The History Samhain and how it became Halloween

The birthplace of Halloween isn't where you'd expect. The real birthplace of Halloween is Ireland, where an ancient Gaelic Celtic festival known as Samhain has been celebrated for over 2,000 years. Which is why so many of Halloween traditions are Irish!

The ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced “sow-win”) is usually celebrated from October 31 to November 1 to marks the end of the harvest season and ushers in the start of winter “the dark half of the year.”

It is symbolic of the cycle of life and death. The Celts believed that on the eve of Halloween / Samhain the veil between the living and spirit world would thin, allowing dead spirits to visit the mortal world.

Smoke kept evil spirits from finding the recently deceased (those form the past year). Thus bonfires were lit in every village and town and people would wear costumes such as ghosts, and the undead to ward off evil spirits. Even today, Halloween bonfires are lit all over the world, and families get together to roast marshmallows and apples around it.

Lanterns were considered a smaller version of the great bonfires and were place outside many homes for protection from the evil spirits that would walk the land that night. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack.”

According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. 

Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” and then, simply “Jack O’Lantern.”

To ward off Stingy Jack and other malicious spirits, the Irish would carve demonic faces out of turnips, beets, and potatoes to frighten away Jack's wandering soul and placed the lanterns near doors in order to ward off evil spirits.

America's early Puritanical leanings prohibited such celebrations, and holidays of any kind were almost non-existent. That all changed in the 1840s when the advent of Ireland's devastating potato famine brought millions of Halloween-loving Irish immigrants over from across the Atlantic. When Irish immigrants moved to the U.S., they began carving jack-o'-lanterns from pumpkins, as these were native to the region. Based on this legend, it makes sense why pumpkins ~ carved or not ~ are traditionally placed on the front porch during the Halloween season.

Many Celts also placed food and drink outside their homes on Samhain as an offering, to aid the spirits of those who had died during the previous year. Known as souling, the practice was later taken up by children, who would go from door to door asking for gifts such as food, money and ale.

In Scotland and Ireland, young people took part in a tradition called guising ~ dressing up in costume and accepting offerings from various households. If a treat (like barmbrack) is given, then the child will not perform a “trick" or mischief on the owner of the house or their property as often the case if no treat is given.

This the custom of “souling" and “guising." Later given the term “trick or treat" which first appeared in print in 1927 in Canada.

Barmbrack is a sweet-cake made with yeast and 'speckled' with dried fruit. The name barmbrack is linked to the froth or "barm" leftover after fermenting beer or ale, which is mixed with sultanas or raisins and spice to make a heavy, fruity bread. Originally, barmbrack had mostly caraway seeds, and later, after 1930, currants steeped in tea or Irish whiskey. Candied peel was added next. Sweet breads like this were always baked in a round cake pan, not a bread pan.

Traditionally, items were baked into some of the cakes; each item is supposed to carry a message for those obtaining it. If you got a piece of a rag or cloth, then you were in for some financial troubles, where a coin brought good fortune and wealth. A thimble meant you would never marry, where as a the matchstick predicts an unhappy marriage and a pea was no marriage for at least a year and the person who finds the ring will marry soon. Nowadays, it is unusual to find a Barmbrack that contains all of the above objects, the ring or a coin remains an ever popular addition in commercially produced Barmbrack.

After the Great Depression, in the 1950s and 1960s, kids could expect to get nuts, coins, or toys from certain houses, and if they did happen to get a sweet treat, it was typically a home-baked good. But as trick-or-treating grew in popularity, the economic and ease factors of candy began to make it the more popular giveaway.

Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.

Trick-or-treating isn't dying out; it's just evolving. Certainly, candy is still integral to the Halloween experience—according to the NRF data, spending on Halloween candy has more than doubled between 2005~ 2018. It is now the second most popular holiday in the USA—and kids likely don't much care how they get it, as long as it ends up in their mouths.

In 2015 it was found that the younger kids started as early as 4:30pm, the most popular start and end times for trick-or-treating were 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. But beware: Five percent of respondents said they thought it was OK to ring the doorbell as late as 11 p.m. local time. (however Personally 10pm is plenty late for ghouls and goblins, princesses, dragons and other sorts to be knocking at my door. Unanimously in this day and time it seems as everyone agrees, when the porch lite is out, the game is over for that house.

So no matter how you choose to celebrate weather it is going door to door, Trunk or treating, business to business, or having a fun day of games, activities and movies, just remember Halloween is all about keeping away evil and having a great time with the ones you love.