Christian origins and historical customs Halloween is influenced by Christian beliefs and practices surrounding
All Hallows' Day (All Saints' Day). Since the time of the
early Church,
major feasts in Christianity (such as
Christmas,
Easter and
Pentecost) had
vigils that began the night before, as did the feast of All Hallows. These three days are included in the liturgical period of
Allhallowtide, a time when
Western Christians honour all
Christian martyrs and
saints, as well as
pray for departed
souls. After the
persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, "there were more
martyrs than there were days in the year, and so one day was set apart in honor of them all, and called All Saints' Day." Commemorations of all saints and martyrs were held by several churches on various dates, mostly in springtime. In 4th-century Roman
Edessa it was held on 13 May, and on that date in 609,
Pope Boniface IV re-dedicated the
Pantheon in Rome to "St Mary and all martyrs". This was the date of
Lemuria, an
ancient Roman festival of the dead, when it was believed that restless and vengeful souls wandered. Some folklorists also suggest the ancient Roman festival of
Parentalia (including
Feralia) influenced All Saints' and All Souls' days. Parentalia involved a
commemorative meal at the graves of relatives, during which food and drink were offered to the dead, and Christian Romans continued this custom, extending it to the saints and martyrs. There is evidence that by 800, churches in Ireland and
Northumbria were holding a feast commemorating all saints on 1 November. In 835, the
Frankish Empire officially adopted 1 November as the date of All Saints' Day. or by the Irish clerics and scholars who were also members of the Frankish court. Some suggest the date was due to Celtic influence; others, that it was a Germanic idea, They may have seen it as the most fitting time to do so, as it is a time of "dying" in nature. Its date was fixed on 2 November, the day after All Saints' Day. By the end of the 12th century, they had become
holy days of obligation requiring church attendance in Western Christianity and involved such traditions as ringing
church bells for souls in
Purgatory. It was also "customary for
criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and calling on all good Christians to remember the poor souls". The Allhallowtide custom of baking and sharing
soul cakes for all
christened souls has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating. and was found in parts of England, Wales, Flanders,
Bavaria and Austria. Soul cakes were also offered for the souls themselves to eat, As with the
Lenten tradition of
hot cross buns, soul cakes were often marked with a
cross, indicating that they were baked as
alms.
Shakespeare mentions souling in his comedy
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593). While souling, Christians would carry "lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips", which could have originally represented souls of the dead; later
jack-o'-lanterns were used to ward off evil spirits. Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh linked the wearing of costumes to the belief in
vengeful ghosts: "It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the
next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes". In the Middle Ages, churches in Europe that were too poor to display
relics of
martyred saints at Allhallowtide let parishioners dress up as saints instead. Some Christians observe this custom at Halloween today.
Lesley Bannatyne believes this could have been a Christianization of an earlier pagan custom. Many Christians in mainland Europe, especially in France, believed "that once a year, on Hallowe'en, the dead of the churchyards rose for one wild, hideous carnival" known as the
danse macabre, which was often depicted in
church decoration.
Christopher Allmand and
Rosamond McKitterick write in
The New Cambridge Medieval History that the
danse macabre urged Christians "not to forget the end of all earthly things". The
danse macabre was sometimes enacted in European village pageants and
court masques with people "dressing up as corpses from various strata of society", and this may be the origin of Halloween costume parties. For some
Nonconformist Protestants, the
theology of All Hallows' Eve was redefined: "souls cannot be journeying from Purgatory on their way to Heaven, as Catholics frequently believe and assert. Instead, the so-called ghosts are thought to be in actuality evil spirits". Other Protestants believed in an
intermediate state known as
Hades (
Bosom of Abraham). In some localities, Catholics and Protestants continued souling,
candlelit processions, or ringing church bells for the dead; Professor of
medieval archaeology Mark Donnelly and historian Daniel Diehl write that "barns and
homes were blessed to protect people and livestock from the
effect of witches, who were believed to accompany the
malignant spirits as they traveled the earth". After 1605, Allhallowtide was eclipsed in England by
Guy Fawkes Night (5 November), which appropriated some of its customs. In England, the ending of official ceremonies related to the intercession of saints led to the development of new, unofficial Allhallowtide customs. In 18th- and 19th-century rural
Lancashire, Catholic families gathered on hills on the night of All Hallows' Eve and one person held a bunch of burning straw on a
pitchfork while the rest knelt around him, praying for the souls of relatives and friends until the flames went out. This was known as ''teen'lay''. There was a similar custom in
Hertfordshire, and the lighting of "tindle" fires in
Derbyshire. Some suggested that these fires were originally lit to "guide the poor souls back to earth". In Scotland and Ireland, old Allhallowtide customs that were at odds with Reformed teaching were not suppressed because they "were important to the life cycle and rites of passage of local communities" and so curbing them would have been difficult. Flanders, Bavaria, and in
Tyrol, where they were called "soul lights", that served "to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes". Across Christendom, in preparation for Allhallowtide, Christians flocked to cemeteries "decorating the graves of their dear ones with flowers, tending the lawn, and spreading fresh white gravel around the tombs" with "candles, protected by little glass lanterns" being "placed around the graves or at the foot of the tombstones, to be lighted on All Saints' eve and left burning prior through the night." The
use of candles by Christians symbolized the
light of Christ and the use of lamps at the tombs of
Christian martyrs dates back to the early Christian period. In 19th century
Brittany,
libations of milk were poured on the graves of kinfolk, In 19th-century Spain at Allhallowtide, there was a procession in the city of
San Sebastián to the city cemetery, an event that drew beggars who "appeal[ed] to the tender recollections of one's deceased relations and friends" for sympathy. People in Spain continue to bake special pastries called "bones of the holy" () and set them on graves; and at cemeteries in both Spain and France, as well as in
Latin America, priests lead
Christian processions and services during Allhallowtide, after which people keep an all-night vigil.
Celtic folk influence in
County Mayo, Ireland Today's Halloween customs are thought to have been influenced by
folk customs and beliefs from the
Celtic-speaking countries, some of which are believed to have
pagan roots.
Jack Santino, a
folklorist, writes that "there was throughout Ireland an uneasy truce existing between customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated with religions that were Irish before Christianity arrived". The origins of Halloween customs are typically linked to the
Gaelic festival
Samhain. Samhain is one of the "
quarter days" in the medieval Gaelic calendar and has been celebrated on 31 October1 November in Ireland, Scotland and the
Isle of Man. A kindred festival has been held by the
Brittonic Celts, called
Calan Gaeaf in Wales,
Kalan Gwav in
Cornwall and
Kalan Goañv in
Brittany: a name meaning "first day of winter". For the Celts, the day ended and began at sunset; thus the festival begins the evening before 1 November by modern reckoning. Samhain is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature. The names have been used by historians to refer to Celtic Halloween customs up until the 19th century, and are still the Gaelic and Welsh names for Halloween. in 1833, shows people feasting and playing divination games on Halloween in Ireland. Samhain marked the end of the
harvest season in autumn and beginning of winter or the 'darker half' of the year. It was seen as a
liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the
Otherworld thinned. This meant the
Aos Sí, the 'spirits' or '
fairies', could more easily come into this world and were particularly active. Most scholars see them as "degraded versions of ancient gods [...] whose power remained active in the people's minds even after they had been officially replaced by later religious beliefs". They were both respected and feared, with individuals often invoking the protection of
God when approaching their dwellings. At Samhain, the
Aos Sí were
appeased to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left outside for them. The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking
hospitality. Places were set at the dinner table and by the fire to welcome them. The belief that the souls of the dead return home on one night of the year and must be appeased seems to have ancient origins and is found in many cultures. In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and
prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin". Throughout Ireland and Britain, especially in the Celtic-speaking regions, the household festivities included
divination rituals and games intended to foretell one's future, especially regarding death and marriage. Apples and nuts were often used, and customs included
apple bobbing, nut roasting,
scrying or mirror-gazing,
pouring molten lead or
egg whites into water,
dream interpretation, and others. Special
bonfires were lit and there were rituals involving them. Their flames, smoke, and ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers. They were also used for divination and to ward off evil spirits. In Scotland, these bonfires and divination games were banned by the church elders in some parishes. In Wales, bonfires were also lit to "prevent the souls of the dead from falling to earth". Later, these bonfires "kept away the
devil". ) lantern on display in the
Museum of Country Life, Ireland From at least the 16th century, the festival included
mumming and
guising in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales. This involved people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food. It may have originally been a tradition whereby people impersonated the
Aos Sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf, similar to '
souling'. Impersonating these beings, or wearing a disguise, was also believed to protect oneself from them. In parts of southern Ireland, the guisers included a
hobby horse. A man dressed as a
láir bhán (
white mare) led youths house-to-house reciting verses – some of which had pagan overtones – in exchange for food. If the household donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune. In Scotland, youths went house-to-house with masked, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed. They were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century, although the Puritans of
New England strongly opposed the holiday, along with other traditional celebrations of the established Church, including Christmas.
Almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was widely celebrated in North America. It was not until after mass
Irish and
Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in America. though "In
Cajun areas, a nocturnal Mass was said in cemeteries on Halloween night. Candles that had been blessed were placed on graves, and families sometimes spent the entire night at the graveside". Originally confined to these immigrant communities, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and was celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial, and religious backgrounds by the early 20th century. Then, through
American influence, these Halloween traditions spread to many other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century, including to
mainland Europe and some parts of the
Far East. ==Symbols==