Halloween's 2,000-Year Path: From Celtic Samhain to Postwar Candy Aisle
Halloween's origins trace back about 2,000 years to Samhain, a Celtic celebration that signified the end of the harvest and the arrival of winter in areas like Ireland, the U.K., and northern France. During this time, people believed the line between the living and the dead blurred, so they lit big fires and donned animal skins to scare off spirits; interestingly, the term "bonfire" comes from "bonefire" in Middle English. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III established November 1 as All Saints' Day, which eventually led to the abbreviation of All Hallows' Eve into Halloween. In the late 1840s, Irish migration brought the holiday to America, evolving into the trick-or-treating we know today.
Key facts
- Samhain was observed roughly 2,000 years ago in what is now Ireland, the U.K. and northern France, running from sunset on October 31 through November 1
- Pope Gregory III fixed All Saints' Day on November 1 in the eighth century; Pope Gregory IV later extended the feast across the Western church
- The Chelmsford witch trial of 1566, among England's earliest, included testimony about a familiar spirit appearing as a cat
- The Salem trials of 1692 produced 20 executions — 19 hanged and Giles Corey pressed to death under stones
- The Malleus Maleficarum was published in 1487 by Dominican inquisitor Heinrich Kramer; Scotland passed its Witchcraft Act in 1563
- More than a million people left Ireland during the famine decade of the late 1840s
- U.S. sugar rationing ended in 1947, clearing the way for wrapped candy as Halloween's default treat
- Sociologist Joel Best found no confirmed case of a child killed by candy poisoned at random by a stranger
Entities
Artists
- Stingy Jack
- Daniel Maclise
- Robert Burns
- Heinrich Kramer
- King James VI of Scotland
- James I of England
- Giles Corey
- Jack Chick
- Kenneth Lanning
- Joel Best
- Pope Gregory III
- Pope Gregory IV
- Pomona
Institutions
- Catholic Church
- Chick Publications
- National Retail Federation
- FBI
- Quartz
- National Heritage Center
Locations
- Ireland
- United Kingdom
- France
- Scotland
- England
- Rome
- Italy
- St. Peter's Basilica
- Chelmsford
- Massachusetts
- Salem
- North Berwick
- Blarney
- Maryland
- Boston
- Ohio
- Kansas
- California
- United States
- Canada
- Isle of Man
- North America
- Newfoundland
- Britain
- Gaul
Sources
- TheCollector —
- Quartz —