Ghostly, ghoulish shadows surround you as you walk down a dark alley and onto a deserted back road. Leafless maples cast haunting silhouettes as you glance about nervously. All is deadly quiet when there should be sound. Not a peep can be heard from the birds and crickets that were just there moments ago. You notice faint footsteps in the distance. Coming toward you, they become louder.
You quicken your pace a little, shrugging off any irrational notions that may be forming up from the inner depths of your mind. The footsteps are decidedly louder now, sharply ringing out into the night like your voice would be had you not, to your surprise, lost it. You turn to run. The footsteps are all but on top of you now. You tense up and swing around wildly...
"Trick or treat," comes the meek, high-pitched voice of a three-foot tall ghost with blond pigtails, holding wide a miniature candy bag with a giant grinning pumpkin on the front.
The Origins of Halloween, All Hallows Eve
Thus is Halloween, or at least our modern notion of it. Hallow, itself, is a verb meaning to make holy, and its roots lie in the Middle English halowen and the Old English halgian (Merriam-Webster on-line). According to the book, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, by Nicholas Rogers, All Hallows Eve, All Saint's Day (Nov. 1), and All Soul's Day (Nov. 2) are all Christian in etymology. Curiously, though, only Halloween (All Hallows Eve, Hallow Evening, then Hallowe'en) has older pagan roots that were never really overshadowed by the subsequent Christianization of that time of year.
Though some historians point to Roman ties, most agree that Halloween probably comes from the Celtic festival of Samhain (sow-an), literally meaning summer's end. A sort of bookmark to separate the chapters of summer and winter, Samhain was kind of an agricultural festival with decidedly supernatural overtones. For the Celts, the dark season of winter came with dark spirits, so autumn, while a time of harvest, was also a time when the souls of the dead wandered the earth and eventually crosses over to the otherworld. To combat all of these agitated ethereal forces, the Irish built up huge bonfires, perhaps wore masks, and possibly threw in a sacrifice or two for protection.
But Christianity, in its very monotheistic and bullish sort of way, thought these practices heathen, ugly, and even satanic and sought to strip the 'non-Christian-ness' from the pagan holiday while at the same time incorporating its observance. Interestingly, the satanic argument, as Rogers' book points out, is a little funny because the concept of Satan is a Christian invention and would have held no meaning for the Celts. Further, they were a polytheistic society, and Satan belongs to a monotheistic paradigm.
The Meaning and History of All Saint's Day
Nevertheless, according to Jack Santino, in an article for the Library of Congress, the Christian feast of All Saints was meant to substitute for Samhain, to draw the devotion of the Celtic people, and, finally, to replace it forever. Assigned to November 1st, and meant to incorporate the night before, the holiday honored every Christian saint, especially those that did not otherwise have a special day devoted to them.
But the powerful symbolism and imagery of the Celtic festival was never fully absorbed or erased by the Christian version as hoped, and the idea of a night when the living and the dead commingled was too strong. (Another holiday based on powerful and oppositional forces coming together in one time and space is New Year's.) So Halloween became a bit of a mixed observance, carrying all of the weight, imagery, and tradition of the pagan festival while incorporating Christian constructs, like the Devil, angels, demons, and lost souls.
All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day (a day for praying for all of the lost souls in purgatory), one the other hand, are decidedly Christian in origin, making the time a year an interesting integration of historic influences that is perhaps best brought to light by the story of Stingy Jack.
The Origins of Trick or Treat and Jack-O-Lanterns
According one story as cited on the History Channel website, Stingy Jack, a lazy but witty Irish farmer, one day invited the Devil to have a drink with him. Not wanting to pay, he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin to buy the next round. Once the Devil did, Jack scooped up the money and dropped it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from resuming true form. A condition of the Devil's release, Jack made the Devil agree to leave him alone for one year. The next year Jack tricked the Devil again, this time forcing the demon to agree to not claim his soul.
When Jack died, the Devil, still enraged, would not allow the farmer into Hell, and Jack's stingy and lying ways prevented his entrance into Heaven. But the Devil did give Jack a small piece of burning coal to light his way, and the farmer put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has roamed the Earth ever since.
There are many variation of the tale but the Irish tradition of carving out large garden vegetables and placing lights in them lingers as a steadfast Halloween ritual. Another Halloween custom that can be traced back to the Irish is the practice of trick or treat. According to Santino, this also came from the Celtic period, when gifts of food and drink (mostly alcohol) were left out to placate roaming spirits. As time passed, people began dressing as spirits and ghouls and performing antics in exchange for food and drink.
So don't be scared when the high-pitched voice of a three-foot tall ghost with blond pigtails sings, "trick or treat" and holds wide a miniature candy bag with a giant grinning pumpkin on the front. Just smile, drop in a Snickers, and know that you have placated the dark spirits for yet another year.
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