Trick or Treat!

This is one of my favourite times of the year! Everywhere I go right now I’m reminded it’s Halloween! Everything is decorated with witches and ghosts and anything black and orange. TV shows have Halloween-themed episodes and TV Channels are showing non-stop horror films. Last week PetSmart had a costume party for pets, the Toronto Zoo is hosting “Boo at the Zoo!” and Canada’s Wonderland has turned its amusement park into a haunted house!

On October 31st kids across the country will dress up in costumes and go from house to house saying ‘trick or treat.’ People decorate their houses and give out candy (nobody expects them to play a trick anymore!). Some adults will dress up too and go to Halloween parties (trick-or-treating in only for the young!). It’s such a fun community event! This year at my house we’re giving out mini-chocolate bars and small bags of potato chips to all the trick-or-treaters.

 

How did Halloween begin?

Halloween began as the Celtic festival Samhain (pronounced sow-in) celebrated on November 1st, the beginning of their new year. The Celts were pagan people who lived 2000 years ago in what is now the United Kingdom and northern France. Samhain celebrated the end of both the summer and the harvest and the beginning of winter. The Celts believed that on the night before Samhain the ghosts of the dead returned to earth and witches would descend and cast their evils spells on people. It was an important night because winter was a frightening and uncertain time for them. The days were short and many people were afraid of the long dark nights. The Celts wanted to ward off evils spirits to protect themselves through the long, dark winter.

People were afraid they would encounter ghosts when they left their homes, especially after dark, so they would put on masks and costumes to avoid being recognized and hoped that the ghosts would think they are fellow spirits! (Today, people still dress up as ghosts or witches or skeletons for Halloween!) They would also attempt to scare off evil spirits by carving a scary face into a hollowed out turnip or rutabaga, putting a candle in it for light and putting this in the window of their house. Nowadays we hollow out pumpkins and carve scary or funny faces into them. (Pumpkins are native to North America, readily available in October, and are a whole lot bigger than turnips or rutabaga!)

After the Celts were conquered by the Romans, Samhain was incorporated into other Roman festivals commemorating the passing of the dead. As a way to encourage pagans to convert to Christianity, a 7th C Pope attempted to replace old Celtic and Roman festivals with church-sanctioned holidays and declared November 1st All Saints’ Day, a day to honour saints and martyrs. The day was renamed ‘All-hallows’ or ‘All-hallowmas.’ The night before ‘All-hallows’ was called ‘All-hallows Even’, or what we know today as Halloween. Later, another Pope would declare November 2nd All Souls’ Day, a day to honour the dead. All three days were called Hallomas a time and some of the old Samhin traditions were incorporated – but now people dressed up as saints, angels, and devils (which are still popular costumes today!)

 

Why do we celebrate Halloween?

Today we celebrate the end of the harvest season as Thanksgiving, and Halloween has lost much of its religious significance. Over time Halloween has turned into community celebration and trick-or-treating is an inexpensive way for an entire community or neighbourhood to share in the tradition!

People come up with the most creative costumes in addition to the traditional ones. When I was young I dressed up as a clown, a bunny, a cartoon character, and a ’50s girl among other things. We still try to scare each other, but now we do it by telling ghost stories or talking a walk through a haunted house!

To learn more about Canada and the holidays we celebrate, check out the Reading page!