The Not So Evil Origins of Halloween

This time of year we are coming up on Halloween. With that is mind, you probably know people who have a number of different views regarding how they feel about this annual event. First, there are those who look at it as nothing more than candy and costumes and scary or silly decorations. Then there are others who think it is evil and anti-religious. Then there are historians on the subject and those who look at it via an academic approach. The fact is, most people really don’t know much about the history behind this second largest retail holiday (in America) and how or why we celebrate it.

The fact is that if you start out with the simple origin of the work itself. You are well on the way to getting a better grasp on it. To do so you have to divide the wood in half. Instead of reading the word as Halloween, look at it as “hallow” and “een” and you’ll notice something important. Hallow of an archaic synonym for “holy,” interesting huh? “What about “een”?” you might ask? Well, it is a variation of the word “eve” as in evening. When you put them together, you get “Holly Evening” as is All Hallows Eve. This is the reason it falls before All Saints Day in the Christian tradition.

Ok, so what’s the deal with the costumes? Well, that comes from a tradition of the ancient Celts. In the annual festival of Samhain, they would light bonfires and wear costumes as a method to ward off ghosts. It later evolved into a day in some cultures in which the religious would dress up as a favorite or popular saint in order to do much the same thing.

In the 1800’s, there was a widespread effort to make the occasion a more family oriented one. Children love playing dress-up. So it was only natural that over years they become more involved in the events. Parents and children would make it a family project to make their own costumes from fabrics and linens. The trick-or-treat activities soon came along as a way to extend the entire celebration throughout the larger community.

As you know, like with virtually everything, commercialism found its way into the celebrations with more and more elaborate decorations and costumes showing up in the isles of stores and a push for customers to buy up the most liked candies for the kids. Eventually, adults reclaimed part of the events for themselves throwing parties more geared toward grownups.

One of my favorite things about Halloween is seeing those little children filled with glee and all excited about getting hopped up on sugar. It’s especially nice when you come across a child in an adorable costume like a toddler dressed as a pumpkin or a little girl as a princess. Cute stuff always wins the day for me when it comes to costumes for little ones.

And then there’s the adult aspect. Sure, some adults have messed it up over the years with too much gore and not enough fun. However, for adults, it is the one time of year that anyone can dress up and be a total goofball and nobody looks at you like you need psychiatric help. Any normal day a grown man wearing a loin cloth and carrying a club would be looked at as a nutjob with possibly violent intentions. But on Halloween, he’s just a guy dressed as a cave man.

It is one of the few times that adults can act like children and go back to that childhood experience for a while without judgment or ridicule. What’s not to like about that?