“Double, Double, Toil and Trouble”: The History and Mystery of Halloween
Witches, ghosts, pumpkins, bats… and many more scary creatures are symbols of the most famous holiday called Halloween. This holiday is celebrated on October 31 each year, by millions of people around the world. The traditions and customs of this eerie festival are different in many countries and they have changed a lot over the years.
In America and Britain, people celebrate Halloween by dressing up in scary costumes and throwing parties. Children especially love this holiday because it is the time when they can play pranks on their neighbours and ask for candy, i.e. a tradition called “trick-or-treat”. In Mexico and other countries, people pay respects to their deceased relatives by visiting their graves and leaving flowers.
Halloween traditions date back over 2000 years and many historians believe that this festival started in Europe. The Celts, who lived on the territory of Ireland, celebrated a holiday called “Samhain” which means “end of the summer”. They Celts believed that on this night the dead come back to life and in order to protect themselves, they would light bonfires and wear costumes.
On Samhain, the Celtic women had a tradition of secretly marking apples and putting them in a tub of water. Then, men would grab the apples with their mouths in order to see whom they are going to marry. This tradition, called “bobbing for apples”, is still popular nowadays on Halloween parties, but it is just used as a game and not for arranging marriages.
By the ninth century, Christianity has encountered the Celts. The Christians celebrated a holiday for the dead saints, called “All Saints’ Day” or “All Hallows’ Day” on November 1. So, they combined the both holidays into one, calling it “All Hallows’ Eve” or as today we know it, Halloween.
After that, people in Ireland and England started celebrating the holiday and inventing their own traditions. Two of the most famous were, “mumming” – poor people would entertain the rich, and “souling”- the poor would pray for the souls of the rich people’s dead relatives. They did all of that in exchange for treats.
Today, Halloween is seen as a day when children can get more candy than usual and when the adults are able to dress up in costumes and use their creativity and imagination. Even though, the roots of this holiday are scary and mysterious, nowadays it is just a day of harmless fun.