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date2023 | date2024 | date2025 | date2025 | date2026 | date2027 | date2028 | date2029 | date2030 | duration | ends | firsttime | frequency | holiday_name | image | image_size | imagesize | lasttime | litcolor | longtype | mdy | month | nickname | observances | observedby | official_name | relatedto | scheduling | significance | startedby | type | week_ordinal | weekday }} Halloween, or Hallowe'en<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (less commonly known as Allhalloween,<ref name="Palmer1882">Template:Cite book</ref> All Hallows' Eve,<ref name="Elwell2001">Template:Cite book</ref> or All Saints' Eve),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It is at the beginning of the observance of Allhallowtide,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the time in the Christian liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.<ref name="Surrey2014">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Davis2009">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In popular culture, Halloween has become a celebration of horror and is associated with the macabre and the supernatural.<ref name="rogers_m"/>
One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots.<ref name="Smith2004">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Christianity1>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Christianity2>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Christianity3>Template:Cite book</ref> Some theories go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallows' Day, along with its eve, by the early Church.<ref name="Roberts1987">Template:Cite book</ref> Other academics say Halloween began independently as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallows' Day.<ref name="FoleyO’Donnell2008">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Barr2016">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>
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|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland for centuries, Irish and Scottish immigrants took many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century,<ref name="rogers_nw"/><ref name="Brunvand, Jan 2006. p.749">Brunvand, Jan (editor). American Folklore: An Encyclopedia. Routledge, 2006. p.749</ref> and then through American influence various Halloween customs spread to other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century.<ref name="rogers_m"/><ref name="Colavito, Jason 2007. pp.151">Colavito, Jason. Knowing Fear: Science, Knowledge and the Development of the Horror Genre. McFarland, 2007. pp.151–152</ref>
Popular activities during Halloween include trick-or-treating (or the related guising and souling), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins or turnips into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling frightening stories, and watching horror or Halloween-themed films.<ref name="Fieldhouse2017p256">Template:Cite book</ref> Some Christians practice the observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead,<ref name="Skog2008">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Duke2014">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> although it is a secular celebration for others.<ref name="Hynes1993">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Kernan2013">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="BradenVillage1988">Template:Cite book</ref> Some Christians historically abstained from meat on All Hallows' Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain vegetarian foods on this day, including apples, potato pancakes, and soul cakes.<ref>Santino, p. 85</ref><ref>All Hallows' Eve (Diana Swift), Anglican Journal</ref><ref name="Mahon1991">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Fieldhouse2017">Template:Cite book</ref>
EtymologyEdit
Template:Sister project The word Halloween or Hallowe'en ('Saints' evening'<ref name="Luck1998">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>) is of Christian origin;<ref name=DSL/><ref>The A to Z of Anglicanism (Colin Buchanan), Scarecrow Press, p. 8</ref> a term equivalent to 'All Hallows Eve' as attested in Old English.<ref name="oed">Template:Cite OED</ref> The word hallowe[']en comes from the Scottish form of All Hallows' Eve (the evening before All Hallows' Day):<ref>Template:Cite OED</ref> {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is the Scots term for 'eve' or 'evening',<ref name=Contraction>Template:Cite book</ref> and is contracted to {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}};<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en became Hallowe'en.
HistoryEdit
Christian origins and historic customsEdit
Halloween is thought to have influences from Christian beliefs and practices.<ref name="Hopwood2019"/><ref name="Barr2016"/> The English word 'Halloween' comes from "All Hallows' Eve", being the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows' Day (All Saints' Day) on 1 November and All Souls' Day on 2 November.<ref name="rogers_religion">Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford University Press, 2002. pp. 22, 27. Template:ISBN.</ref> Since the time of the early Church,<ref>New Proclamation Commentary on Feasts, Holy Days, and Other Celebrations (Bill Doggett, Gordon W. Lathrop), Fortress Press, p. 92</ref> major feasts in Christianity (such as Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) had vigils that began the night before, as did the feast of All Hallows.<ref name="Benham1887">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Hopwood2019">Template:Cite book</ref> These three days are collectively called Allhallowtide, a time when Western Christians honour all saints and pray for recently departed souls who have yet to reach Heaven. Commemorations of all saints and martyrs were held by several churches on various dates, mostly in springtime.<ref name="CP">Template:Cite book</ref> In 4th-century Roman Edessa it was held on 13 May, and on that date in 609, Pope Boniface IV re-dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to "St Mary and all martyrs".<ref name="Saunders">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This was the date of Lemuria, an ancient Roman festival of the dead.<ref>Melton, J Gordon (editor). Religious Celebrations: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO, 2011. p.22</ref>
In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III (731–741) founded an oratory in St Peter's for the relics "of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors".<ref name="Hopwood2019"/><ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> Some sources say it was dedicated on 1 November,<ref>"All Saints' Day", The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edition, ed. E. A. Livingstone. Oxford University Press, 1997. pp.41–42</ref> whereas others say it was on Palm Sunday in April 732.<ref>McClendon, Charles. "Old Saint Peter's and the Iconoclastic Controversy", in Old Saint Peter's, Rome. Cambridge University Press, 2013. pp. 215–216. Quote: "Soon after his election in 731, Gregory III summoned a synod to gather on 1 November in the basilica of Saint Peter's in order to respond to the policy of iconoclasm that he believed was being promoted by the Byzantine Emperor [...] Six months later, in April of the following year, 732, the pope assembled another synod in the basilica to consecrate a new oratory dedicated to the Saviour, the Virgin Mary, and all the saints".</ref><ref>Ó Carragáin, Éamonn. Ritual and the Rood: Liturgical Images and the Old English Poems of the Dream of the Rood Tradition. University of Toronto Press, 2005. p. 258. Quote: "Gregory III began his reign with a synod in St Peter's (1 November 731) which formally condemned iconoclasm [...] on the Sunday before Easter, 12 April 732, Gregory convoked yet another synod [...] and at the synod inaugurated an oratory [...] Dedicated to all saints, this oratory was designed to hold 'relics of the holy apostles and all the holy martyrs and confessors'".</ref> There is evidence that by 800, churches in Ireland<ref name="farmer">Farmer, David. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Fifth Edition, Revised). Oxford University Press, 2011. p. 14</ref> and Northumbria were holding a feast commemorating all saints on 1 November.<ref name="hutton364">Hutton, p. 364</ref> Alcuin of Northumbria, a member of Charlemagne's court, may then have introduced this 1 November date in the Frankish Empire.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 835, it became the official date in the Frankish Empire.<ref name=hutton364/> Some suggest this was due to Celtic influence; others, that it was a Germanic idea,<ref name=hutton364/> although it is claimed that both Germanic- and Celtic-speaking peoples commemorated the dead at the beginning of winter.<ref name=macculloch10>MacCulloch, John Arnott (1911). The Religion of the Ancient Celts. Chapter 10: The Cult of the Dead Template:Webarchive.</ref> They may have seen it as the most fitting time to do so, as it is a time of "dying" in nature.<ref name=hutton364/><ref name=macculloch10/> It is also suggested the change was made on the "practical grounds that Rome in summer could not accommodate the great number of pilgrims who flocked to it", and perhaps because of public health concerns over Roman Fever, which claimed a number of lives during Rome's sultry summers.<ref>Burns, Paul (editor). Butler's Saint for the Day. Liturgical Press, 2007. p. 516</ref><ref name="Hopwood2019"/>
Template:Multiple image By the end of the 12th century, the celebration had become one of the holy days of obligation requiring church attendance in Western Christianity and involved such traditions as ringing church bells for souls in Purgatory. It was also "customary for criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and calling on all good Christians to remember the poor souls".<ref>The World Review – Volume 4, University of Minnesota, p. 255</ref>
The Allhallowtide custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for all christened souls<ref name="AFP">Template:Cite book</ref> has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating.<ref name="Britannica" /> The custom dates back at least as far as the 15th century<ref name="hutton374-375">Hutton, pp. 374–375</ref> and was found in parts of England, Wales, Flanders, Bavaria and Austria.<ref name="miles" /> Groups of poor people, often children, would go door to door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers' friends and relatives. This was called "souling".<ref name="hutton374-375" /><ref name="Dodge" /><ref name="DeMello2012">Template:Cite book</ref> Soul cakes were also offered for the souls themselves to eat,<ref name="miles" /> or the "soulers" would act as their representatives.<ref>Cleene, Marcel. Compendium of Symbolic and Ritual Plants in Europe. Man & Culture, 2002. p. 108. Quote: "Soul cakes were small cakes baked as food for the deceased or offered for the salvation of their souls. They were therefore offered at funerals and feasts of the dead, laid on graves, or given to the poor as representatives of the dead. The baking of these soul cakes is a universal practice".</ref> As with the Lenten tradition of hot cross buns, soul cakes were often marked with a cross, indicating that they were baked as alms.<ref name="Levene2016">Template:Cite book</ref>
Shakespeare mentions souling in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593).<ref>The Two Gentlemen of Verona Act 2, Scene 1.</ref> While souling, Christians would carry "lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips", which could have originally represented souls of the dead;<ref name="PulliamFonseca2016">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="rogers57">Rogers, p. 57</ref> jack-o'-lanterns were used to ward off evil spirits.<ref name="CarterPetro1998" /><ref name="Guiley2008">Template:Cite book</ref> On All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day during the 19th century, candles were lit in homes in Ireland,<ref name="Santino, p.95">Santino, The Hallowed Eve, p. 95</ref> Flanders, Bavaria, and in Tyrol, where they were called "soul lights",<ref name="Frazer All Souls">Frazer, James George (1922). The Golden Bough: A new abridgement. Oxford University Press, 1998. pp.380–383</ref> that served "to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes".<ref>Ruth Hutchison and Ruth Constance Adams (1951). Every Day's a Holiday. Harper, 1951. pp.236</ref> In many of these places, candles were also lit at graves on All Souls' Day.<ref name="Frazer All Souls" /> In Brittany, libations of milk were poured on the graves of kinfolk,<ref name="miles" /> or food would be left overnight on the dinner table for the returning souls;<ref name="Frazer All Souls" /> a custom also found in Tyrol and parts of Italy.<ref name="Morton2013" /><ref name="Frazer All Souls" />
Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh linked the wearing of costumes to the belief in vengeful ghosts: "It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes".<ref name="Christian">Template:Cite book</ref> In the Middle Ages, churches in Europe that were too poor to display relics of martyred saints at Allhallowtide let parishioners dress up as saints instead.<ref name="Bannatyne1998">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Morrow2001">Template:Cite book</ref> Some Christians observe this custom at Halloween today.<ref>"Eve of All Saints", Using Common Worship: Times and Seasons – All Saints to Candlemas (David Kennedy), Church House Publishing, p. 42</ref> Lesley Bannatyne believes this could have been a Christianization of an earlier pagan custom.<ref name="bannatyne9">Bannatyne, Lesley. Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History. Pelican Publishing, 1998. p. 9</ref> Many Christians in mainland Europe, especially in France, believed "that once a year, on Hallowe'en, the dead of the churchyards rose for one wild, hideous carnival" known as the danse macabre, which was often depicted in church decoration.<ref>Perry, Edward Baxter. Descriptive Analyses of Piano Works; For the Use of Teachers, Players, and Music Clubs. Theodore Presser Company, 1902. p. 276</ref> Christopher Allmand and Rosamond McKitterick write in The New Cambridge Medieval History that the danse macabre urged Christians "not to forget the end of all earthly things".<ref name="Allmand1998">Template:Cite book</ref> The danse macabre was sometimes enacted in European village pageants and court masques with people "dressing up as corpses from various strata of society", and this may be the origin of Halloween costume parties.<ref name="Reimer2018">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="DeSpelderStrickland2009">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="PulliamFonseca2016" />
In Britain, these customs came under attack during the Reformation, as Protestants berated Purgatory as a "popish" doctrine incompatible with the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. State-sanctioned ceremonies associated with the intercession of saints and prayer for souls in Purgatory were abolished during the Elizabethan reform, though All Hallows' Day remained in the English liturgical calendar to "commemorate saints as godly human beings".<ref>Hutton, p. 372</ref> For some Nonconformist Protestants, the theology of All Hallows' Eve was redefined: "souls cannot be journeying from Purgatory on their way to Heaven, as Catholics frequently believe and assert. Instead, the so-called ghosts are thought to be in actuality evil spirits".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Other Protestants believed in an intermediate state known as Hades (Bosom of Abraham).<ref>The Episcopal Church, its teaching and worship (Latta Griswold), E.S. Gorham, p. 110</ref> In some localities, Catholics and Protestants continued souling, candlelit processions, or ringing church bells for the dead;<ref name="rogers_religion" /><ref name="Mosteller" /> but the Anglican Church eventually suppressed this bell-ringing.<ref>Aston, Margaret. Broken Idols of the English Reformation. Cambridge University Press, 2015. pp.475–477</ref> Professor of medieval archaeology Mark Donnelly and historian Daniel Diehl write that "barns and homes were blessed to protect people and livestock from the effect of witches, who were believed to accompany the malignant spirits as they traveled the earth".<ref name="Medieval Celebrations page 17">Medieval Celebrations: Your Guide to Planning and Hosting Spectacular Feasts, Parties, Weddings, and Renaissance Fairs (Daniel Diehl, Mark Donnelly), Stackpole Books, p. 17</ref>
After 1605, Allhallowtide was eclipsed in England by Guy Fawkes Night (5 November), which appropriated some of its customs.<ref name="rogers_kirk">Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford University Press, 2002. pp. 37–38. Template:ISBN.</ref> In England, the ending of official ceremonies related to the intercession of saints led to the development of new, unofficial Allhallowtide customs. In 18th- and 19th-century rural Lancashire, Catholic families gathered on hills on the night of All Hallows' Eve and one person held a bunch of burning straw on a pitchfork while the rest knelt around him, praying for the souls of relatives and friends until the flames went out. This was known as teen'lay.<ref name="Hutton2001">Template:Cite book</ref> There was a similar custom in Hertfordshire, and the lighting of "tindle" fires in Derbyshire.<ref>O'Donnell, Hugh and Foley, Malcolm. "Treat or Trick? Halloween in a Globalising World" Template:Webarchive. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008. p.35</ref> Some suggested that these fires were originally lit to "guide the poor souls back to earth".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In Scotland and Ireland, old Allhallowtide customs that were at odds with Reformed teaching were not suppressed because they "were important to the life cycle and rites of passage of local communities" and so curbing them would have been difficult.<ref name="rogers_nw" />
In parts of Italy until the 15th century, families left a meal out for the ghosts of relatives before leaving for church services.<ref name="Morton2013" /> In 19th-century Italy, churches staged "theatrical re-enactments of scenes from the lives of the saints" on All Hallows' Day, with "participants represented by realistic wax figures".<ref name="Morton2013" /> In 1823, the graveyard of Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome presented a scene in which bodies of those who recently died were arrayed around a wax statue of an angel who pointed upward towards heaven.<ref name="Morton2013" /> In the same country, "parish priests went house-to-house, asking for small gifts of food which they shared among themselves throughout that night".<ref name="Morton2013">Template:Cite book</ref>
In 19th-century Spain at Allhallowtide, there was a procession in the city of San Sebastián to the city cemetery, an event that drew beggars who "appeal[ed] to the tender recollections of one's deceased relations and friends" for sympathy.<ref name="Ford1855">Template:Cite book</ref> People in Spain continue to bake special pastries called "bones of the holy" (Template:Langx) and set them on graves;<ref name="The Halloween Encyclopedia page 9">Morton, Lisa. The Halloween Encyclopedia. McFarland, 2003. p. 9</ref> and at cemeteries in both Spain and France, as well as in Latin America, priests lead Christian processions and services during Allhallowtide, after which people keep an all-night vigil.<ref name="2017Fieldhouse">Template:Cite book</ref>
Gaelic folk influenceEdit
Today's Halloween customs are thought to have been influenced by folk customs and beliefs from the Celtic-speaking countries, some of which are believed to have pagan roots.<ref>Boenig, Robert. Anglo-Saxon Spirituality: Selected Writings. Paulist Press, 2000. p. 7</ref> Jack Santino, a folklorist, writes that "there was throughout Ireland an uneasy truce existing between customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated with religions that were Irish before Christianity arrived".<ref>Santino, Jack. The Hallowed Eve: Dimensions of Culture in a Calendar Festival of Northern Ireland. University Press of Kentucky, 1998. p. 95</ref> The origins of Halloween customs are typically linked to the Gaelic festival Samhain.<ref name="rogers_s">Rogers, Nicholas. "Samhain and the Celtic Origins of Halloween". Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford University Press, 2002. pp. 11–21. Template:ISBN.</ref>
Samhain is one of the "quarter days" in the medieval Gaelic calendar and has been celebrated on 31 OctoberTemplate:Snd1 November<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.<ref name="Roud">A Pocket Guide To Superstitions of the British Isles (Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; Reprint edition: 4 November 2004) Template:ISBN</ref><ref name="bbc_halloween">All Hallows' Eve Template:Webarchive BBC. Retrieved 31 October 2011.</ref> A kindred festival has been held by the Brittonic Celts, called Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan Gwav in Cornwall and Kalan Goañv in Brittany: a name meaning "first day of winter". For the Celts, the day ended and began at sunset; thus the festival begins the evening before 1 November by modern reckoning.<ref>Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. Myth, Legend & Romance: An encyclopaedia of the Irish folk tradition. Prentice Hall Press, 1991. p. 402</ref> Samhain is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature. The names have been used by historians to refer to Celtic Halloween customs up until the 19th century,<ref name=hutton365-369>Hutton, Ronald. The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press, 1996. pp. 365–369</ref> and are still the Gaelic and Welsh names for Halloween.
Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the 'darker half' of the year.<ref name=monaghan407>Monaghan, Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. Infobase Publishing, 2004. p. 407</ref><ref>Hutton, p. 361</ref> It was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned. This meant the Aos Sí, the 'spirits' or 'fairies', could more easily come into this world and were particularly active.<ref>Monaghan, p. 41</ref><ref>O'Halpin, Andy. Ireland: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. Oxford University Press, 2006. p. 236</ref> Most scholars see them as "degraded versions of ancient gods [...] whose power remained active in the people's minds even after they had been officially replaced by later religious beliefs".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They were both respected and feared, with individuals often invoking the protection of God when approaching their dwellings.<ref name="Monaghan2009">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Santino, p. 105</ref> At Samhain, the Aos Sí were appeased to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left outside for them.<ref>Danaher, Kevin. The Year in Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs. Mercier Press, 1972. p. 200</ref><ref>Evans-Wentz, Walter (1911). The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. p. 44.</ref><ref>McNeill, F. Marian (1961). The Silver Bough, Volume 3. p. 34.</ref> The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking hospitality.<ref>"Halloween". Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 21 September 2012.</ref> Places were set at the dinner table and by the fire to welcome them.<ref name=mcneill1>McNeill, The Silver Bough, Volume 3, pp. 11–46</ref> The belief that the souls of the dead return home on one night of the year and must be appeased seems to have ancient origins and is found in many cultures.<ref name=miles>Miles, Clement A. (1912). Christmas in Ritual and Tradition. Chapter 7: All Hallow Tide to Martinmas Template:Webarchive.</ref> In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin".<ref>Hutton, p. 379</ref>
Throughout Ireland and Britain, especially in the Celtic-speaking regions, the household festivities included divination rituals and games intended to foretell one's future, especially regarding death and marriage.<ref name="Hutton, p.380">Hutton, p. 380</ref> Apples and nuts were often used, and customs included apple bobbing, nut roasting, scrying or mirror-gazing, pouring molten lead or egg whites into water, dream interpretation, and others.<ref>Danaher, Kevin. "Irish Folk Tradition and the Celtic Calendar", in The Celtic Consciousness, ed. Robert O'Driscoll. Braziller, 1981. pp. 218–227</ref> Special bonfires were lit and there were rituals involving them. Their flames, smoke, and ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers.<ref name=monaghan407/> In some places, torches lit from the bonfire were carried sunwise around homes and fields to protect them.<ref name=hutton365-369/> It is suggested the fires were a kind of imitative or sympathetic magicTemplate:Sndthey mimicked the Sun and held back the decay and darkness of winter.<ref name=mcneill1/><ref name=frazer63>Frazer, James George (1922). The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. Chapter 63, Part 1: On the Fire-festivals in general Template:Webarchive.</ref><ref name=macculloch>MacCulloch, John Arnott (1911). The Religion of the Ancient Celts. Chapter 18: Festivals Template:Webarchive.</ref> They were also used for divination and to ward off evil spirits.<ref name="CarterPetro1998">Template:Cite book</ref> In Scotland, these bonfires and divination games were banned by the church elders in some parishes.<ref>Hutton, pp. 366, 380</ref> In Wales, bonfires were also lit to "prevent the souls of the dead from falling to earth".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Later, these bonfires "kept away the devil".<ref name="Rosinsky2002">Template:Cite book</ref>
From at least the 16th century,<ref name=mcneill2>McNeill, F. Marian. Hallowe'en: its origin, rites and ceremonies in the Scottish tradition. Albyn Press, 1970. pp. 29–31</ref> the festival included mumming and guising in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales.<ref name=hutton379-383>Hutton, pp. 379–383</ref> This involved people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food. It may have originally been a tradition whereby people impersonated the Aos Sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf, similar to 'souling'. Impersonating these beings, or wearing a disguise, was also believed to protect oneself from them.<ref>Hole, Christina. British Folk Customs. Hutchinson, 1976. p. 91</ref> In parts of southern Ireland, the guisers included a hobby horse. A man dressed as a láir bhán (white mare) led youths house-to-house reciting verses – some of which had pagan overtones – in exchange for food. If the household donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune.<ref>Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Volume 2. 1855. pp. 308–309</ref> In Scotland, youths went house-to-house with masked, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed.<ref name=hutton379-383/> F. Marian McNeill suggests the ancient festival included people in costume representing the spirits, and that faces were marked or blackened with ashes from the sacred bonfire.<ref name=mcneill2/> In parts of Wales, men went about dressed as fearsome beings called gwrachod.<ref name=hutton379-383/> In the late 19th and early 20th century, young people in Glamorgan and Orkney cross-dressed.<ref name=hutton379-383/>
Elsewhere in Europe, mumming was part of other festivals, but in the Celtic-speaking regions, it was "particularly appropriate to a night upon which supernatural beings were said to be abroad and could be imitated or warded off by human wanderers".<ref name=hutton379-383/> From at least the 18th century, "imitating malignant spirits" led to playing pranks in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. Wearing costumes and playing pranks at Halloween did not spread to England until the 20th century.<ref name=hutton379-383/> Pranksters used hollowed-out turnips or mangel wurzels as lanterns, often carved with grotesque faces.<ref name=hutton379-383/> By those who made them, the lanterns were variously said to represent the spirits,<ref name=hutton379-383/> or used to ward off evil spirits.<ref name=palmer87>Palmer, Kingsley. Oral folk-tales of Wessex. David & Charles, 1973. pp. 87–88</ref><ref>Wilson, David Scofield. Rooted in America: Foodlore of Popular Fruits and Vegetables. Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1999. p. 154</ref> They were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century,<ref name=hutton379-383/> as well as in Somerset (see Punkie Night). In the 20th century they spread to other parts of Britain and became generally known as jack-o'-lanterns.<ref name=hutton379-383/>
Spread to North AmericaEdit
Lesley Bannatyne and Cindy Ott write that Anglican colonists in the southern United States and Catholic colonists in Maryland "recognized All Hallows' Eve in their church calendars",<ref>Ott, Cindy. Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon. University of Washington Press, 2012. p. 42</ref><ref>Bannatyne, p. 45</ref> although the Puritans of New England strongly opposed the holiday, along with other traditional celebrations of the established Church, including Christmas.<ref>Encyclopaedia Londinensis, or, Universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature, Volume 21 (John Wilkes), R. G. Gunnell and Co., p. 544</ref> Almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was widely celebrated in North America.<ref name="rogers_nw">Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford University Press, 2002. pp. 49–50. Template:ISBN.</ref>
It was not until after mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in America.<ref name="rogers_nw"/> Most American Halloween traditions were inherited from the Irish and Scots,<ref name="Brunvand, Jan 2006. p.749"/><ref>Santino, Jack. All Around the Year: Holidays and Celebrations in American Life. University of Illinois Press, 1995. p.153</ref> though "In Cajun areas, a nocturnal Mass was said in cemeteries on Halloween night. Candles that had been blessed were placed on graves, and families sometimes spent the entire night at the graveside".<ref name="Morton2003">Template:Cite book</ref> Originally confined to these immigrant communities, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and was celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial, and religious backgrounds by the early 20th century.<ref name="rogers_nationwide">Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 74. Template:ISBN.</ref> Then, through American influence, these Halloween traditions spread to many other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century, including to mainland Europe and some parts of the Far East.<ref name="Colavito, Jason 2007. pp.151"/><ref name="rogers_m"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
SymbolsEdit
Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. Jack-o'-lanterns are traditionally carried by guisers on All Hallows' Eve in order to frighten evil spirits.<ref name="rogers57"/><ref>The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca, Infobase Publishing, p. 183</ref> There is a popular Irish Christian folktale associated with the jack-o'-lantern,<ref>Dante's "Commedia" and the Poetics of Christian Catabasis (Lee Foust), ProQuest, p. 15</ref> which in folklore is said to represent a "soul who has been denied entry into both heaven and hell":<ref>The Guinness Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits (Rosemary Guiley), Guinness World Records Limited, p. 178</ref>
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On route home after a night's drinking, Jack encounters the Devil and tricks him into climbing a tree. A quick-thinking Jack etches the sign of the cross into the bark, thus trapping the Devil. Jack strikes a bargain that Satan can never claim his soul. After a life of sin, drink, and mendacity, Jack is refused entry to heaven when he dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to let Jack into hell and throws a live coal straight from the fires of hell at him. It was a cold night, so Jack places the coal in a hollowed out turnip to stop it from going out, since which time Jack and his lantern have been roaming looking for a place to rest.<ref>Encyclopedia of Death and Dying (Glennys Howarth, Oliver Leaman), Taylor & Francis, p. 320</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries}}
{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }} In Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England the turnip has traditionally been carved during Halloween,<ref name=lant>The Oxford companion to American food and drink p. 269. Oxford University Press, 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2011</ref><ref name=frle/> but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which is both much softer and much larger, making it easier to carve than a turnip.<ref name=lant/> The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837<ref>Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Great Carbuncle", in Twice-Told Tales, 1837: Hide it [the great carbuncle] under thy cloak, say'st thou? Why, it will gleam through the holes, and make thee look like a jack-o'-lantern!</ref> and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.<ref>As late as 1900, an article on Thanksgiving entertaining recommended a lit jack-o'-lantern as part of the festivities. "The Day We Celebrate: Thanksgiving Treated Gastronomically and Socially" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times, 24 November 1895, p. 27. "Odd Ornaments for Table" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times, 21 October 1900, p. 12.</ref>
The modern imagery of Halloween comes from many sources, including Christian eschatology, national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and Dracula) and classic horror films such as Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932).<ref>The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams (Charles Adolph Huttar, Peter J. Schakel), Bucknell University Press, p. 155</ref><ref name="rogers_h">Rogers, Nicholas (2002). "Halloween Goes to Hollywood". Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, pp. 103–124. New York: Oxford University Press. Template:ISBN.</ref> Imagery of the skull, a reference to Golgotha in the Christian tradition, serves as "a reminder of death and the transitory quality of human life" and is consequently found in memento mori and vanitas compositions;<ref>A Handbook of Symbols in Christian Art (Gertrude Grace Sill), Simon & Schuster, p. 64</ref> skulls have therefore been commonplace in Halloween, which touches on this theme.<ref>In flagrante collecto (Marilynn Gelfman Karp), Abrams, p. 299</ref> Traditionally, the back walls of churches are "decorated with a depiction of the Last Judgment, complete with graves opening and the dead rising, with a heaven filled with angels and a hell filled with devils", a motif that has permeated the observance of this triduum.<ref>School Year, Church Year (Peter Mazar), Liturgy Training Publications, p. 115</ref> One of the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne, who, in 1780, made note of pranks at Halloween—"What fearfu' pranks ensue!", as well as the supernatural associated with the night, "bogles" (ghosts)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>—influencing Robert Burns' "Halloween" (1785).<ref>Thomas Crawford Burns: a study of the poems and songs Template:Cite book Stanford University Press, 1960</ref> Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween. Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil, and mythical monsters.<ref>Simpson, Jacqueline "All Saints' Day" in Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, Howarth, G. and Leeman, O. (2001) London Routledge Template:ISBN, p. 14 "Halloween is closely associated in folklore with death and the supernatural".</ref> Black cats, which have been long associated with witches, are also a common symbol of Halloween. Black, orange, and sometimes purple are Halloween's traditional colors.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Trick-or-treating and guisingEdit
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Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The word "trick" implies a "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given.<ref name=Britannica>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The practice is said to have roots in the medieval practice of mumming, which is closely related to souling.<ref>Faces Around the World: A Cultural Encyclopedia of the Human Face (Margo DeMello), ABC-CLIO, p. 225</ref> John Pymm wrote that "many of the feast days associated with the presentation of mumming plays were celebrated by the Christian Church."<ref>A Student's Guide to A2 Performance Studies for the OCR Specification (John Pymm), Rhinegold Publishing Ltd, p. 28</ref> These feast days included All Hallows' Eve, Christmas, Twelfth Night and Shrove Tuesday.<ref>Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art, Volume 1 (Thomas Green), ABC-CLIO p. 566</ref><ref>Interacting communities: studies on some aspects of migration and urban ethnology (Zsuzsa Szarvas), Hungarian Ethnographic Society, p. 314</ref> Mumming practiced in Germany, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe,<ref>The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature (David Scott Kastan), Oxford University Press, p. 47</ref> involved masked persons in fancy dress who "paraded the streets and entered houses to dance or play dice in silence".<ref>"Mumming Play", Encyclopædia Britannica</ref>
In England, from the medieval period,<ref name="Carmichael2012">Template:Cite book</ref> up until the 1930s,<ref name="Hood2014">Template:Cite book</ref> people practiced the Christian custom of souling on Halloween, which involved groups of soulers, both Protestant and Catholic,<ref name=Mosteller>Template:Cite book</ref> going from parish to parish, begging the rich for soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the souls of the givers and their friends.<ref name=Dodge>Template:Cite book</ref> In the Philippines, the practice of souling is called Pangangaluluwa and is practiced on All Hallows' Eve among children in rural areas.<ref name="Fieldhouse2017p256"/> People drape themselves in white cloths to represent souls and then visit houses, where they sing in return for prayers and sweets.<ref name="Fieldhouse2017p256"/>
In Scotland and Ireland, guising—children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins—is a secular Halloween custom.<ref name="Irish Times"/> It is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money.<ref name=frle>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Definition">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> In Ireland, the most popular phrase for kids to shout (until the 2000s) was "Help the Halloween Party".<ref name="Irish Times">Template:Cite news</ref> Author Nicholas Rogers cites an early example of guising in North America in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood.<ref>Rogers, Nicholas. (2002) "Coming Over:Halloween in North America". Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. p. 76. Oxford University Press, 2002, Template:ISBN</ref>
American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first book-length history of Halloween in the US: The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America".<ref>Kelley, Ruth Edna. The Book of Hallowe'en, Boston: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Co., 1919, chapter 15, p. 127. "Hallowe'en in America" Template:Webarchive.</ref> In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Halloween customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
While the first reference to "guising" in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.<ref>Theo. E. Wright, "A Halloween Story", St. Nicholas, October 1915, p. 1144. Mae McGuire Telford, "What Shall We Do Halloween?" Ladies Home Journal, October 1920, p. 135.</ref> The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1927, in the Blackie Herald, of Alberta, Canada.<ref name="Canada 1927">"'Trick or Treat' Is Demand", Herald (Lethbridge, Alberta), 4 November 1927, p. 5, dateline Blackie, Alberta, 3 November</ref>
The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but not trick-or-treating.<ref>For examples, see the websites Postcard & Greeting Card Museum: Halloween Gallery Template:Webarchive, Antique Hallowe'en Postcards Template:Webarchive, Vintage Halloween Postcards Template:Webarchive.</ref> Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice in North America until the 1930s, with the first US appearances of the term in 1934,<ref>"Halloween Pranks Keep Police on Hop", Oregon Journal (Portland, Oregon), 1 November 1934; and "The Gangsters of Tomorrow", The Helena Independent (Helena, Montana), 2 November 1934, p. 4. The Chicago Tribune also mentioned door-to-door begging in Aurora, Illinois, on Halloween in 1934, although not by the term 'trick-or-treating'. "Front Views and Profiles" (column), Chicago Tribune, 3 November 1934, p. 17.</ref> and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.<ref>Moss, Doris Hudson. "A Victim of the Window-Soaping Brigade?" The American Home, November 1939, p. 48.</ref>
A popular variant of trick-or-treating, known as trunk-or-treating (or Halloween tailgating), occurs when "children are offered treats from the trunks of cars parked in a church parking lot", or sometimes, a school parking lot.<ref name="The Halloween Encyclopedia page 9"/><ref>Bluff Park (Heather Jones Skaggs), Arcadia Publishing, p. 117</ref> In a trunk-or-treat event, the trunk (boot) of each automobile is decorated with a certain theme,<ref>"Trunk-or-Treat", The Chicago Tribune</ref> such as those of children's literature, movies, scripture, and job roles.<ref>Suggested Themes for "Trunks" for Trunk or Treat (Dail R. Faircloth), First Baptist Church of Royal Palm Beach</ref> Trunk-or-treating has grown in popularity due to its perception as being more safe than going door to door, a point that resonates well with parents, as well as the fact that it "solves the rural conundrum in which homes [are] built a half-mile apart".<ref>"Trunk or Treat focuses on fun, children's safety", Desert Valley Times</ref><ref>"Trunk or Treat! Halloween Tailgating Grows" (Fernanda Santos), The New York Times</ref>
CostumesEdit
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Halloween costumes were traditionally modeled after figures such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, scary looking witches, and devils.<ref name=Britannica /> Over time, the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses.
Dressing up in costumes and going "guising" was prevalent in Scotland and Ireland at Halloween by the late 19th century.<ref name=frle/> A Scottish term, the tradition is called "guising" because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children.<ref name="Definition"/> In Ireland and Scotland, the masks are known as 'false faces',<ref name=DSL/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> a term recorded in Ayr, Scotland in 1890 by a Scot describing guisers: "I had mind it was Halloween ... the wee callans (boys) were at it already, rinning aboot wi' their fause-faces (false faces) on and their bits o' turnip lanthrons (lanterns) in their haun (hand)".<ref name=DSL>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in the US in the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children, and when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in Canada and the US in the 1920s and 1930s.<ref name="Canada 1927"/><ref>Template:Cite news Quote: "Trick or treat?" the youthful mischief-maker will say this evening, probably, as he rings the doorbell of a neighbor."</ref>
Eddie J. Smith, in his book Halloween, Hallowed is Thy Name, offers a religious perspective to the wearing of costumes on All Hallows' Eve, suggesting that by dressing up as creatures "who at one time caused us to fear and tremble", people are able to poke fun at Satan "whose kingdom has been plundered by our Saviour". Images of skeletons and the dead are traditional decorations used as memento mori.<ref>School Year, Church Year (Peter Mazar), Liturgy Training Publications, p. 114</ref><ref>Memento Mori, Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri</ref>
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"Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" is a fundraising program to support UNICEF,<ref name=Britannica /> a United Nations Programme that provides humanitarian aid to children in developing countries. Started as a local event in a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood in 1950 and expanded nationally in 1952, the program involves the distribution of small boxes by schools (or in modern times, corporate sponsors like Hallmark, at their licensed stores) to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small-change donations from the houses they visit. It is estimated that children have collected more than $118 million for UNICEF since its inception. In Canada, in 2006, UNICEF decided to discontinue their Halloween collection boxes, citing safety and administrative concerns; after consultation with schools, they instead redesigned the program.<ref name="ctv">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="ca_un">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The yearly New York's Village Halloween Parade was begun in 1974; it is the world's largest Halloween parade and America's only major nighttime parade, attracting more than 60,000 costumed participants, two million spectators, and a worldwide television audience.<ref name="NYCHalloweenParade">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Since the late 2010s, ethnic stereotypes as costumes have increasingly come under scrutiny in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Pet costumesEdit
According to a 2018 report from the National Retail Federation, 30 million Americans will spend an estimated $480 million on Halloween costumes for their pets in 2018. This is up from an estimated $200 million in 2010. The most popular costumes for pets are the pumpkin, followed by the hot dog, and the bumblebee in third place.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Games and other activitiesEdit
There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween. Some of these games originated as divination rituals or ways of foretelling one's future, especially regarding death, marriage and children. During the Middle Ages, these rituals were done by a "rare few" in rural communities as they were considered to be "deadly serious" practices.<ref name="DiehlDonnelly2011">Template:Cite book</ref> In recent centuries, these divination games have been "a common feature of the household festivities" in Ireland and Britain.<ref name="Hutton, p.380"/> They often involve apples and hazelnuts. In Celtic mythology, apples were strongly associated with the Otherworld and immortality, while hazelnuts were associated with divine wisdom.<ref>MacLeod, Sharon. Celtic Myth and Religion. McFarland, 2011. pp. 61, 107</ref> Some also suggest that they derive from Roman practices in celebration of Pomona.<ref name=Britannica />
The following activities were a common feature of Halloween in Ireland and Britain during the 17th–20th centuries. Some have become more widespread and continue to be popular today. One common game is apple bobbing or dunking (which may be called "dooking" in Scotland)<ref>"Apple dookers make record attempt" Template:Webarchive, BBC News, 2 October 2008</ref> in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water and the participants must use only their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. Variants of dunking involve kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drive the fork into an apple, or embedding a coin in the apple which participants had to remove with their teeth. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity that inevitably leads to a sticky face. A similar game involved hanging an apple from a string with a coin embedded; the coin had to be removed without using hands. Another once-popular game involves hanging a small wooden rod from the ceiling at head height, with a lit candle on one end and an apple hanging from the other. The rod is spun round, and everyone takes turns to try to catch the apple with their teeth.<ref>Danaher, Kevin. The Year in Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs. Mercier Press, 1972. pp. 202–205</ref>
Several of the traditional activities from Ireland and Britain involve foretelling one's future partner or spouse. An apple would be peeled in one long strip, then the peel tossed over the shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name.<ref>Danaher (1972), p. 223</ref><ref name="McNeill">McNeill, F. Marian (1961, 1990) The Silver Bough, Volume III. William MacLellan, Glasgow Template:ISBN pp. 11–46</ref> Two hazelnuts would be roasted near a fire; one named for the person roasting them and the other for the person they desire. If the nuts jump away from the heat, it is a bad sign, but if the nuts roast quietly it foretells a good match.<ref>Danaher (1972), p. 219</ref><ref>McNeill (1961), The Silver Bough, Volume III, pp. 33–34</ref> A salty oatmeal bannock would be baked; the person would eat it in three bites and then go to bed in silence without anything to drink. This is said to result in a dream in which their future spouse offers them a drink to quench their thirst.<ref>McNeill (1961), The Silver Bough, Volume III, p. 34</ref> Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror.<ref name="hollister">Template:Cite book</ref> The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> from the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Another popular Irish game was known as púicíní ("blindfolds"); a person would be blindfolded and then would choose between several saucers. The item in the saucer would provide a hint as to their future: a ring would mean that they would marry soon; clay, that they would die soon, perhaps within the year; water, that they would emigrate; rosary beads, that they would take Holy Orders (become a nun, priest, monk, etc.); a coin, that they would become rich; a bean, that they would be poor.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The game features prominently in the James Joyce short story "Clay" (1914).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In Ireland and Scotland, items would be hidden in food – usually a cake, barmbrack, cranachan, champ or colcannon – and portions of it served out at random. A person's future would be foretold by the item they happened to find; for example, a ring meant marriage and a coin meant wealth.<ref>McNeill (1961), The Silver Bough Volume III, p. 34</ref>
Up until the 19th century, the Halloween bonfires were also used for divination in parts of Scotland, Wales and Brittany. When the fire died down, a ring of stones would be laid in the ashes, one for each person. In the morning, if any stone was mislaid it was said that the person it represented would not live out the year.<ref name=hutton365-369/> In Mexico, children create altars to invite the spirits of deceased children to return (angelitos).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Telling ghost stories, listening to Halloween-themed songs and watching horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of television series and Halloween-themed specials (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before Halloween, while new horror films are often released before Halloween to take advantage of the holiday.
Haunted attractionsEdit
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Haunted attractions are entertainment venues designed to thrill and scare patrons. Most attractions are seasonal Halloween businesses that may include haunted houses, corn mazes, and hayrides,<ref name="hvmag">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the level of sophistication of the effects has risen as the industry has grown.
The first recorded purpose-built haunted attraction was the Orton and Spooner Ghost House, which opened in 1915 in Liphook, England. This attraction actually most closely resembles a carnival fun house, powered by steam.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The House still exists, in the Hollycombe Steam Collection.
It was during the 1930s, about the same time as trick-or-treating, that Halloween-themed haunted houses first began to appear in America. It was in the late 1950s that haunted houses as a major attraction began to appear, focusing first on California. Sponsored by the Children's Health Home Junior Auxiliary, the San Mateo Haunted House opened in 1957. The San Bernardino Assistance League Haunted House opened in 1958. Home haunts began appearing across the country during 1962 and 1963. In 1964, the San Manteo Haunted House opened, as well as the Children's Museum Haunted House in Indianapolis.<ref name=LisaMorton>Template:Cite book</ref>
The haunted house as an American cultural icon can be attributed to the opening of The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland on 12 August 1969.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Knott's Berry Farm began hosting its own Halloween night attraction, Knott's Scary Farm, which opened in 1973.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Evangelical Christians adopted a form of these attractions by opening one of the first "hell houses" in 1972.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The first Halloween haunted house run by a nonprofit organization was produced in 1970 by the Sycamore-Deer Park Jaycees in Clifton, Ohio. It was cosponsored by WSAI, an AM radio station broadcasting out of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was last produced in 1982.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Other Jaycees followed suit with their own versions after the success of the Ohio house. The March of Dimes copyrighted a "Mini haunted house for the March of Dimes" in 1976 and began fundraising through their local chapters by conducting haunted houses soon after. Although they apparently quit supporting this type of event nationally sometime in the 1980s, some March of Dimes haunted houses have persisted until today.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
On the evening of 11 May 1984, in Jackson Township, New Jersey, the Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure caught fire. As a result of the fire, eight teenagers perished.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The backlash to the tragedy was a tightening of regulations relating to safety, building codes and the frequency of inspections of attractions nationwide. The smaller venues, especially the nonprofit attractions, were unable to compete financially, and the better funded commercial enterprises filled the vacuum.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Facilities that were once able to avoid regulation because they were considered to be temporary installations now had to adhere to the stricter codes required of permanent attractions.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, theme parks became a notable figure in the Halloween business. Six Flags Fright Fest began in 1986 and Universal Studios Florida began Halloween Horror Nights in 1991. Knott's Scary Farm experienced a surge in attendance in the 1990s as a result of America's obsession with Halloween as a cultural event. Theme parks have played a major role in globalizing the holiday. Universal Studios Singapore and Universal Studios Japan both participate, while Disney now mounts Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party events at its parks in Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo, as well as in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The theme park haunts are by far the largest, both in scale and attendance.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
FoodEdit
On All Hallows' Eve, many Western Christian denominations encourage abstinence from meat, giving rise to a variety of vegetarian foods associated with this day.<ref name=mader>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Because in the Northern Hemisphere Halloween comes in the wake of the yearly apple harvest, candy apples (known as toffee apples outside North America), caramel apples or taffy apples are common Halloween treats made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup or caramel, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts.
At one time, candy apples were commonly given to trick-or-treating children, but the practice rapidly waned in the wake of widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples in the United States.<ref name="rogers_r">Rogers, Nicholas (2002). "Razor in the Apple: Struggle for Safe and Sane Halloween, c. 1920–1990", Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, pp. 78–102. New York: Oxford University Press. Template:ISBN.</ref> While there is evidence of such incidents,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> relative to the degree of reporting of such cases, actual cases involving malicious acts are extremely rare and have never resulted in serious injury. Nonetheless, many parents assumed that such heinous practices were rampant because of the mass media. At the peak of the hysteria, some hospitals offered free X-rays of children's Halloween hauls in order to find evidence of tampering. Virtually all of the few known candy poisoning incidents involved parents who poisoned their own children's candy.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
One custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays, the purchase) of a barmbrack (Template:Langx), which is a light fruitcake, into which a plain ring, a coin, and other charms are placed before baking.<ref name="Barmbrack">Template:Cite news</ref> It is considered fortunate to be the lucky one who finds it.<ref name="Barmbrack"/> It has also been said that those who get a ring will find their true love in the ensuing year. This is similar to the tradition of king cake at the festival of Epiphany. Halloween-themed foods are also produced by companies in the lead up to the night, for example Cadbury releasing Goo Heads (similar to Creme Eggs) in spooky wrapping.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Foods such as cakes will often be decorated with Halloween colors (typically black, orange, and purple) and motifs for parties and events. Popular themes include pumpkins, spiders, and body parts.<ref name="Crocker 2012">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Hood 2014 p. 119">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="McCrum 2015">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
List of foods associated with Halloween:
- Barmbrack (Ireland)
- Bonfire toffee (Great Britain)
- Candy apples/toffee apples (Great Britain and Ireland)
- Candy apples, candy corn, candy pumpkins (North America)
- Monkey nuts (peanuts in their shells) (Ireland and Scotland)
- Caramel apples
- Caramel corn
- Colcannon (Ireland; see below)
- Sweets/candy/chocolate, often with novelty shapes like skulls, pumpkins, bats, etc.
- Roasted pumpkin seeds
- Roasted sweet corn
- Soul cakes
- Pumpkin pie
Christian observancesEdit
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On Hallowe'en (All Hallows' Eve), in Poland, believers were once taught to pray out loud as they walk through the forests in order that the souls of the dead might find comfort; in Spain, Christian priests in tiny villages toll their church bells in order to remind their congregants to remember the dead on All Hallows' Eve.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In Ireland, and among immigrants in Canada, a custom includes the Christian practice of abstinence, keeping All Hallows' Eve as a meat-free day and serving pancakes or colcannon instead.<ref>Feasting and Fasting: Canada's Heritage Celebrations (Dorothy Duncan), Dundurn, p. 249</ref>
The Christian Church traditionally observed Hallowe'en through a vigil. Worshippers prepared themselves for feasting on the following All Saints' Day with prayers and fasting.<ref name=BBC3>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This church service is known as the Vigil of All Hallows or the Vigil of All Saints;<ref name=Harvey>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=CNA>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> an initiative known as Night of Light seeks to further spread the Vigil of All Hallows throughout Christendom.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After the service, "suitable festivities and entertainments" often follow, as well as a visit to the graveyard or cemetery, where flowers and candles are often placed in preparation for All Hallows' Day.<ref name=Armentrout>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Infeld>Template:Cite book</ref> In England, Light Parties are organized by churches after worship services on Halloween with the focus on Jesus as the Light of the World.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Finland, because so many people visit the cemeteries on All Hallows' Eve to light votive candles there, they "are known as valomeri, or seas of light".<ref>Teens in Finland (Jason Skog), Capstone, p. 61</ref>
Today, Christian attitudes towards Halloween are diverse. In the Anglican Church, some dioceses have chosen to emphasize the Christian traditions associated with All Hallows' Eve.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="newadvent.org">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Some of these practices include praying, fasting and attending worship services.<ref name=Fasting>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Service /><ref name=Prayer />
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Other Protestant Christians also celebrate All Hallows' Eve as Reformation Day, a day to remember the Protestant Reformation, alongside All Hallows' Eve or independently from it.<ref name = "RefDay">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This is because Martin Luther is said to have nailed his Ninety-five Theses to All Saints' Church in Wittenberg on All Hallows' Eve.<ref>Halloween, Hallowed Is Thy Name (Smith), p. 29</ref> Often, "Harvest Festivals", "Template:Va" or "Reformation Festivals" are held on All Hallows' Eve, in which children dress up as Bible characters or Reformers.<ref name=Reformers>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In addition to distributing candy to children who are trick-or-treating on Hallowe'en, many Christians also provide gospel tracts to them. One organization, the American Tract Society, stated that around 3 million gospel tracts are ordered from them alone for Hallowe'en celebrations.<ref>Halloween tracts serve as tool to spread gospel to children (Curry), Baptist Press</ref> Others order Halloween-themed Scripture Candy to pass out to children on this day.<ref name="Woods2013">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Some Christians feel concerned about the modern celebration of Halloween because they feel it trivializes – or celebrates – paganism, the occult, or other practices and cultural phenomena deemed incompatible with their beliefs.<ref name="russo">Halloween: What's a Christian to Do? (1998) by Steve Russo.</ref> Father Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist in Rome, has said, "if English and American children like to dress up as witches and devils on one night of the year that is not a problem. If it is just a game, there is no harm in that."<ref name="Brandreth">Gyles Brandreth, "The Devil is gaining ground" The Sunday Telegraph (London), 11 March 2000.</ref> The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has organized a "Saint Fest" on Halloween.<ref name="www.rcab.org">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Similarly, many contemporary Protestant churches view Halloween as a fun event for children, holding events in their churches where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and get candy for free. To these Christians, Halloween holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality, and the ways of the Celtic ancestors actually being a valuable life lesson and a part of many of their parishioners' heritage.<ref name="CelticChristians">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Christian minister Sam Portaro wrote that Halloween is about using "humor and ridicule to confront the power of death".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the Catholic Church, Halloween's Christian connection is acknowledged, and Halloween celebrations are common in many Catholic parochial schools, such as in the United States,<ref>"Halloween's Christian Roots" AmericanCatholic.org. Retrieved 24 October 2007.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> while schools throughout Ireland also close for the Halloween break.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A few fundamentalist and evangelical churches use "Hell houses" and comic-style tracts in order to make use of Halloween's popularity as an opportunity for evangelism.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Others consider Halloween to be completely incompatible with the Christian faith due to its putative origins in the Festival of the Dead celebration.<ref name="www.thercg.org">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Indeed, even though Eastern Orthodox Christians observe All Hallows' Day on the First Sunday after Pentecost, the Eastern Orthodox Church recommends the observance of Vespers or a Paraklesis on the Western observance of All Hallows' Eve, out of the pastoral need to provide an alternative to popular celebrations.<ref>Do Orthodox Christians Observe Halloween? by Saint Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church</ref>
Analogous celebrations and perspectivesEdit
JudaismEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} According to Alfred J. Kolatch in the Second Jewish Book of Why, in Judaism, Halloween is not permitted by Jewish Halakha because it violates Leviticus 18:3, which forbids Jews from partaking in Gentile customs. Many Jews observe Yizkor communally four times a year, which is vaguely similar to the observance of Allhallowtide in Christianity, in the sense that prayers are said for both "martyrs and for one's own family".<ref>The Jewish Life Cycle: rites of passage from biblical to modern times (Ivan G. Marcus), University of Washington Press, p. 232</ref> Nevertheless, many American Jews celebrate Halloween, disconnected from its Christian origins.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser has said that "There is no religious reason why contemporary Jews should not celebrate Halloween" while Orthodox Rabbi Michael Broyde has argued against Jews' observing the holiday.<ref>A Jewish exploration of halloween Template:Webarchive The Jewish Journal</ref> Purim has sometimes been compared to Halloween, in part due to some observants wearing costumes, especially of Biblical figures described in the Purim narrative.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
IslamEdit
Sheikh Idris Palmer, author of A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, has ruled that Muslims should not participate in Halloween, stating that "participation in Halloween is worse than participation in Christmas, Easter, ... it is more sinful than congratulating the Christians for their prostration to the crucifix".<ref>Template:Citation</ref> It has also been ruled to be haram by the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia because of its alleged pagan roots stating "Halloween is celebrated using a humorous theme mixed with horror to entertain and resist the spirit of death that influence humans".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Dar Al-Ifta Al-Missriyyah disagrees provided the celebration is not referred to as an 'eid' and that behaviour remains in line with Islamic principles.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
HinduismEdit
Hindus remember the dead during the festival of Pitru Paksha, during which Hindus pay homage to and perform a ceremony "to keep the souls of their ancestors at rest". It is celebrated in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, usually in mid-September.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> The celebration of the Hindu festival Diwali sometimes conflicts with the date of Halloween; but some Hindus choose to participate in the popular customs of Halloween.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Other Hindus, such as Soumya Dasgupta, have opposed the celebration on the grounds that Western holidays like Halloween have "begun to adversely affect our indigenous festivals".<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
NeopaganismEdit
There is no consistent rule or view on Halloween amongst those who describe themselves as Neopagans or Wiccans. Some Neopagans do not observe Halloween, but instead observe Samhain on 1 November,<ref name=George>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> some neopagans do enjoy Halloween festivities, stating that one can observe both "the solemnity of Samhain in addition to the fun of Halloween". Some neopagans are opposed to the celebration of Hallowe'en, stating that it "trivializes Samhain",<ref>Should Pagans Celebrate Halloween? (Wicasta Lovelace), Pagan Centric</ref> and "avoid Halloween, because of the interruptions from trick or treaters".<ref>Halloween, From a Wiccan/Neopagan perspective (B.A. Robinson), Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance</ref> The Manitoban writes that "Wiccans don't officially celebrate Halloween, despite the fact that 31 Oct. will still have a star beside it in any good Wiccan's day planner. Starting at sundown, Wiccans celebrate a holiday known as Samhain. Samhain actually comes from old Celtic traditions and is not exclusive to Neopagan religions like Wicca. While the traditions of this holiday originate in Celtic countries, modern day Wiccans don't try to historically replicate Samhain celebrations. Some traditional Samhain rituals are still practised, but at its core, the period is treated as a time to celebrate darkness and the deadTemplate:Snda possible reason why Samhain can be confused with Halloween celebrations."<ref name=George/>
GeographyEdit
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The traditions and importance of Halloween vary greatly among countries that observe it. In Scotland and Ireland, traditional Halloween customs include children dressing up in costume going "guising", holding parties, while other practices in Ireland include lighting bonfires, and having firework displays.<ref name="Irish Times"/><ref>Halloween fire calls 'every 90 seconds' Template:Webarchive UTV News Retrieved 22 November 2010</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Brittany children would play practical jokes by setting candles inside skulls in graveyards to frighten visitors.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mass transatlantic immigration in the 19th century popularized Halloween in North America, and celebration in the United States and Canada has had a significant impact on how the event is observed in other nations.<ref name="Irish Times"/> This larger North American influence, particularly in iconic and commercial elements, has extended to places such as Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Australia,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> New Zealand,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (most) continental Europe, Finland,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Japan, and other parts of East Asia.<ref name="rogers_m">Rogers, Nicholas (2002). Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, p. 164. New York: Oxford University Press. Template:ISBN</ref>
CostEdit
In the American economy, Halloween accounts for over $10 billion every year. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans were projected to spend $12.2 billion on Halloween in 2023, up from $10.6 billion in 2022. Of this amount, $3.9 billion is projected to be spent on home decorations, up from $2.7 billion in 2019. The popularity of Halloween decorations has been growing in recent years, with retailers offering a wider range of increasingly elaborate and oversized decorations.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Campfire story
- Mischief Night
- Dziady
- English festivals
- Ghost Festival
- Kekri
- List of fiction works about Halloween
- List of films set around Halloween
- List of Halloween television specials
- Martinisingen
- Naraka Chaturdashi
- Neewollah
- Skelly (Halloween decoration)
- St. John's Eve
- Walpurgis Night
- Will-o'-the-wisp
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
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- Diane C. Arkins, Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear, Pelican Publishing Company (2000). 96 pages. Template:ISBN
- Diane C. Arkins, Halloween Merrymaking: An Illustrated Celebration Of Fun, Food, And Frolics From Halloweens Past, Pelican Publishing Company (2004). 112 pages. Template:ISBN
- Lesley Bannatyne, Halloween: An American Holiday, An American History, Facts on File (1990, Pelican Publishing Company, 1998). 180 pages. Template:ISBN
- Lesley Bannatyne, A Halloween Reader. Stories, Poems and Plays from Halloweens Past, Pelican Publishing Company (2004). 272 pages. Template:ISBN
- Phyllis Galembo, Dressed for Thrills: 100 Years of Halloween Costumes and Masquerade, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (2002). 128 pages. Template:ISBN
- Editha Hörandner (ed.), Halloween in der Steiermark und anderswo, Volkskunde (Münster in Westfalen), LIT Verlag Münster (2005). 308 pages. Template:ISBN
- Lisa Morton, Trick or Treat A history of Halloween, Reaktion Books (2012). 229 pages. Template:ISBN
- Lisa Morton, The Halloween Encyclopedia, McFarland & Company (2003). 240 pages. Template:ISBN
- Nicholas Rogers, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, Oxford University Press, US (2002). Template:ISBN
- Jack Santino (ed.), Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, University of Tennessee Press (1994). 280 pages. Template:ISBN
- David J. Skal, Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween, Bloomsbury US (2003). 224 pages. Template:ISBN
- James Tipper, Gods of The Nowhere: A Novel of Halloween, Waxlight Press (2013). 294 pages. Template:ISBN
External linksEdit
- "A brief history of Halloween" by the BBC
- "All Hallows Eve (Halloween) in the Traditional, Pre-1955 Liturgical Books" by the Liturgical Arts Journal
- "The History of Halloween" by the History Channel
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