Happy Halloween everybody.This is a fun and scary holiday where we indulge our self with scary movies, provide trick or treats for the neighbors and eat lots of candy. I am sure everyone has memories on how it was scary to go trick or treating as a child and watching that horror movie which kept you up half the night. Keeping with the spirit of Halloween, we at WellLife have a wide range of Halloween related articles that you can use to have the best Halloween yet. Also, we have a fascinating article that shows scary movies are actually good for you by Focus On Mental Wellness.
Here is the history of how Halloween began.
Etymology
The word
Halloween was first used in the 16th century and represents a
Scottish variant of the fuller
All-Hallows'-Even ("evening"), that is, the night before
All Hallows' Day. Although the phrase
All Hallows' is found in
Old English (
ealra hālgena mæssedæg, mass-day of all saints),
All-Hallows-Even is itself not seen until 1556.
Christian Influences
The Halloween holiday is commonly thought to have pagan roots, even though the etymology of the word is Christian.Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of
Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the
festival of the dead called
Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the
Celtic festival of
Samhain, derived from the
Old Irish Samuin meaning "summer's end".Samhain was the first and the most important of the four
quarter days in the medieval
Irish and
Scottish calendar and, falling on the last day of autumn, it was a time for stock-taking and preparation for the cold winter months ahead. There was also a sense that this was the time of year when the physical and supernatural worlds were closest and magical things could happen.The souls of the dead were supposed to revisit their homes on Samhain eve. To ward off these spirits, the
Gaels built huge, symbolically regenerative
bonfires and invoked the help of the gods through animal and perhaps even human sacrifice. In the Western Isles of Scotland the
Sluagh, or fairy host was regarded as composed of the souls of the dead flying through the air, and the feast of the dead at Hallowe'en was likewise the festival of the fairies.
Halloween is also thought to have been heavily influenced by the
Christian holy days of
All Saints' Day (also known as Hallowmas, All Hallows, and Hallowtide) and
All Souls' Day. Falling on November 1 and 2 respectively, collectively they were a time for honoring the
saints and praying for the recently departed who had yet to reach Heaven. Pope Gregory IV ordered its church-wide observance in 837. By the end of the 12th century they had become
holy days of obligation across Europe and involved such traditions as ringing bells for the souls in
purgatory and "
souling", the custom of baking bread or soul cakes for "all crysten
christened souls". It was traditionally believed that the
souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving onto the
next world. To avoid being recognised by a soul, Christians would wear masks and costumes to disguise themselves, following the lighted candles set by others to guide their travel for
worship the next day. Today, this practice has been perpetuated through children
guising (
trick or treating).
In Britain the rituals of Hallowtide and Halloween came under attack during the
Reformation as
Protestants denounced purgatory as a "
popish" doctrine incompatible with the notion of
predestination. In addition the increasing popularity of
Guy Fawkes Night (5 November) from 1605 on saw Halloween become eclipsed in Britain with the notable exception of
Scotland. There and in
Ireland, they had been celebrating Samhain and Halloween since the early
Middle Ages, and the
kirk took a more pragmatic approach towards Halloween, viewing it as important to the life cycle and
rites of passage of local communities and thus ensuring its survival in the country. North American almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was recognized as a holiday. The
Puritans of
New England, for example, maintained strong opposition to the holiday and it was not until the mass
Irish and Scottish immigration during the 19th century that the holiday was introduced to the continent in earnest. Initially confined to the immigrant communities during the mid-19th century, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and by the first decade of the 20th century it was being celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial and religious backgrounds.
Symbols
Development of
artifacts and
symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. For instance, the carving of
jack-o'-lanterns springs from the
Samhain custom of carving
turnips into lanterns as a way of remembering the
souls held in
purgatory. The
turnip has traditionally been used in
Ireland and
Scotland at Halloween but immigrants to
North America used the native
pumpkin, which is both much softer and much larger – making it easier to carve than a turnip. Subsequently, the mass marketing of various size pumpkins in autumn, in both the corporate and local markets, has made pumpkins universally available for this purpose. The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837 and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.
The
imagery of Halloween is derived from many sources, including national customs, works of
Gothic and
horror literature (such as the novels
Frankenstein and
Dracula) and classic horror films (such as
Frankenstein and
The Mummy). One of the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet
John Mayne, who, in 1780, made note of pranks at Halloween;
"What fearfu' pranks ensue!", as well as the supernatural associated with the night,
"Bogies" (ghosts), influencing
Robert Burns'
Halloween 1785. Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn
husks and
scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween.Halloween imagery includes themes of
death,
evil, the
occult, and mythical
monsters.Black and orange are the holiday's traditional colors.
Trick Or Treating
Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The word "trick" refers to a (mostly idle) "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. In this custom the child performs some sort of trick, i.e. sings a song or tells a ghost story, to earn their treats.
The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the
Middle Ages and includes
Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of
souling, when poor folk would go door to door on
Hallowmas (1 November), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on
All Souls' Day (2 November). It originated in Ireland and
Britain, although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy.
Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas."
In Scotland and Ireland,
Guising – children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins – is a traditional Halloween custom, and is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. The practice of Guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in
Kingston, Ontario reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood.
American historian and author
Ruth Edna Kelley of
Massachusetts wrote the first book length history of the holiday in the U.S;
The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America";
The taste in Hallowe'en festivities now is to study old traditions, and hold a Scotch party, using Burn's poem Hallowe'en as a guide; or to go a-souling as the English used. In short, no custom that was once honored at Hallowe'en is out of fashion now.
While the first reference to "guising" in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.
The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1927, from
Blackie, Alberta, Canada:
Hallowe'en provided an opportunity for real strenuous fun. No real damage was done except to the temper of some who had to hunt for wagon wheels, gates, wagons, barrels, etc., much of which decorated the front street. The youthful tormentors were at back door and front demanding edible plunder by the word “trick or treat” to which the inmates gladly responded and sent the robbers away rejoicing.
The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but do not depict trick-or-treating. The editor of a collection of over 3,000 vintage Halloween postcards writes, "There are cards which mention the custom [of trick-or-treating] or show children in costumes at the doors, but as far as we can tell they were printed later than the 1920s and more than likely even the 1930s. Tricksters of various sorts are shown on the early postcards, but not the means of appeasing them".Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice until the 1930s, with the first U.S. appearances of the term in 1934, and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.
Costumes
Halloween costumes are traditionally modeled after supernatural figures such as monsters, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Over time, the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses.
Dressing up in costumes and going "
guising" was prevalent in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween by the late 19th century. Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in the US in the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children. The first mass-produced Halloween costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s when
trick-or-treating was becoming popular in the United States.
Halloween
costume parties generally fall on, or around, 31 October, often falling on the Friday or Saturday prior to Halloween.
A big thanks to wickepedia for this thorough history of Halloween. Be sure to enjoy Halloween and try to scare yourself. It is good for you.If you are interested in contacting me for various writing projects, you can reach me by
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