JovialJman - The Origins And Beliefs Of Halloween

Jack-o'-Lanterns are synonymous with Halloween.

It is that day of year where you can dress up as anything you want, from a ghost, or ghoul, to a vampire, or, (as some ladies like to do), a bunny. It is a day of fear and fright, along with getting free candy from houses that you visit. But how did it come about and what are the origins of these traditions.

There are a lot more theories on the things associated with Halloween then there are about the treasures of the sea and UFO's (not really but it is close). There are a few things that have a fair amount of evidence that supports it, while other things are what some just take as always being like that.

This video shows some of the origins of Halloween that I did not cover.

There were people that were called the Celts that lived in what we now would call Brittany, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Ireland, and Scotland. They had many traditions and customs, one of which was to celebrate Samhain, this was celebrated on the sunset of October 31st to sunset of the 1 of November. In the Northern hemisphere, it is the end of summer and the beginning of winter, this meant the they had finished their harvest for the year and brought the cattle from the summer pastures to closer to home, and slaughter those that they needed for the winter. They would light a big bonfire to light a way for the herders to come home. It has also been said that this was the end of the year for the Celts.

This Image shows where the celts lived. For the key please see here.

Since it was the end of the year, they believed that the veil between the living and the underworld was at its weakest and spirits where able to come easily to our world. Since some of these spirits might not have been very pleasant, people dressed up in costumes in what that thought would be unpleasing to these spirits so they would not posses them, (this might be where the dressing up came from.) Pomona was a Roman god associated with the flourishing of fruit, when drawn she is associated with apples and may be a source for our modern tradition of bobbing for apples comes from.

When Christianity was trying to convert people to their religion, one of the methods was to make it more appealing to the Pagans, they decided to make this unholy day, a day for the church and thus made it November the first "All Saints Day". Another word for saint at the time was "Hallow", which now means to make things holy. So the day before All saints day was know as all Hallow Evening and but shortening it, it became Halloween.

The Jack-o'-Lanterns have a very interesting story behind it. In Ireland, there was a story that went as such; There was once a man named Stingy Jack. He called up the Devil himself and invited him to a bar, but since Jack was rather sinister, he didn't bring money to pay for the drinks. He persuaded the devil to change into a coin so Jack could pay, but instead of paying, he decided to put the coin in a box with a silver cross, so the devil was unable to change back to his original form. Once Jack got bored he decided to let him go on 2 conditions, 1 the devil would leave him alone for 10 years, and that he would not take his soul when he dies, the devil agreed and was set free. Once Jack eventually passed away, God did not let him into heaven since he was to evil. Then jack went to the gates of hell asked the devil to be let in, but keeping his word, the Devil refused him entry but gave him a coal that  would burn forever and sent him away, Jack decided to put the coal in a carved out turnip and made a lantern. Since then people could see Jack walk around with his lantern and was referred to as Jack of the Lantern, which was shortened to Jack-o'-Lantern.

Some of the lanterns that may be seen during Halloween. Picture taken from here.

Then people carved out turnips and potatoes and put a light inside to ward off Jack since, they would thought that Jack would think the devil was there. See that it is a Turnip and not a pumpkin, well, pumpkins are not native to Ireland, but when some of them migrated to America during the potato shortage, they came into contact with the pumpkins and found they were perfect for the carvings.

All Hallows Eve was also a time to pray for those who have passed away, and one tradition was going to houses in your neighbourhood and knocked on peoples doors asking for soul cakes, for each one they got, they were ensured a prayer. This might have been the origins to the Trick-or-treating that many children do today.

Now since I have told you where some of the traditions and the name may have came from, I would like to state that we here in South Africa, don't quite celebrate it as those in America. We do try and go trick or treating but since many people don't partake in it, it does become rather hard. I myself have only ever done it once. But we do have parties with a halloween theme, and clubs do make a dress code for it on the night as well.

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Happy scaring people.