BY MICHAEL BIRD
Tallassee Resident
SPECIAL TO THE ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
Trick or Treat time is approaching, but do you know the history of how the celebration has changed over the years?
Today, Halloween is known as a day of ghosts, goblins, and serial killers. But, from this pagan festival came a holy day – and its story is among one of the most interesting developments in history.
The term Halloween is a contraction of the words that spelled out “All Hallows Eve,” the night before All Hallows Day (or All Saints Day in modern vernacular). In the year 835, Pope Gregory III moved the Catholic Church’s holy days of All Saints Day to November 1 and All Souls Day to November 2, respectively.
“Hallow” is not a word to fear, incidentally: as defined by Merriam-Webster, it means “to make holy or set apart for holy use”. This explains its use in the Lord’s Prayer: “hallowed be Thy name”.
Europeans have traditionally believed that this is a special time of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is at its most powerful. The darkness that seems to envelop the universe on this scary evening, especially in horror movies, certainly has a legend unlike any other holy day on the calendar.
The Celtic people of England, Ireland, and Scotland celebrated Samhain at this time of year. Samhain was a harvest festival in which the ancient pagans set bonfires to burn the bones of their slaughtered livestock and any damaged crops. As immigrants moved to the United States in the 1800s, they brought these traditions with them.
During Samhain, the pagans ritually wore costumes and masks to keep evil spirits away. When the Romans took over Celtic territory, they incorporated the festival Feralia, symbolized by Pomona, the goddess of fruit. The bobbing-for-apples tradition began here, and to these people the word Halloween literally meant “to eat kids”.
Dennison Manufacturing Company (now Avery Dennison) was a major manufacturer of Halloween cards and supplies in the early decades of the twentieth century. They even distributed a Halloween merchandise catalog! (Interestingly, Dennison was located in Framingham, Massachusetts from 1897 until recently, when Avery Dennison closed operations there.)
The post-World War II era saw the rise in popularity of Halloween trick-or-treating as the quintessential autumn event. Particularly during the 1950s, Halloween costumes and the sale of Halloween candy became profitable enterprises for American companies.
Jack-o-lanterns, scarecrows, pumpkins, witches, spiders, mummies, vampires, tombstones, and other characters of fall have been a part of the All Hallows tradition through the centuries.
Dressing up in costume isn’t only for children. Among adults, the most popular costumes continue to be witch, pirate, vampire, cat, and clown, along with pop culture icons of the day.
The jack-o’-lantern is traced back to Stingy Jack, a greedy, gambling, hard drinking old Irish farmer who tricked the devil into climbing a tree, and trapped Ol’ Scratch by carving a Cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack which dooms him to forever wander the earth at night. (More realistically, a jack-of-the-lantern was an Irish name for a carved turnip or pumpkin with a candle inside, placed on doorsteps and in window sills to light the night.)
Today, Halloween ranks only behind Christmas as the second most popular holiday for decorating in the United States. It also ranks high for profitability along with Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Christmas.
The next time you’re watching Michael Myers from Halloween, Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street or Jason from Friday the 13th, consider that once upon a time, Halloween was a day to remember the faithful departed while celebrating hunters and gatherers. We will probably never view Halloween in such a way again; but as we do, let us recall how it all began. Trick or treat!
Michael Bird is a music teacher for Tallassee City Schools.
