Origins of Halloween

Origins of Halloween (:

Today is Halloween! I won't be doing much this Halloween as I am booked with studying for my other classes, but I wanted to give some insight on the origins of this festive holiday. Whether you enjoy Halloween or not, it is known that this holiday inspires many people to use their creative juices in order to create costumes! However, these costumes served a different purpose in the beginning. Most of my information will be taken from an article and I will link it down below. 

The Halloween tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, where people would light bonfires and wear costumes in order to ward or fend off ghosts and spirits. The Celtic people celebrated their new year on November 1, marking the end of summer and the beginning of the cold winter. This cold winter would often be associated with death and it is on this night that many Celts believed the boundaries between the living world and the dead would become blurred. Before the start of their new year, the Celts celebrated, believing that this would be when the ghosts would return back to Earth. 

Samhain was an event where Druids built huge bonfires so that many of the people could burn their crops or animals as sacrifice to their deities. In addition, they wore costumes and told fortunes. 

Fast forward to a few centuries later, Halloween had come to America. Due to rigid religious belief systems, Halloween was much more common in the southern colonies. With the beliefs and customs of the various ethnic groups of the American Indians and the Europeans, Halloween began to change and form into what we know today. Americans dressed up to go trick or treating, borrowing from the European traditions, and soon in the late 1800's, Halloween began to mold into the holiday today. 

There is more to the origin of Halloween as this article is incredibly in-depth! However, it is interesting to see that Halloween started almost 2,000 years ago and is still celebrated today. 

Remember to stay safe this Halloween! (: