CNJ+ October 2023

T he spookiest holiday of the year is fast approaching, and residents all over are picking out costumes, rehearsing shouts of “Trick or treat!”, and daydreaming about heir favorite Halloween candy (Twix is the right answer). You may be familiar with the concept of All Hallows Eve, which was celebrated the night before the November 1st cel ebration of All Saints Day, designated by Pope Gregory III in the eighth century. However, the roots of Halloween actually stretch back much further to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced “sow-in”), where the Celts living in modem-day Ireland would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts and evil spirits. They started their new year on November 1st as well, a day which brought with it the end of summer and the beginning of the dark, cold, and often deadly winter. Samhain was held the night before on October 31st, when they believed that the distinction between the worlds of the living and the dead was indistinguishable and that otherworldly beings came back to earth to wreak havoc and destroy crops. However, these spirits weren’t all terrible. Celts believed that their presence made it easier for Druids (Celtic priests) to make predictions about the future, and since they were highly dependent on their crops, these prophecies were often looked to as a reliable source when enduring the harsh winters. The Druids built bonfires where people gathered to bum crops and animals as sacrifices, and they wore “costumes” consisting of animal heads and skins while engaging in fortune telling. When the evening was over, the sacred bonfire was extinguished — but not before relighting each home’s hearth fire to protect families during the cold. Once the 9th century dawned, the influence of Christianity made its way to Celtic lands where it merged with Celtic tra ditions. The Christian church declared November 2nd to be All Souls' Day in 1000 A.D. to honor the dead, which is believed by many to be an attempt to replace Samhain with a church-sanctioned holiday. The celebrations were similar with bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as devils, angels, and saints. Deriving from Middle English Alholowmesse, meaning “All Saints’ Day,” the name morphed into All-hallows/All-hallowmas, then All Hallows Eve, and eventually, Halloween.

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Over in America, Halloween wasn't widely acknowledged due to the Protestant belief sys tems in colonial New England, but it was a bit more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. The Americanized version of Halloween emerged as the customs of European ethnic groups and Native Americans came together, and the first celebrations consisted of autumn festivals that welcomed the harvest. In the second half of the 19th century, when immigrants made their way over to America in droves — especially the Irish, who were fleeing the Irish Pota to Famine — Halloween began to spread in popularity nationwide. Hal loween’s various permutations throughout history have brought us to this much-anticipated holiday of the present — one in which Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, second only to Christmas. Maybe something to muse over while you’re munching on your kids’ stash of trick-or-treated chocolate at 11 pm in your kitchen on October 31st (don’t worry; I won’t snitch).

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