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Beyond trick-or-treating and dressing up, what is

 

 

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Melissa Beedlejuice, Features Editar

Halloween? Where did the customs of Halloween come
from? Halloween has a long and ever-changing history
that has evolved over the course of hundreds of years.
Some have deemed it the day of the pagans, others say it

originated from evil practices. There are many contradict-

 

On Samhain, the spirits
Af thase wha had died
the year befare wauld
came back in search af
living badies ta passess.

 

ing stories but they are fascinating nevertheless.

The word Halloween comes from the celebration of
All Hallows’ Eve, also known as “All Hollows’ Day” or
“All Saints’ Day,” a day honouring Catholic saints. But for

Celtic Ireland in the 5th century BC, summer officially

You are not alone

The Students’ Union’s Pride Collective
provides resources for lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgendered students at the college. The Collective
meets Thursdays at 4:30 in room 328 in the students’
union building at the New Westminster Campus.
All lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered,
questioning and allied students are welcome.

Douglas Students’ Union

Canadian Federation of Students Local 18

Qctaber 27/2004

eatures

 

 

ended on October 31. The holiday
was called Samhain (pronounced
sow-en), the Celtic New year.

According to one legend, on
Samhain, the spirits of those who
had died the year before would
come back in search of living bod-
ies to possess for the next year. It
was believed to be their only hope
for afterlife. The Celts believed all
laws of space and time were sus-
pended during this time, allowing
the spirit world to intermingle with
the living. How spooky.

Of course, the Celtic people
didn’t want to be possessed. So on
the night of October 31, villagers would put out the fires
in their houses to make them cold and uninviting. Then
they would dress up in costumes and noisily parade
through the streets, being as loud and destructive as pos-
sible to scare away the spirits.
Some say the Celts would crucify
anyone they thought to be pos-
sessed, as a lesson to the spirits.
Others say this Celtic story is
only a myth.

The Romans adopted Celtic
practices as their own. But in the
first century AD, Samhain was
assimilated into celebrations of
some of the other Roman tradi-
tions that took place in October,
such as the day in honour of
Pomona, the Roman goddess of
fruit and trees. The symbol of
Pomona is the apple, which
might explain the origin of our
modern tradition of bobbing for
apples on Halloween.

Many of the customs have
also changed over time to
become mote ritualized. As belief
in spirit possession waned, the
practice of dressing up like
witches took on a more ceremo-

The

was

nial role. custom of

Halloween brought to
America in the 1840s by Irish
immigrants escaping their coun-
try’s potato famine. At that time,
the favourite pranks in New
England included tipping over
outhouses and unhinging fence

gates.

 

The Jack-o’-lantern custom probably comes from

Irish folklore. According to one tale, a man named Jack,
who was a notorious drunk and swindler, tricked Satan
into climbing a tree. Jack then carved a cross in the tree’s
trunk, trapping the devil in the tree. Jack made a deal with
the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he
would promise to set him free.

According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was
denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but
he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked
the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to
light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was
placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing
longer.

The Irish used turnips as their “Jack’s lanterns” origi-
nally. But when the immigrants came to America, they
found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than
turnips. So the Jack-o’-lantern in America was a hol-
lowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.

Supposedly, the custom of trick-or-treating originated
not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century
European custom called souling. On November 1, All
Souls’ Day, early Christians would walk from town to
town begging for “soul cakes,” made out of square pieces
of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars
would get, the more prayers they would promise to say
on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the
time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for
a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers,
could expedite a soul’s passage to heaven.

So, even though some cults may have adopted
Halloween as their favourite “holiday,” the day itself did
not come from evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of
Celts celebrating a new year, and out of medieval
European prayer rituals. And today, many churches have
Halloween parties or pumpkin-carving events for the
kids. So the moral to the customs story is: the day itself

is only as evil as one wants to make it.

CTHERPRESS |W