As the nights draw in and the weather takes a turn for the colder, it is easy to see why the end of October has been designated a time of spiritual happening for many pagan beliefs. From the westernised Halloween to the Mexican ‘dia de los muertos’, both festivals celebrate the spirits of the dead coming back. But where do these festivals come from?
A tradition of celebrating the dead and them coming back is ancient, seen in the Greek festival; Genesia, Chinese; Qingming Festival, Gaelic; Samhain and the Roman festival; Lemuria. Honouring the dead even in basic funerary rites is practically a tradition as old as time - but how did these deeply religious festivals turn into the kids candy dream and business marketing opportunity that it is today?
Well, as with much, it goes back to the end of the Roman Empire and the takeover of Christianity from traditional pagan Roman beliefs. The Lemuria as mentioned above, is one of the many festivals celebrating the dead and embodies a belief in the spirits of the dead coming back for the day. The Lemuria was one of the most important festivals in Roman religion and so held deep significance with the population. As Christianity took over, it replaced many festivals with new Christian ones. One of which was the Lemuria originally celebrated in early May, which was then replaced with All Saints’ Day.
But in the northern reaches of Europe, originating in Ireland but quickly spreading across the UK and northern France, was the festival ‘Samhain’ celebrating a belief that ‘the veil between worlds was thin’ and so the spirits of the dead could pass through and, without the proper rites, cause havoc. This festival proved to be just as popular as its counterparts on the Mediterranean coast, and as Christianity spread, the festival presented a problem that was keeping paganism alive, and so in the 8th century, All Saints’ Day was moved to the 1st of November in an attempt to quash the celebration of Samhain.
All Saints’ Day began to incorporate elements of Samhain, such as wearing costumes, and soon the festivities began to spill over into the day before, which began to be known as ‘all hallows eve’ as ‘hallows’ means holy and eventually became Halloween.
But it is the event of trick-or-treating that allowed Halloween to become the corporate money maker, starting off as a traditional element of Samhain, especially in Scotland known as ‘guising’ where children would dress up as malicious spirits that would cause chaos. As Scottish and Irish immigrants moved to the US, they brought the traditions of Samhain with them, with newspapers coining the term: trick or treat. With this new-found tagline, people started to offer treats in return for not getting pranked. However, it was WW2 and the end of rationing that saw Halloween’s biggest boo - m, with the growth of the American suburbs and ability to mass manufacture sweets, which allowed Halloween to become what we know it as today.
