## The Spooky History of Halloween: From Pagan Rituals to Candy Corn
For many, October is synonymous with one thing and one thing only: Halloween. The mere mention of the holiday conjures nostalgic notions of spooky stories, sweet treats, and scandalous costumes. It’s a time for horror movies, haunted houses, and, of course, the legendary Heidi Klum’s elaborate costumes. But while modern-day Halloween is filled with campy creepiness, that wasn’t always the case.
The history of Halloween is captivating and complex, with roots that stretch across centuries, continents, and cultures. Its traditions are steeped in seasonal significance, spiritual meaning, and spine-tingling spookiness. Join us as we delve into the fascinating history of Halloween, from its pagan beginnings to the present day. You’ll never look at black cat costumes and candy corn the same way again.
### How Did Halloween Start?
The history of Halloween traces back at least 2,000 years to the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced “sow-un”). Samhain, which actually means “November” in Irish, traditionally began on October 31st, with bonfires, music, dancing, and feasts. If that sounds more like a joyous celebration than a spooky one, consider this: these festivities were in honor of the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, a time when the cycle of life and death was at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
“It’s the time when darkness starts to overpower the sun and the days get shorter,” notes Dan Morris, host of the history podcast Tracing The Path. “That phenomenon created the idea that the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnest [then], inviting the dead to come back and visit their living.” Sounds creepy, right? However, those who practice pagan traditions today don’t necessarily view it that way.
“While the holiday does center around harvesting and death, many pagans view this as a natural part of the cycle of life; just as spring will rise after winter, so too will our spirits reincarnate after learning the lessons of what lies beyond,” explains Jason Myers, a priest at the Cabot Kent Hermetic Temple in Salem, Massachusetts. “Many modern witches and pagans set positive intentions on Samhain for the blessings they hope to attract in the coming year ahead.”
### A Season of Souls
While Halloween in the United States can be traced back to Samhain, it wasn’t just the ancient Celts who honored the liminal energy of mid-autumn. “Across cultures, traditions, and places, this is the time of year when the veil between worlds is believed to be thinned,” says astrologer Chani Nichols, adding that October 31st is also astronomically significant because it marks the midpoint between the September equinox and the December solstice. Such halfway points naturally draw our attention to change. “As the light shifts, it offers a vantage point to move deeper into the transitioning season.”
To that end, it’s no coincidence that Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which has roots in ancient Mesoamerican cultures and also honors those who have departed to the “other realm,” is traditionally celebrated on November 1st. “As the veil between worlds grows thin around October 31st, we are better able to commune with those who came before us,” Nichols says. “This time of year is about acquainting ourselves with the dark and with death, so as to remind ourselves that such transitions are not endings.”
### Costumes and Soul Cakes
For the ancient Celtic pagans, communing with “those who came before” meant interacting with both good and bad spirits. To hide from the malevolent and appease the benevolent, those who celebrated Samhain dressed in animal skins and animal heads. This tradition evolved into wearing all manner of disguises. Because offerings of food and drink were often made to the spirits during Samhain, people would dress up and go door-to-door reciting verses in order to receive offerings on behalf of the spirits. This practice continued well after the Middle Ages, when “soul cakes,” small, round cakes seasoned with nutmeg and cinnamon, were given to those who came knocking in exchange for prayer and song.
### Halloween and All Saints’ Day
As Christianity spread across Europe and into Ireland, the Church began to absorb certain pagan traditions and re-align them with its own holidays. In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III moved the Catholic holiday of All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows’ Day, from May to November 1st. Thus, October 31st became “All Hallows’ Eve” and was eventually shortened to “Halloween.”
“In a strict sense, All Hallows’ Eve was a Christian celebration,” explains Nick Wells, founder of Flame Tree, a publishing house that specializes in gothic, horror, fantasy, and historical fiction. “As with all ancient European cultures, particularly those with religious roots, All Saints’ Day was adopted from older Celtic traditions.”
### When Did Halloween Come to the United States?
We can thank Ireland’s Great Potato Famine for modern-day Halloween in the United States. “The late 1840s brought a mass migration of Irish people to the shores of America,” explains Wells. “1.5 million people arrived, bringing with them the spiritual and mythic traditions that eventually blossomed into modern Halloween.” Of course, the Halloween traditions of the 1840s were a bit different than the ones we practice now.
“Initially, Halloween was mainly celebrated in small, rural villages,” explains art history and costume design expert Chelsea Loren. “But by the early 20th century, it was gaining traction around the country, with a focus on fall festivals and community gatherings. Around the 1920s to 1930s, it evolved into a more secular and family-oriented tradition.”
### Trick-or-Treat Gets Tamed
That might make it sound like early Halloween was all Tootsie Rolls (which hit the market in 1893) and apple-bobbing, but it wasn’t. For much of the early 20th century, Halloween in the United States was a night of full-on mischief, mayhem, and vandalism. Kids and teens would run loose in the night, lighting fires, damaging property, tipping over outhouses, and even letting neighborhood livestock loose.
“It was considered a time of juvenile delinquency,” explains Steven Intermill, director of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick in Cleveland. Candy and sweets were given out, yes, but as more of a bribe. If a kid came to the door and wasn’t given a treat, flour would be thrown in the face of the homeowner—or worse. (It was “trick or treat,” literally.) For a great example of the chaos, watch the Judy Garland film Meet Me in St. Louis, which takes place in 1903 and features a wild Halloween spree.
In an effort to quell the destruction, in the 1920s and ’30s communities started formalizing the Halloween festivities with costume parades and supervised trick-or-treating. Around the same time, books such as The Book of Hallowe’en and Dennison’s Bogie Book for Halloween became popular. “They offered suggestions of party tips, decoration ideas, examples of seasonal games and motifs to turn Halloween into a much more family-friendly affair,” Intermill says.
### Ancient Roots, New Jack-o’-Lanterns
Halloween had been thoroughly commercialized by the 1950s. Studios like Warner Brothers, Hanna-Barbera, and Disney created shows and films with cute cartoon characters that depicted once-creepy Halloween archetypes like ghosts, witches, and skeletons in a more lighthearted way. The TV series Casper the Friendly Ghost came out in 1950; the iconic TV special Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin debuted in 1966. This is also when schools really got into the fun and began organizing pumpkin-carving contests. The prize for the best jack-o’-lantern? A bag of candy corn, which was heavily marketed as the ultimate Halloween treat.
Of course, carving vegetables was also an ancient Samhain tradition brought over by the Irish—but instead of pumpkins, it involved root vegetables. “The original Jack-O-Lanterns were turnips, from the folktale of Stingy Jack, who tricked the devil to stay out of hell,” explains Intermill. Legend had it that Stingy Jack placed a burning ember into a hollowed-out turnip to serve as a lantern to light the devil’s way as he wandered the Earth. “This made the leap into local customs, where people would carve pumpkin faces into turnips to keep away ghouls and spirits wandering on Halloween.” But when did Halloween become an adult holiday complete with sexy costume parties? For that, you can thank none other than Coors Light. “All the other beer companies had laid claim to the other holidays, so they went after Halloween in 1986,” explains Intermill. Their spokesperson? Elvira, of course.
