Halloween is back, everybody! Time to get out your costumes and decorations; time to sharpen those bread knives for pumpkin carving and crack open a bag of brain gummies for a showing of 'Hocus Pocus'.
Curious to know the origins of Halloween? Where it all began? This blog is about to take you on a eerie (slight exaggeration) journey back in time to the very beginning of Halloween. So strap in, folks, and let's crack on.
Halloween can be traced back to the Celtic era, a time during which it was believed that the souls of the dead could be made visible to us, playing tricks on mortal worshippers. The belief occurred as a result of the Celtic new year taking place on November 1st, marking the end of summer and also the harvest, and the beginning of the cold and dark winter, a period associated heavily with human death. With the New Year taking place at this time, the Celtics saw the night before (October 31st) as the time during which the worlds between the living and the dead inevitably emerged. In response to this, the Celtics held the festival of Samhain (pronounced 'Saw-wen', meaning 'summer's end'), where people would dress up and light bonfires in order to ward off dead souls. This was over two thousand years ago and took place across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France, where the Celtics were known to reside. While the Celtics attached negative connotations to the dead souls, they also believed the festival helped strengthen communication between the living and dead and saw Samhain as an opportunity to predict the future more easily.
Celtics held the festival of Samhain, where people would dress up and light bonfires in order to ward off dead souls.
There has, however, been a little case of lost translation along the way. Certain groups labelled Halloween as demonic due to the repetition of the false claim that Sam Heim was the Celtic god of the dead, with Halloween serving as a feast for him. This claim came from the writings of an eighteenth-century British engineer who wrote on the Samhain with very little understanding of the language and culture. The Christian church itself, however, kept the tradition of Samhain alive in the West, christianising it in the ninth century, setting the path for a Pagan Northern European religious tradition that later became a global secular holiday. Some say, however, that Christians adopted the tradition as a way to stamp out Pagan celebrations, supposedly dating back to the eighth century, and this is where we got the name more familiar to us modern folk: 'All Hallows' Eve'. People now would pray for souls that hadn't reached the gates of heaven, and the poor would beg for 'soul cakes' by wishing the souls of relatives a good send-off.
People thought Halloween was something demonic thanks to the writings of an eighteenth-century British engineer who had very little understanding of the Celtic language and culture surrounding Halloween.
Skipping forward a few centuries (or more!), the first European Americans brought the historical tradition of Halloween over to the US on the Mayflower, which was the big immigrant arrival of the Irish during the nineteenth century. By the twentieth century, great efforts were made to make Halloween very much a community-based holiday, and it is estimated that 8.8 billion has been spent on it since then. Today, we enjoy the holiday through trick or treating, going to parties where we dress up in fun, scary costumes, as well as by visiting haunted houses, amongst other things.
The first European Americans brought the historical tradition of Halloween over to the US on the Mayflower during the nineteenth century.
At Langton Greenhouse and Garden Centre, we love Halloween! Our gifts and foods departments host wonderful displays dedicated to everyone's favourite spookfest. From ceramic pumpkins and costume pieces to Halloween-themed chocolates and gonks, there's plenty to help prepare you for the big day.
Have a great Halloween, everybody!