By Karlos Tse ‘27
We all celebrate October 31st with sweet treats and costumes. We go trick or treating for candy, discover creatively carved pumpkins and walk around with the fear of ghosts. What a weird holiday! How did the spookiest day of the year come to be?
Simply put, Halloween originated from the Celtic celebration of Semahian, marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of the winter. They believed that on this fateful night, the veil between the dead world and our world thinned, allowing spirits to roam free in our streets. In response, the Celtics wore costumes and lit bonfires to ward off these spirits. Over the centuries, this was merged with Christian celebrations.
With Halloween having spiritual influence from the Celtics, the essence of its spirituality became even more emphasized as Christian celebrations began to be added to the Calendar. November 2nd marks All Souls’ Day, a Roman Catholic day of commemoration for the souls of the departed who are in Purgatory, a place believed to be a place for those who died with lesser sins. Many Catholics attend Mass and pray for the purification of these souls to be entered into heaven. On November 1st, many Christian celebrate All Saints’ Day, a celebration to commemorate known and unknown saints adding more perspective on the dead and spirituality. Rooted in Mexican culture, El Día de los Muertos is also celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, adding to the commemoration and celebration of the dead.
We have lanterns but who is Jack? According to Irish legend, there was a stingy man named Jack who trapped the devil, demanding that he wouldn’t go to hell. When he died, he was rejected from Heaven. At the gates of hell, the devil kept his word, leaving Jack to roam the Earth with a coal from hell. He put the hot coal in a carved out turnip, leading to a lantern. When the Irish immigrated to North America in the 19th century, with the absence of turnips, they used native pumpkins instead, leading to the famous Jack O’Lanterns.
It’s a funny thing to walk around to your neighbours and ask for candy, even funnier to show up in spooky costumes. With the origins of this well-loved tradition, trick-or-treating generally has 3 theories of its origin.
Firstly, when the Celtics celebrated Semahain, they left out food to conciliate and appease the spirits. As this tradition grew, people would dress up as these spirits in exchange for this food and drink.
The second theory stems from the Scottish practice of “guising”. During the Middle ages, for Old Souls’ Day, those unable to provide for themselves would go around asking for food in exchange for prayers. As this tradition became more secular, people would go around asking for these treats in exchange for jokes, pranks and songs, giving us the “trick” of trick-or-treat.
A third theory suggests that contemporary American trick-or-treating originates from “belsnickeling,” a German-American Christmas custom in which children dressed in costumes would visit their neighbors to test if the adults could identify the masked figures. In a variation of the practice, children received food or other rewards if they remained unrecognized by anyone.
Another spooky symbol of Halloween is bats. How did these creatures that lurk the cave come to be a part of an outdoorsy celebration? The Semahian bonfires used as a celebration by the Celtic people attracted insects, in turn, attracting bats. With the atmosphere of the celebration, it is synonymous with death.
With the blend of deep Celtic traditions and Catholic traditions, we have our year’s most mysterious night. Next time you’re searching for candy or admiring a pumpkin, remember the silly stories and tricky traditions that give us our spooky Halloween.