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Post date: October 13, 2021
By Sofia La Pointe
As children we spend days, weeks, even months debating what we want to dress up as for Halloween. But I’m willing to bet not a lot of us know the origins of this much loved holiday. The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain where people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off evil spirits.
The Celts celebrated the new year on November 1st. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest, and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was associated with death. Celts thought that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and non living became blurred. On the night of October 31st they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead would return to earth.
Celts believed that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. Druids would build bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins.
By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first being Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of bobbing for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
In 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, establishing the feast of All Martyrs Day which is observed on May 13th. Pope Gregory III later expanded this festival to include all the Catholic saints and moved the observance from May 13th to November 1st and was then called All Saints Day.
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