Halloween 2019: History of Halloween festival and why it is fun

With Halloween around the corner, supermarkets will soon get stocked up and the Google will be filled with Halloween costumes searches. The celebration of the spooky festival of Halloween is celebrated on October 31 every year. The awaited occasion has people finding the best outfits and preparing for the festival is the best thing about Halloween. However, how such a unique way of celebrating a festival came into existence? Here is a history of celebrating Halloween and what all activities are a part of the celebration.

History of Halloween

Samhain

According to The World Book Encylopedia, Halloween is an ancient pagan festival celebrated by Celtic people over 2000 years ago. The Celts had a belief that the dead people could walk among the living at this time of the year. During Samhain, which is the occasion marking the end of the harvest season, the living could visit the dead. But according to the Bible, they cannot contact the living.

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Halloween costumes, candy, and trick or treat

According to a book Halloween, An American Holiday states that some of the Celts wore scary and ghoulish costumes so that the spirit that wanders around would mistakenly consider them one of them and leave them alone. Others offered sweets to the spirits to impress them. As time evolved, the Halloween costumes became spooky, scary, funny and creative.   

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Trick-or-treating is a candy-grabbing concept, during this family that would provide treats to children in hopes that they wouldn’t prank on them. Thus it is called trick-or-treat. In the late 1800s, the festival transitioned from its original customs into newer ones in America and the festival became more about get-togethers than about witches and ghosts. Halloween parties became a common way to celebrate the festival. These parties had games, foods and festive costumes.

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Halloween Pumpkins, or jack-o’-lanterns

In the early medieval period, people went door to door asking for food in return for a prayer for the dead. They would carry turnip lanterns which were hallowed out. Some believe that lanterns were to keep the spirit away. During the 1800s, turnips were replaced by pumpkins as they were easy to hollow out and carve. These pumpkins are now practically iconic and synonymous to Halloween.

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