Here it is Halloween already. Halloween, traditionally called “All Hallows Eve,” is celebrated on the evening before the Christian holy day of All Hallows’ Day, or as most of us know it, All Saints Day. All Saints Day is November 1, so Halloween is always on October 31. In England, saints or holy people were called “Hallowed,” therefore the name “All Hallows Day.”
The holiday was once tied to farming and astronomy. It marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, or the “darker half” of the year. The origin of Halloween can be traced to an ancient festival called Samhain (pronounced Sow-in, that rhymes with cow-in,) meaning summer’s end. This was a sacred festival celebrated by the ancient Celts and Druids in the British Isles and it marked the end of the harvest and the start of a new year.
The ancient Celts believed that the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was at its thinnest during Samhain. That had positive benefits — it was an ideal time to consider the dead, communicate with the deceased, and also divine the future. Since Samhain was considered the death-night of the old year, it came to be associated with ghosts and graveyards.
Halloween has lots of customs and practices associated with it — some are just innocent fun, but some deal with reminders of death and concepts of good and evil.
Halloween was once known as “Nutcracker Night” in England — it was a time when the family gathered around the hearth to enjoy cider and nuts and apples.
You see Jack-O- Lanterns all over the place this time of the year — a tradition that comes from Ireland. The Irish used hollowed-out candlelit turnips carved with a demon’s face to frighten away evil spirits. The name “Jack-O-Lantern” comes from an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack who invited the Devil to have a drink with him but wouldn’t pay. Jack tricked the devil and made a deal in which the devil couldn’t claim his soul — but God didn’t want Jack in Heaven either. Now Jack is stuck roaming the Earth as an evil spirit with his lantern shining the way.
The Irish carved scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placed them near doors or windows during Halloween Eve to frighten away Stingy Jack and evil spirits. When the Irish immigrants couldn’t find many turnips in the United States, they used pumpkins instead.
So get all that candy ready and be sure your doorbell is working — there’ll probably be lots of witches and goblins out tonight…..
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