The History of Halloween

Halloween is coming up, with just 2 weeks left. Most of us celebrate Halloween in some way, but do you know why? Halloween started as a Celtic festival to ward off ghosts. In 1000 A.D., the church created All Soul’s Day, to honor the dead. Over time, the night before All Soul’s Day turned into All-Hallows Eve. The colonists in America started celebrating All-Hallows Eve, now called Halloween, by having parties and telling ghost stories.

By the early 1800s, Americans began going door to door asking for food and money, which later evolved into our now common trick-or-treating. In the late 1800s, parents began to push for Halloween to become more of a celebration of family, and to stop any frightening costumes. Between 1920 and 1950, trick-or-treating became widespread among young children, and adults provided them with candy in an effort to stop vandalism or tricks being played on them. But where did the idea to dress up and ask for candy even come from? When Halloween was still called All Soul’s day, peasants and the poor used to beg for food at parades. Eventually, children also started begging for treats. Since All Soul’s day was originally to honor the dead, people thought that on the night before, Halloween, ghosts would come out and roam. To protect themselves, when they left the house, the people wore masks. So this Halloween, whether you are staying at home and handing out treats, trick-or-treating, or something else, think about the history of this fun holiday.