Everything You Think You Know About Halloween
By: Melanie Moyer
Tags: Horror, History, October, Samhain, Halloween

Halloween is perhaps one of the most misunderstood holidays on the calendar

Halloween is one of those chameleon-like holidays, controversial enough to become whatever it needs to be to push the needs of the speaker. For new-age Wiccans, it’s a rallying point that legitimizes their religion and for Christian, it’s a sign devilish works in the mainstream world. For others, it’s no better than a Hallmark holiday or a night for kids that we all eventually grow out of. But Halloween is a diverse and eclectic mishmash of cultures, the freeze-frame of Christianity and paganism clashing in the misty hills of the Scottish Highlands and the Irish countryside. It’s both as old as we think and younger than anyone truly wants to admit.

What’s in a Name?

The word Halloween itself is the first place to start, oft misassigned and misattributed. In the cult classic Hocus Pocus (1993, dir. Kenny Ortega), Allison (Vinessa Shaw) proudly announces to an aloof Max (Omri Katz) that Halloween was in fact not “invented by the candy companies” but based on “the ancient feast of All Hallow’s Eve, it’s the one night of the year the dead can return to earth.” There’s a lot to unpack there. The core of what she’s saying is mostly true, but not for the reasons she thinks.

Halloween, as a word, does come from the phrase All Hallows Eve, which traditionally falls on October 31st. But it’s not ancient. It’s Christian. It dates back to somewhere around the 7th century AD, with a trifecta of days known as Allhallowtide or Hallowmas which encompasses All Hallows Eve, All Hallows, and All Souls Day. Ultimately, it was a vigil for Christian martyrs and a way to celebrate Christian dead, both known and unknown. And, originally, it took place in the spring. About 200 years after its inception as an official Church holy day, it switches to October 31st-November 2nd. What’s that about?

Christian Light in the Dark Pagan World

Christianity found its way into the Gaelic and Celtic world during the Roman occupation of the British Isles. It wasn’t a smooth meeting, the Picts and Scots of the Highlands rebuffed Roman attempts at assimilation while in Ireland, a hybrid of Christianity and traditional practices morphed into what became known as “Celtic Christianity” which is also known as “Insular Christianity” by historians.

The Hill of Tara figures prominently in Irish tradition as the seat of the High Kings and a battleground on Halloween night

A common practice for the Christian church moving into new territories is the attempt to integrate beliefs into the local traditions as if they’d always been. We see this perhaps most succinctly in Beowulf, which married Germanic paganism with Christianity to appeal best to its audience and serve as a nice piece of Christian propaganda for wary converts. For the Gaels and Celts who held a rich mythology of polytheism and supernatural entities, this meant finding a way to integrate tales of fairies, changelings, ghosts, water spirits, and other entities into the world of Yahweh and Jesus Christ. This was achieved not by assimilating these creaturesas Beowulf had done by naming the monstrous giant Grendel as a descendent of Cain, but by banishing them. Like the Faroese huldufolk, or “hidden people”, the entities of traditional Celtic mythology reside outside of God’s sight, in the sidhe, the mounds and hills of the Irish wilds, unreachable in their parallel worlds. Except on a few choice nights.

The Veil Between Worlds

The shift from May to November for this macabre Christian vigil was not without purpose. The Gaels and Celts already had the end of October circled on their own calendars. They called is Samhain (sah-win). This day, which traditionally falls somewhere between October 31st and November 1st, straddles the middle ground between equinoxes and is one of four traditional Celtic seasonal festivals. This one honors the end of summer and the transition into the “darker” half of the year. The first written mentions of this festival go back to the 10th century but evidence shows its observance and importance stretches back farther, as far back as 4,000 BC.

The Cave of Cats, a rumored gateway to the Otherworld

Samhain was one of two days of the year that the passage between the Otherworld, the land of banished magical creatures, and our world opened. This meant supernatural creatures could walk among us. Legends dating back to Christian Ireland around 900–1200 AD tells stories of Aillen, “the burner”, coming into our world to set fire to the sacred Hill of Tara every Samhain and the 4th-century hero Fionn mac Cumhaill who is partially trapped in the Otherworld on this night and is granted the wisdom of his dead ancestors.

The All Hallows Eve focus on the dead became wrapped up in the identity of Samhain, marking a time for the dead (compared to the spring festival of Beltane which was the festival for the living). The night of October 31st became a time for Celtic monsters to walk in the Christian world, a time for the dead to be honored because on this night they could actually hear you. This day comes to North America with the mass arrival of Scottish and Irish immigrants in the 19th century, where it is quickly assimilated into the larger culture of the United States.

Why We Do What We Do

So, how do we get from mythic battles and communes with the dead to dressing up as Baby Yoda and cramming Snickers into our mouths? These are perhaps the most Christian and newest parts of the holiday.

A common practice dating back to the 16th century, known as guising, involves dressing as creatures from the Otherworld and going door to door to recite verses and collect offerings on behalf of the dead. Dressing as these beings was practiced as a form of protection on Halloween night, tricking the creatures into thinking you were one of them. Today, we commonly call this collection of activity trick or treating.

A home in West Virginia with over a thousand Jack-o-lanterns

The Jack-o-lantern is a uniquely Irish invention, where turnips were traditionally hollowed out and fixed with a candle (in the new world, pumpkins became the primary lantern device). These lights were placed outside to ward off the spirit of Stingy Jack, a man who made a deal with the devil and then went back on his word, angering both God and the devil and thus denied eternal rest in either heaven or hell. Apples, a common fall motif, are said to represent immortality and the Otherworld. Backyard bonfires have roots in Saint worship on All Hallows Day. Ever wonder why there’s no Halloween meal, no turkey or ham? That’s because it was traditional a time to eat vegetables (like pumpkin and root vegetables) according to Christian practices. And on it goes.

A World Unto Itself

Halloween is a fascinating distillation of the pagan and Christian worlds colliding, their attempts to placate each other, their sheer thievery of each other’s practices. The importance of this day goes back thousands of years, but the meaning we know today is much younger than we think.

Still, there is something about the cool at the end of October, at night under rustling leaves, that makes you think it’s entirely possible that we don’t walk in the dark alone. Remember, on Halloween everyone’s entitled to one good scare.