Halloween - The History of Our Most Haunted Holiday
Many people have studied Halloween; the history of our most haunted holiday is fairly complex, and hard to pin down to one specific event.
However, most scholars agree that Halloween has its most ancient roots in Celtic traditions.
The ancient Celts lived in modern Ireland about two millennia ago, and they celebrated their New Years' day on what is now November 1.
They also believed that the barrier between the living and the dead was slightly weakened on the day before the new year (October 31).
On October 31 (now Halloween), the ancient Celts would hold a festival called Samhain, as they believed that on that night, the ghosts returned to the living world.
In the Celts' belief, these ghost would ravage their lands, destroying and damaging both property and crops.
They also believed that the union between the spiritual and real world was at its strongest during this evening, and that this would aid their priests (Druids) in predicting future events.
As part of the Samhain festival, the Celts would gather in costumes and sacrifice crops and animals to the ghosts.
They'd also set up large bonfires, which attracted insects and bats to the festival.
It's easy to see just how much influence this has on our modern day Halloween; the history and practice of the Samhain festival is almost directly related.
However, the Celts did not view the day as haunted, per se.
It was meant to be a joyous event above all else; it had more in common in spirit with our own New Years' Eve.
Halloween acquired its haunted image upon the arrival of Christianity to Ireland.
In the view of Christianity, the belief of ghosts and the Celts' celebration of Samhain was heretical and blasphemous.
The Christian missionaries went so far as to invent their own holiday - All Saints' Day - to counter the traditional Samhain festival.
This occurred in the 7th century, and the activities on All Saints' Day.
They also established a number of Christian holidays around the same time (to discourage the celebration of the old Celtic holidays), and these were collectively called Hallowmans.
However, the traditions of the Celts never quite died off.
In the same way as the old Christian missionaries spread their beliefs and practices through Ireland, the Celtic way of celebrating the Hallowmans stayed much the same, and even spread throughout Great Britain.
In this way, the tradition was also spread through North America, especially in the South.
It continued to gains strength in America when their was a huge spike in Irish emigration in the mid-1800's.
In North America, the October 31 was re-established as a holiday, called Halloween.
The history of this transition is also somewhat blurry, as it seemed to happen throughout many small communities, gaining steam by the late 1800's.
By the end of that century, Halloween had become a fairly well-accepted holiday throughout the nation.
It has continued to spread across the world, and is one of the most popular holidays we have today.
However, most scholars agree that Halloween has its most ancient roots in Celtic traditions.
The ancient Celts lived in modern Ireland about two millennia ago, and they celebrated their New Years' day on what is now November 1.
They also believed that the barrier between the living and the dead was slightly weakened on the day before the new year (October 31).
On October 31 (now Halloween), the ancient Celts would hold a festival called Samhain, as they believed that on that night, the ghosts returned to the living world.
In the Celts' belief, these ghost would ravage their lands, destroying and damaging both property and crops.
They also believed that the union between the spiritual and real world was at its strongest during this evening, and that this would aid their priests (Druids) in predicting future events.
As part of the Samhain festival, the Celts would gather in costumes and sacrifice crops and animals to the ghosts.
They'd also set up large bonfires, which attracted insects and bats to the festival.
It's easy to see just how much influence this has on our modern day Halloween; the history and practice of the Samhain festival is almost directly related.
However, the Celts did not view the day as haunted, per se.
It was meant to be a joyous event above all else; it had more in common in spirit with our own New Years' Eve.
Halloween acquired its haunted image upon the arrival of Christianity to Ireland.
In the view of Christianity, the belief of ghosts and the Celts' celebration of Samhain was heretical and blasphemous.
The Christian missionaries went so far as to invent their own holiday - All Saints' Day - to counter the traditional Samhain festival.
This occurred in the 7th century, and the activities on All Saints' Day.
They also established a number of Christian holidays around the same time (to discourage the celebration of the old Celtic holidays), and these were collectively called Hallowmans.
However, the traditions of the Celts never quite died off.
In the same way as the old Christian missionaries spread their beliefs and practices through Ireland, the Celtic way of celebrating the Hallowmans stayed much the same, and even spread throughout Great Britain.
In this way, the tradition was also spread through North America, especially in the South.
It continued to gains strength in America when their was a huge spike in Irish emigration in the mid-1800's.
In North America, the October 31 was re-established as a holiday, called Halloween.
The history of this transition is also somewhat blurry, as it seemed to happen throughout many small communities, gaining steam by the late 1800's.
By the end of that century, Halloween had become a fairly well-accepted holiday throughout the nation.
It has continued to spread across the world, and is one of the most popular holidays we have today.
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