.” “Halloween Kills,” the twelfth film in the “Halloween” franchise, was released as a sequel.
A classic horror film, ‘Halloween’ is basically known for its scary soundtrack, inspired a lot of other legendary films like ‘Scream,’ ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘Friday the 13’. More types of Halloween movies that are also family-friendly include “Hocus Pocus,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Beetle juice,” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”
Some spooky yet wierd halloween traditions
Nowadays, Halloween is celebrated in various different ways, with celebrating with unique lights that you can easily get from Amazon, which are lots of fun.
While the most popular trends followed are costumes, parties, toys, and lots of candy, there are also lots of fun traditions and games that people follow. Some of the most popular Halloween traditions are:
Carving Jack-o’-lanterns
Carving ghoulish faces into Jack-o’-lanterns became popular around 1895. They were initially carved from turnips (neeps) in the United Kingdom, but in the United States, pumpkins were replaced.
They were transformed into lanterns and carried by “guisers” to ward off evil spirits and because, according to Sterling-Vete, in Christian legend, they symbolize a soul that has been denied admittance into both paradise and hell.
Thankfully, we don’t have to carry them around anymore (leaving more candy in the hands of the youngsters!).
The Most honored tradition- trick-or-treating
The most honored tradition of Halloween, which is still followed today, is kids dressed in cute Halloween costumes roaming door to door asking for candy.
This particular tradition that is followed is directly related to what is related to guising. It is thought that the disguising and costumes that are worn are basically worn to hide from evil spirits and can trace back to its origin to the 16th century, Scotland.
After knocking on the neighbors’ doors, the phrase “trick or treat” is meant to jokingly scare the homeowners into giving treats or small tory to the kids.
Decorating with skulls, skeletons, and ghosts
Many people display fake human skulls in silly ways on Halloween, which has a deep meaning on this day in Halloween and indicates that they are a remnant of the ancients’ severe fixation that the dead returning on October 31st.
Whether their spirits or along with whatever is left in their mortal bodies. The images of the skull and how it depicts may also refer to the old Christian tradition of Golgotha, or cavalry, the particular hill where Jesus was crucified. The skull is basically a reminder of death being ever present in life.
Avoiding black cats, scarecrows, witches
Bogies, or evil spirits, were a staple of Halloween’s early days, and they still exist today in the shape of black cats, witches, and other omens or personifications of that evil.
Scarecrows aren’t simply used to scare away birds on Halloween; they’re also used to scare away evil spirits. For the spookiest holiday ever, start with these DIY Halloween decorations.
Bobbing for apples
Harvest traditions are nearly forgotten in modern Halloween celebrations (or are integrated into Thanksgiving in November), but this classic party game reminds us of our agricultural beginnings.
Bobbing for apples is a Roman party game that has nothing to do with Halloween and everything to do with romantic love.
Apples were placed in water or strung from a string, and each was given the name of a single man or lady. The unmarried would next try to bite the apple of the person they wished to marry.
Some fascinating facts that might surprise you
Trick or treating was put on hold during wwii due to sugar restrictions
Trick or treating has been a feature of Halloween celebrations in North America since the early twentieth century, although it originated from an ancient European tradition, like so many other components of the festival.
On All Souls Day, poor people would go to their wealthier neighbors’ houses for a ‘soul cake,’ a type of shortbread, in exchange for the beggars promising to pray for the household’s dead.
The practice, known as “souling,” was later adopted by youngsters, who would go door to door asking for food and money. The custom was reintroduced in the United States by Irish and Scottish groups, but it was paused for several years during WWII due to sugar restrictions.
Philippines: singing hymns for tortured souls
Pangangaluluwà is observed in the Philippines’ Pampanga province from October 29 to October 31, leading up to All Souls’ Day on November 2.
Filipino children have traditionally gone from house to house singing hymns about the souls in Purgatory and asking for money to pay for special masses.
Still, in recent years, they have begun to embrace the ‘trick-or-treat’ tradition, dressing up in costumes and asking for sweets.
People wore masks so that ghosts couldn’t recognize them.
Traditionally, people were scared that they would be acquainted with ghosts that they believed came back to life on Halloween.
To avoid being recognized, people would wear masks when they would leave for somewhere after dark in hopes that the evil would mistake them for their fellow spirits.
Jack O’ Lanterns scare off evil wandering spirits
Another old school tradition is carved Pumpkins, which took place and originated in Ireland, Scotland, and England, where people carved frightening into vegetables and placed a candle inside. This was done to scare off evil spirits.
Candy corn was actually called Chicken Feed
Many people believe candy corn tastes like chicken feed, but that isn’t how it acquired its name.
George Renninger invented it in the 1880s, and Goelitz Confectionery Company (now Jelly Belly Co.) brought it to the people at the turn of the century.
Because maize is what birds eat, the product was dubbed “Chicken Feed,” The package was labeled with a bright rooster.
Trick or Treating Comes From “Souling”
It’s a little strange to have kids dress up in costumes and go door-to-door like little beggars asking for treats. Like many other Halloween events, the custom can be traced back to the middle Ages and Samhain rites.
On the night of Samhain, it was thought that evil spirits roamed the land. Therefore people dressed up in costumes to ward off the spirits.
Souling became famous as the Catholic Church replaced pagan festivities with its holidays (such as All Souls’ Day). Poor children and adults would go door-to-door costumed as spirits accepting food in exchange for prayers.
Halloween in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is a natural for Halloween celebrations because of its East meets West heritage and rich folklore replete with ghosts and demons.
The Scream-No-More Challenge at Hong Kong Disneyland (where you gain points for not responding to scary things) and Tim Burton-esque spooky decorations and delicacies are among the events taking place during the month of October.
There are additional activities at other stores and attractions throughout the city, including a Halloween-themed playground.
Old Halloween folklore is full of fortune-telling and magic
The Old English Folklore related to Halloween is full of superstition and fortune-telling that is still of old superstition and fortune-telling.
Many people still use it to tell stories today. Many of which are like bobbing for Apples or avoiding black cats.
Another famous myth of Halloween says that if a young unmarried person walks down the stairs in a backward position, mostly at midnight and holding a mirror. The following person who holds that mirror and looks into it will be their next lover.
How halloween is celebrated today?
Although Halloween is still a famous festival in the United States, it almost didn’t makeover across the Atlantic.
Because the Puritans were opposed to the holiday’s pagan origins, they did not participate in the festivities.
However, as more Irish and Scottish immigrants arrived in the United States, the holiday was reintroduced into the popular consciousness.
Large public parties were held to welcome the forthcoming harvest, tell ghost stories, Halloween puns sing and dance at the first American colonial Halloween celebrations.
By the early twentieth century, it was projected that most (candy-loving, costume-wearing) individuals in North America were celebrating Halloween.
On October 31, we’ll all be eating our favorite candy, making Halloween crafts for kids, and admiring our neighbors’ decorations once again—and the only eerie spirits we’ll be talking about are our pals’ witch and many costumes for men and even plus-sized women.
How has Halloween changed to what it is today?
Americans took the Celtic ritual of dressing up and converted it into what we now know as trick-or-treating in this new funny environment. The 1930s nearly totally secularized Halloween, whilst All Saints’ Day had become more of a Catholic event. Even today, some religious believers are adamant about not commemorating October 31 as anything more than a holy holiday.