In antiquity, the Celts celebrated a holiday in the fall known as Samhain. It came around the time for harvest. It was believed that during the Samhain, the wall between the world of the living and the dead was thinner than usual. People could talk to the dead, and ghosts could be roaming the countryside. Frightening masks would be worn to scare them away. The head was believed to hold power, and the head of a vegetable, like a jack o lantern, could frighten away evil spirits. Originally, a turnip was used for this purpose.
Taman was another sacred holiday held by the Celts on November 1. The festival was held to please the sun so it would not disappear in the harsh winter months. Bonfires were lit on this night, and animals were sacrificed to the sun god. There is scholarly debate as to whether nor not humans were sacrificed, and how much sacrifice was part of Celtic rituals, such as Taman, in general. Some scholars argue that there is little evidence of human sacrifice, and much of this information was propagated by the conquering Romans, and later on by Christians. Other scholars insist that archaeological data exists which point to ritual sacrifice as part of Celtic rituals, and that it could include humans. Roman accounts describe human sacrifices performed by the celts.
The Roman Empire would spread into Celtic lands, and bring with it another fall celebration, the festival of Pomona. It was celebrated in honor of the goddess of orchards and the harvest. Feasts featuring apples, nuts, grapes, and other orchard fruits were held to honor her. Have you ever gone bobbing for apples, or eaten a tasty carmel apple treat in October? The association of apples with Halloween probably came from this Roman holiday. Halloween divination games used to predict one’s future spouse were common in England, Ireland, and Scotland. These games made use of apples and nuts to aid in the fortune telling.
Christianity later used the trade routes paved by the Roman Empire to spread its message. It eventually reached Celtic lands. It was a common practice by the church at that time to replace old celebrations and cultural vestiges of polytheism, with Christian symbols and celebrations. Christianity competed with existing belief systems in this manner, and needed a new party night to compete with the Celtic and Roman festivals. This finally resulted in the feast of All Saints Day.
Pious traditions similar to All Saints Day existed before it's definitive creation by Gregory IV, but the holiday was clearly placed on Nov 1 to supplant Samhain. A precursor to the feast of All Saints was originally held in May, and commemorated all the early Christian martyrs who died for their faith, but did not have a feast day in the church. Pope Boniface IV dedicated the pantheon, a Roman Temple, to St. Mary and the Martyrs on May 610. The feast day of a particular saint commemorates the life of one individual held to be exemplary by the church. The original May feast day was created for all martyrs who did not have their own special feast day. Pope Gregory III later consecrated an oratory to all the saints in St.Peter’s Church on Nov 1, and that date became a holiday in Rome. Pope Gregory IV would then officially declare November 1 as a holiday to remember all Christian saints who did not have a feast day; essentially creating a day to honor everyone that is in heaven. The holiday extended to all churches under his authority, and created a holiday to compete with and supplant Samhain.
November 1 became All Saints Day, and the night before became known as All Hallows Eve, abbreviated later in the popular slang as Hallo’een, then Halloween. Church officials created new celebrations for October 31, and reinterpreted old ones. Clergy encouraged their flock to bake soul cakes, small pastries, to give to the poor. In exchange for the cakes, the poor people would pray for the loved ones of their benefactors. This was to take the place of offering food and wine to spirits. Eventually, the custom of trick or treating developed out of this. Young boys would go from house to house singing special “souling” songs, and asked for ale, food, or money in return. Villagers dressed up on that evening not to scare away evil spirits, but to honor Christian saints. The bonfires were simply lit to keep the devil away, instead of evil spirits.
Later, a day to pray for the souls of all the dead, All Souls Day, was added. In AD 993, Saint Abbot Odilio requested that All Soul’s Day should be added as a feast day of the church. An old folktale says that a pilgrim coming back from the Holy Land ran into a hermit on an island with visionary powers. The hermit had seen heard the groans of tormented souls wailing in a great flaming canyon. The pilgrim informed Odilio of the situation, who suggested that a day be appointed to pray for these souls. Pope Sylvester II approved Odilio’s request around AD 1000. The Feast of All Souls was then to be celebrated on November 2, the day after The Feast of All Saints. It was to be a day to pray for all the departed, and remember them.
Prayers for the dead were observed in Judaism and early Christianity. The theological rationale for this vague early Christian practice is a hot topic among theologians. Progressively, Christian tradition developed a belief that an intermediate state existed between Heaven and Hell, eventually called Purgatory. The souls in Purgatory, or that may be in Purgatory, are especially prayed for on All Souls Day. The protestant reformation would dispute this point of theology, among other beliefs and practices of Catholicism.
Despite the varied religious underpinnings, a party is a party to the average joe. Feasting and dressing up continued to be part of All Hallows Eve, as it had been part of the pagan celebrations. As long as it was done to honor God and the saints rather than the old gods, the church did not oppose it, but rather encouraged it in a “Christianized” form.
In some Spanish speaking countries All Saints Day and All Souls Day are major holidays. Spanish speaking countries tend to be predominantly catholic. In Mexico, El Dia De Los Muertos, or The Day of The Dead, commemorates all the members of one’s family that have passed away. It carries much stronger religious and catholic practices than Halloween does. People visit the graves of their loved ones and leave flowers and even food for them. A Mass is said for all the souls of the dead, sometimes at a local cemetery. Calevaras, or skeletons, are used to decorate people’s houses. In Mexico, parties and dressing up are common as well.
The modern U.S. celebration of Halloween today usually involves dressing up and trick or treating for kids. For young adults, it’s a fun time to party hard, and maybe dress up. New horror movies come out in the theater, and old classics like Dracula can be enjoyed on television. Catholics still observe the feast of All Saints and the feast of All Souls as religious observances. Some people practice Samhain in a more modern form. The idea of a holiday to commemorate the dead is common in many human cultures, even those with little or no contact with each other. There is a Japanese holiday known as O Bon that also commemorates the dead.
The common U.S. practice of Halloween today owes its root to many religious and cultural influences, the common human need to remember the dead, and a desire to dress up and party. People choose to contemplate life and death, and remember the dead, in many intriguing ways. Check this column all month to find out more about them.
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