Tonight, don't be surprised if Sarah Palin, John McCain, and Barack Obama come knocking on your door. They won't be campaigning, and they'll probably be accompanied by hordes of vampires, witches, and ghosts. It is Halloween, which has pagan (pre-Christian) origins, but is not evil or menacing unless you watch too many horror movies or go to Palin's church.
Halloween's roots lie in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated on a full moon around Nov. 1. Samhain was the most important of the Celtic fire festivals, or holy days, because it was the start of the New Year. The harvest had ended, the last crops had been picked, and a chill was in the air. The dark half of the year was beginning. On the night of Samhain, the Celts believed that the souls of the dead were restless, on the move, and could cross over into the world of the living.
Later, the Celts converted to Christianity and when the Christian Church could not utterly abolish Samhain celebrations, they co-opted them. Pope Gregory IV (827-844 A.D.) changed the date of a festival honoring Christian saints to November 1 and called it the Feast of All Saints. The celebration of All Saint's Day became known as All Hallow Mass or Hallowmas in England. Accordingly, the night of October 31 became All Hallows Eve and absorbed the spirit of Samhain. "Hallows Evening" was eventually condensed to Halloween."
In 998, the French monastic order of Cluny initiated a mass for the souls of the Christian dead, later moved to the day after All Saints Day. The new feast day of All Souls held further resonance for Celts accustomed to Samhain, a time so linked to the spirits of the departed. By the end of the twelfth century, the festivals of All Saints and All Souls (together called Hallowtide in Great Britain), were well-established highlights of the Christian year. And Hallows Eve, which preceded them, had taken the place of Samhain, retaining its aura of eerie mystery.
If you'd like to know more the path from Samhain to present-day trick and treating, haunted houses, carved pumpkins and Halloween costumes, read my essay The Origins Of Halloween: a History of Samhain, All Hallows Eve and Halloween.
