Halloween History

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death.

Where did the ancient Celts NOT live?

• Poland

• United Kingdom

• Ireland

• France

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On the night of October 31 the Celts celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

What does the word prophecies mean in this paragraph?

• comfort

• predictions about the future

• winter

• priests

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To celebrate Samhain, the Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes.

What part of the Celtic Samhain celebration is still a common part of Halloween celebrations?

• Bonfires

• Animal sacrifices

• Wearing costumes

• Telling fortunes

By the 8th century, most of the Celts had been conquered by the Romans, who spread Christianity throughout their empire. All Saints' Day, which was celebrated on November 1st, was a day to celebrate all the saints. The day after, November 2nd, was know as All Souls' Day, which was a holiday created to celebrate the souls of anyone else who had died. It is likely that the church was trying to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a holiday that was similar but with Christian background. All Souls' Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. The All Saints' Day celebration was also called All-hallows and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

The name Halloween is a shortening of the name of what holiday?

• All Saints'Day

• All Souls' Day

• All-Hallows Eve

• Samhain

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Halloween was not really celebrated in the New England colonies because of the strict Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European groups as well as the Native Americans mixed together, a new American version of Halloween began to be created. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country

In what areas of early America were Halloween celebrations most common?

• New England

• Maryland and the south

• With Native Americans

• Halloween was not celebrated in any of the colonies

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Near the end of the 1800s, many people immigrated to America. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween across the country. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.

__________ immigrants helped to popularize Halloween across the country.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had lost most of its connections to religion and become more community-centered, with parades and town-wide parties. There was also an increase in vandalism during the holiday. Communities worked to create more events and traditions to discourage these "tricks". Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily managed. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. Families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. In 2009, Americans spent about $6 billion on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.

Why did people shift from having large community Halloween parties to having smaller parties at home during the 1920a-1950s?

• They wanted to go trick-or-treating instead

• The number of children had increased

• Children were doing too much vandalism

• They were spending too much money on parties

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The American Halloween tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the holiday, poor people would beg for food, and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. The giving of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given food and money.

What part of Samhain traditions did "souling" try to replace?

• Leaving food for spirits

• Going door to door

• Praying for the dead

• Parades

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The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would meet ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and stop them from coming inside.

How did ancient people believe they could avoid ghosts on Halloween

• Wearing costumes

• Having a parade

• Leaving bowls of food outside their homes

• Having a party

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