Halloween is creeping ever closer, friends, so today is a perfect day to talk about the origins of that most excellent day! Stepping right up to the plate is Annie! Time for a lesson in holidays!
Hi, my name is Annie from over at SincerelyAnnie.com! I’m a YA author and editor, and I’m here today to share a little about the origins of Halloween!
Now, let me warn you, I’ve always had a dodgy relationship with Halloween. My beef with the holiday dates back to when I was a toddler and my mom had to take her beloved “Halloweenies” to Grandma and Grandpa’s house because they terrified me so much that I couldn’t be in the same house as them.
But, I always appreciated it for was it was: the motherlode of candy! So, recently, when my boyfriend (born and raised in County Mayo, Ireland) proudly claimed the Irish were the geniuses behind Halloween, I said,
Well, it’s not the first time I’ve been wrong.(There were some similar, concurrent Celtic festivals in Wales and Brittany but I don’t know as much about those because I’m not dating a Welshman.)
Samhain was the celebration of the end of the harvest season, and the coming of the dark part of the year. And, get this, it’s pronounced “sow-in” (rhymes with cow-in).
Like these I visited last year.
It’s said that people resorted to dressing up (or “guising”) to either imitate or confuse the spirits prone to mischief. However, some historians claim our version of trick-or-treating came from later Christian influence.
Whatever, man, I still don’t wanna dress up!
At this point, if you had any Catholic influence in your upbringing (as I did), you may be thinking, “Wtf, Annie? Halloween comes from the November Christian holidays All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. Everybody knows that.”
But here I must call BS! Turns out, when All Saints’ Day was established in 609 … are you ready for this? … it was in May.
Fact. Later, the Pope switched the holiday to that creepy time of year that Samhain was already runnin’ around scaring people. Copycats!
And then there’s All Souls’ Day, which was originally celebrated around Easter. Sometime during the Middle Ages it was mashed up with All Saints’ Day for one great Hallowtide. (Seriously, that’s a word. Google it.)
There are many different theories about how trick-or-treating came about, but it seems to be clear that the earliest reference to the practice as being “common” in the U.S. wasn’t until as late as the 1930s. Can you believe it? My grandparents were alive then! Mickey Mouse is older than that!
