• News
    • Campus
    • Local
    • World
  • Arts and Entertainment
    • Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    • Music
    • Film
    • Fashion
  • Lifestyle
    • Campus Happenings
    • Community Happenings
    • Food
    • Business
    • Travel
    • Calendar
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Video
    • Globe News
    • What’s Bruin
    • Bruin Lens
    • Film
    • Music
    • Globe Shorts
  • Radio
  • NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Search
50.2 F
Salt Lake City
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Contests
  • About The Globe
    • Staff
    • Jobs
    • Issue PDFs
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Privacy Policy
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
The Globe The Globe
The Globe The Globe
  • News
    • Campus
    • Local
    • World
  • Arts and Entertainment
    • Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    • Music
    • Film
    • Fashion
  • Lifestyle
    • Campus Happenings
    • Community Happenings
    • Food
    • Business
    • Travel
    • Calendar
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Video
    • Globe News
    • What’s Bruin
    • Bruin Lens
    • Film
    • Music
    • Globe Shorts
  • Radio
  • NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Home Features Fun facts about the history of Halloween
  • Features
  • News
  • Local
  • Opinion

Fun facts about the history of Halloween

By
Carlos Artiles-Fortun
-
October 30, 2014
0
Side-by-side of a pumpkin jack-o'-lantern and a turnip jack-o-lantern of Ireland
What we now know as a jack-o’-lantern originally started out as a turnip carving in Ireland. (Pumpkin photo courtesy of Shutterstock; Turnip photo by Rannphairti Anaithnid)

Halloween is one of the biggest events in the American holiday calendar. It is estimated that Americans will spend $7.4 billion in candy, costumes and decorations. But where does Halloween come from? How did it become a multibillion dollar holiday in America?

Many people believe Halloween comes from Latin America and it is an American version of their festival ‘Dia de los Muertos’.

In reality, Halloween origins can be found in Ireland’s Celtic past. It was called Samhain, which they called the 11th month of the year and lasted three days. The festival starts on the evening of Oct. 31 with a lot of fire and the fire would continue until the next day.

A bonfire lit in 2010 at Himley Hall near Dudley
Bonfires were a regular occurrence during the Celtic festival of Samhain. (Photo by sjnikon on Flickr)

The flames of old fires had to be extinguished and ceremonially re-lit by druids. It was a symbol of casting out the old and moving into the new.

To the pagan ancestors it marked the end of the pastoral cycle; a time where all crops would have been gathered and placed in storage and livestock would be brought from the fields for the long winter.

Most importantly, it was the last day of the year, the time when souls of the departed would return to their former homes and potentially malevolent spirits were released from the otherworld and were visible to mankind.

In Rome, harvest was celebrated with a festival dedicated to Pomona, the goddess of the fruits, especially apples.

A painting of the Roman goddess Pomona by Nicolas Fouché circa 1700
Pomona, Roman Goddess of Fruitful Abundance (Nicolas Fouché circa 1700)

Pomona continued to be a popular tradition around Christian countries, and it is where the pagans got it from. It is also why there are games involving apples during Halloween.

Pope Boniface IV, in order to distance the church from pagan rituals and celebrations, declared Nov. 1st as All Saint Days, also known as All Hallows Day.

The evening before became known as Hallows’ Eve, and from there the origin of Halloween as a word.

The huge fires at Samhain were also used to ward off evil spirits. The people would also wear ugly masks to disguise themselves and confuse the spirits, who could identify them from the past and torment them. They would make noise to unsettle the spirits or leave food for the fairies to appease the spirits.

In order to prevent unwelcome spirits from entering their homes, they would carve menacing faces out of turnips and left them in their door steps. A lit candle was also inside the hollowed face for extra protection.

Although many of the original traditions used in the Samhain festival did not carry over to the modern celebration of Halloween here in America, the fires, lanterns, snap apples and appeasing the fairies are traditions that still carry on in Ireland.

Americans do use many of those traditions, but the holiday has now changed its meaning thanks to other cultures and the commercialization of the holiday.

  • TAGS
  • folk holidays
  • fun facts
  • Halloween
  • harvest festivals
  • History
  • history of holidays
  • origin of Halloween
  • trivia
  • world history
Carlos Artiles-Fortun

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Haunted house worker wearing a scary pumpkin costume

Globe staffers check out Nightmare on 13th’s 2022 showing, which features a new attraction

People visit Great Salt Lake, with Saltair and Wasatch Mountains in the horizon

History lessons: Are Utahns ‘waking up’ to the Great Salt Lake’s peril?

Eyeball next to Nightmare on 13th sign

Nightmare on 13th celebrates 31 years with a spirited return

Orange and multicolored pumpkin decoration

Students find alternatives for Halloween celebrations

Jack holds a snowflake

Globe staffers share their favorite Halloween movies

The Globe
ABOUT US
About The Globe
Staff
Jobs
Issue PDFs
FOLLOW US
  • About The Globe
  • Staff
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
© 2023 The Globe