The festival of Halloween in the UK is over 2,000 years old, dating back to the time of the Celts (600 BC-50 AD). The Celts celebrated the end of summer and the harvest with a festival called ‘Samhain’, which took place on the night of October 31st. Even then, this date had links to ghosts and the spirit world, as on this night the Celts believed that the boundaries between our world and the next would weaken, allowing the souls of the dead to cross over and communicate with the dead. alive. Much of the celebration involved the building of huge bonfires, which were thought to welcome friendly spirits and ancestors, but drive away those deemed dangerous. People dressed in animal heads and skins, and burned sacrifices and offerings in thanks for the harvest.

Samhain was also a time for divination and divination. Apples feature extensively in these divination techniques. For example, when fishing for apples, a tradition that still survives to this day, the first person to take a bite out of an apple would be the first to be married that year. Also, when peeling an apple, the longer the unbroken length of the peel, the longer it is destined to live.

After the invasion of the Romans in 43 d. C., two Roman festivals were celebrated at the same time as Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day when the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day honoring Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit trees symbolized by the apple. The Romans were very open to the cultures of the people they invaded and sought to merge their beliefs with those of the indigenous Celts. It is perhaps easy to see why these two festivals became closely linked with Samhain.

Christianity had spread to the Celtic lands in the 800s and the Christian church seems to have practiced its usual policy of adopting pagan celebrations by making Halloween a Christian celebration. However, by moving the ancient Christian festival of All Saints to November 1, they maintained the link with the memory of the dead. On All Saints’ Day, a mass was held in honor of the saints and martyrs, and this was preceded the day before (All Hallow’s Eve or Eve of All Saints – in Old English, hallow means holy) by a vigil nocturnal According to the early Christian church, this day also marked the release of all souls from purgatory for 2 days. The Day of the Dead, which commemorated the faithful departed, followed on November 2. Together, the three festivals, All Hallows’ Eve, All Hallows’ Day, and All Souls’ Day, became known as Hallowmass.

The custom of ‘trick or treating’, nowadays a large part of Halloween celebrations, possibly has some of its roots in the tradition of making soul cakes. This was an important feature of the Day of the Dead (similar to the way we associate hot cross buns with Good Friday today), when beggars wandered from house to house, receiving gifts of food and money. In exchange for a soul cake, these ‘soulers’ were expected to pray for those who had recently died, to hasten their passage through purgatory and into heaven. The “trick” part of the custom appears to have emerged in the US in the 1930s, where Halloween became associated with playing tricks and pranks.

Although the Church was successful in establishing Hallowmass as a Christian festival, much of the population continued to practice the old customs and traditions associated with Samhain. With the reform of the Church in the 16th century, celebrations of this type were further discouraged. However, after the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, many traditional Halloween practices, especially the building of bonfires, were moved to November 5 (now known as Bonfire or Guy Fawkes Night). Although in England the celebration of Halloween gradually fell out of fashion in favor of Bonfire Night, the tradition lasted longer in both Ireland and Scotland, due to the strong Celtic links in these countries.

The resurgence of the Halloween celebration that we have seen in the last 20 years, with its emphasis on dressing up as ghosts and witches, has been largely imported from the US Halloween and its more pagan traditions were first brought to the US in the mid-19th century, when large numbers of Irish immigrants fled to the US after the Irish Potato Famine. Over time, the festival and its traditions evolved and crossed the Atlantic, giving us the celebration we know and love (or hate!) today.

conclusion
The celebration we know today as Halloween dates back to an ancient festival of the Celts – Samhain. Despite the passage of 2,000 years, it is still possible to trace some of the traditions we associate with Halloween – the bonfires and the link with ghosts and the spirit world – to this early celebration of the end of summer and the gathering of the harvest. .

Sources:

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
• Woodland-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Halloween/history.htm
• ucc.ie/fecc/samhain.html
• bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/halloween.shtml
• americancatholic.org/features/halloween/
• chalicecentre.net/samhain.htm
• bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/samhain.shtml
• new-life.net/halowen1.htm
• hauntedbay.com/history/bobbing.shtml
• britainexpress.com/History/Celtic_Britain.htm
• britainexpress.com/History/Roman_invasion.htm