Connor: Blog Of The Day

Halloween: Pagan Holiday Or Day Of Respecting The Dead

By Connor M. Jones

     When Halloween started it was much like the day of the dead.  Halloween started as a Celtic new years tradition where the dead would return to earth for one night and attempt to posses a living body.  The Celtics would try to cause as much noise and destruction as possible in order to ward off the spirits.  Over time the traditions and who was celebrating them changed.  At one point it was a Christian holiday where people exchanged prayers for sweets.

  When Rome claimed Halloween as their holiday they changed things and added new stuff.  Rome made the holiday all about the fruit goddess, which is why bobbing for apples is now a traditional game.  Rome also celebrated trees and other things on the same day.  They probably thought they should combine all their October celebrations in one day rather than spreading them out over the month.  Following the Romans came the Greeks with more ideas and traditions.

The Greeks added two goddesses to the celebration.  The Goddesses of the underworld Hecate and Medusa.  These serpent goddesses added vampires to the lore.  Hecate's role was changed after that to goddess of witches and witchcraft.  Hecate's story is similar to the story of the jack-o-lantern.  It is similar in that Hecate wandered the realms between life and death searching for dead souls.  After the Greeks the rest of Europe got it.

European Christians took the holiday and made it All Hallows Eve, which later became Halloween.  All Hallows Eve was a time to celebrate saints, being the day before All Hallows Day.  At night on some days Christians would go door to door offering prayers for the dead in return for a soul cake.  It was believed to actually help the dead go to heaven if they heard prayers, even if those prayers were from strangers.  Christianity added just about everyone's favorite part of the holiday, later the ideas went to America.

In the eighteen-forties Irish settlers brought Halloween to America.  In America all traditions were combined into a festive holiday where you go around asking for candy in return for not pulling pranks on people.  In those days the popular pranks were to tip over outhouses and unhinge fences.  Now people party and go around after dark in goofy and sometimes creepy costumes.  Somethings will never change.  Halloween will probably always be a festive day even if the name and traditions are changed in the distant future.  Happy Halloween!