The History of Halloween

I have an image lodged in my head when I think of Halloween.

No, it’s not a bunch of children trick or treating. My thoughts go old school, to the Celts and the Druids. I imagine them marking the time of year with more solemn, sinister rituals.

I imagine Bal-sab, the Irish ceremony circa 500 BCE that is believed to be the origin of Halloween, where victims were sacrificed to the Lord of Death (literally Bal=Lord, Sab=Death). I can almost see the bonfires being lit; knives being sharpened to sacrifice the victims that will satisfy death for another year.

 There’s only one problem…

 None of this happened.

Charles Delancey (1731-1812)

 This gruesome vision of pre-Christian celebrations was fiction, made up by Charles Delancey, a British engineer and amateur anthropologist (emphasis on amateur). Delancey was denounced in his lifetime as “having written more nonsense than any man of his time”. Fact is, we know almost nothing about the Celts and the Druids. The two tribes had no written language, so there are no documents telling us how they observed this time of year (if they did anything at all). There is also scant archaeological evidence, no settlements or artifacts for us to dig out of the ground.

Charles Delancey likely invented these stories for colonial reasons—to demonstrate that the British were “superior” to their Irish and Celtic cousins.

So what do we actually know about Halloween? The first mention of pre-Christian events appears in the writings of St. Ephrem Syrus, around 306 A.D. He talked about a Celtic ritual known as Samhain (pronounced “Sow-En”), which means ‘summer’s end” in Irish. The Catholic Church, eager to coopt pagan rituals and give them a Christian sheen, introduced All Saint’s Day or All-Hallows, a ritual celebrated around the same time as Samhain. The formerly pagan celebration of Samhain was “converted” into a time to pray for the souls of the dead, especially those trapped between heaven and hell. The pagan fires became the light that would guide wayward souls to heaven.

Light in A Graveyard During All-Hallows

For the light of All-Hallows to be meaningful, it needed to be preceded by darkness. In the seventh and eighth century A.D. the night before, All-Hallow’s Eve, became a time when it was believed that restless spirits and demons roamed the earth. A night when good people hid in their houses, lest they be accosted by these unholy creatures.

People emerged from their houses in Scotland and Ireland in the 16th century as something known as “guising” became popular. On All-Hallow’s Eve, children would dress as ghouls and ghosts and wander around their community. If neighbors wanted to be rid of these troublesome “spirits”, they offered treats and hoped their offerings would make these nocturnal visitors go away. As one writer noted, this ritual was “a mild kind of blackmail”.

It was this ‘trick or treat’ tradition that made its way to the United States in the 1840’s, when a huge wave of Irish and Scottish immigrants arrived on our shores.

And then, just as the celebration was gaining traction, World War II (and the sugar rationing it imposed) nearly killed it.

It wasn’t until after the war, after a massive baby boom and the development of the suburbs, that “Trick or Treating” came back in full form. Its success was guaranteed when a new media, television, aired It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown in 1966. When parents and children saw the Peanuts gang wandering door-to-door and receiving candy, they decided to revive the old tradition.

Cut the 21st century. Halloween is a holiday has come back with a vengeance. And it’s not just for children anymore. 73% of adults in a national survey admit that they celebrate Halloween. According to the National Retail Foundation, consumers spent 12.2 billion dollars on Halloween in 2023.

Krampus Decides Who's Naughty...

And the pagan roots of Halloween continue to spread. Even Christmas is seeing the appearance of folk figures like Krampus, the German counterpart to St. Nicolas, who scares naughty children into behaving.

Who knows? In a few years, we might see more of these dark figures spicing up the holidays!

Jolakotturinn or Mari Lwyd, anyone?

Until then, let me share with you my favorite “hymn” of Halloween from the modern classic The Nightmare Before Christmas…