from communion with the dead to pumpkins
and pranks
Halloween is a patchwork holiday stitch
together with cultural religious and
occult traditions that spans centuries
it all began with the Celts a people
whose culture had spread across Europe
more than 2,000 years ago October 31st
was the day they celebrated the end of
the harvest season in a festival called
soin that night also marked the Celtic
New Year and was considered a time
between years a magical time when the
ghosts of the dead walked the earth it
was the time when the veil between death
and life was supposed to be at its
thinnest
on saw 1 the villagers gathered and lit
huge bonfires to drive the dead back to
the spirit world and keep them away from
the living but as the Catholic Church’s
influence grew in Europe it frowned on
the pagan rituals like Sawin in the 7th
century the Vatican began to merge it
with a church sanctioned holiday so
November 1st was designated All Saints
Day to honor martyrs and the deceased
faithful both of these holidays had to
do with the afterlife and about survival
after death it was a calculated move on
the part of the church to bring more
people into the fold All Saints Day was
known then as Hallam as’ hallow means
holy or saintly so the translation is
roughly mass of the saints the night
before October 31st was All Hallows Eve
which gradually morphed into Halloween
the holiday came to America with the
wave of Irish immigrants during the
potato famine of the 1840s they brought
several of their holiday customs with
them including bobbing for apples and
playing tricks on neighbors like
removing dates from the front of houses
the young pranksters wore masks so they
wouldn’t be recognized but over the
years the tradition of harmless tricks
grew into outright vandalism back in the
1930s it really became a dangerous
holiday I mean there was such
hooliganism and vandalism
trick-or-treating was originally a
extortion deal give us candy or will
trash your house store keepers and
neighbors began giving treats or bribes
to stop the tricks and children were
encouraged to travel door-to-door for
treat as an alternative to troublemaking
by the late 30s trick-or-treat became
the holiday greeting
and pranks
Halloween is a patchwork holiday stitch
together with cultural religious and
occult traditions that spans centuries
it all began with the Celts a people
whose culture had spread across Europe
more than 2,000 years ago October 31st
was the day they celebrated the end of
the harvest season in a festival called
soin that night also marked the Celtic
New Year and was considered a time
between years a magical time when the
ghosts of the dead walked the earth it
was the time when the veil between death
and life was supposed to be at its
thinnest
on saw 1 the villagers gathered and lit
huge bonfires to drive the dead back to
the spirit world and keep them away from
the living but as the Catholic Church’s
influence grew in Europe it frowned on
the pagan rituals like Sawin in the 7th
century the Vatican began to merge it
with a church sanctioned holiday so
November 1st was designated All Saints
Day to honor martyrs and the deceased
faithful both of these holidays had to
do with the afterlife and about survival
after death it was a calculated move on
the part of the church to bring more
people into the fold All Saints Day was
known then as Hallam as’ hallow means
holy or saintly so the translation is
roughly mass of the saints the night
before October 31st was All Hallows Eve
which gradually morphed into Halloween
the holiday came to America with the
wave of Irish immigrants during the
potato famine of the 1840s they brought
several of their holiday customs with
them including bobbing for apples and
playing tricks on neighbors like
removing dates from the front of houses
the young pranksters wore masks so they
wouldn’t be recognized but over the
years the tradition of harmless tricks
grew into outright vandalism back in the
1930s it really became a dangerous
holiday I mean there was such
hooliganism and vandalism
trick-or-treating was originally a
extortion deal give us candy or will
trash your house store keepers and
neighbors began giving treats or bribes
to stop the tricks and children were
encouraged to travel door-to-door for
treat as an alternative to troublemaking
by the late 30s trick-or-treat became
the holiday greeting
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