Halloween Customs and Their Origins

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On Halloween, children dress up in costumes and go from door to door at dusk, gleefully calling, “Trick or treat!” The holiday gets its name from All Hallows’ Evening, or the evening before All Saints’ Day, November 1st. However, its traditions date back to pre-Christian Celtic beliefs. This is prevalent in what is now known as Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Irish immigrants brought these customs to the USA. October 31st was the eve of the Celtic New Year, a time when ghosts or evil spirits walked the earth and mingled mischievously with the living. Costumes and jack-o’-lanterns were thought to protect people from any harm they might cause.

A jack-o’-lantern is a face carved into one side of a hollowed-out pumpkin in which a lighted candle has been placed. This gives it an inviting yellow and orange glow on a dark autumn night. This is why the Halloween colours are orange and black. Even today, small children are told that any house with a jack-o’-lantern burning in the window is a safe place to go trick-or-treating. The custom of trick-or-treating comes from when children dressed in costumes on All Souls’ Day and went from house to house begging for soul cakes. Children still go begging for treats.

However, over the last few years, school, church and neighbourhood parties are replacing the custom of trick-or-treating from house to house. More and more adults are also celebrating Halloween with masquerade parties, in which they dress up like political and historical figures, or just plain old scary fellows from recent horror films, like ghosts, vampires, goblins, Frankenstein, etc.

Witches flying on broomsticks with black cats, skeletons, spiders and haunted houses are other symbols of Halloween. Another popular activity at Halloween parties is bobbing for apples. One person at a time must get an apple out of a tub of water without using his hands, only by sinking his or her face into the water and biting the apple. The party may start or end with a Halloween costume parade, wherein those with the best or scariest costumes receive prizes.

Telling scary stories or ghost stories while huddled together by candlelight or around a fire outside is one of the highlights of Halloween night. Any story will do, but it must be spoken in a low, tense voice.