Reclaiming Halloween

This year, I decided to do a little digging. I’ve avoided Halloween for years, until learning that Halloween was originally a Celtic holiday, turned Catholic, then secular, with quite the wild history… Originally, it sounds very similar to Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (which I love!)

Here’s a recap:

Over 2000 years ago, October 31st was a holiday called Samhain (pronounced “Sowen”) celebrated by Celts - original ancestors to what is now Ireland, northern France and the UK (my mom’s Irish).

Samhain marked the end of the harvest and beginning of winter - a time of cold, little food, and high chance of death. It also marked the Celtic New Year. This time “between years” was when the veil between death and life was thinnest, when Druids (Celtic Priests) could predict the challenges of winter to come, but also when spirits/ghosts came back to earth, with troublesome intentions.

Folks would burn huge bonfires and wear costumes to drive the spirits back to the underworld, make sacrifices to their deities, and tell one another’s fortunes in the magic of the night.

The Catholic Church created All Saints Day to honor the dead on Nov. 1st (and to draw Celts into the church). The holidays merged over time and Halloween was imported to the US along with the migration of Irish potato farmers in the 1840s. 

“Trick or Treat” was created in the 1930s as a way to bribe kids to NOT vandalize neighbors and workplaces during Halloween parties, which apparently got pretty raucous!

Today, in true U.S. form, it’s mostly secular and a spoof on religion - pagan or otherwise - and the 2nd largest commercial holiday after Christmas, at $6 billion per year.

My Nigerian side of the family doesn’t celebrate (being from a tropical climate, our harvest holiday happens in August), but my mom would always take us around. I loved getting to roam the streets with neighborhood friends, especially at a time when we were about to be stuck inside for months. It was the one time I felt like adults and children truly smiled and greeted each other. 

Not sure if any kids will come by my place, but if so I’ll have my Celtic witch hat on!

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References: National Geographic and The History Channel.