Halloween Origins

By Daniela and Valeria Marquez, Eighth Grade

Halloween, the night of fright and horror. Decorate your house with skeletons, jack-o-lanterns, and spider webs. Everyone is buying those sweet apple pumpkin candles that light up the room with its aroma. Kids are knocking on every house on the block, dressed up in their costumes. When you ask for the most prized possession, candy, the three words that come out of your mouth are “trick or treat”. It might be all fun and games but how did it all start?

Halloween dates back to the Celtic festival (2,000 years ago)in Ireland which was celebrated November 1st by the Celts. They celebrated “New Years” on this day. Celts believed the day before October 31st, the living and the dead clashed, and celebrated Samhain, when the ghosts returned to Earth according to them.

Many years after, people finally brought Halloween to America. Halloween was much more celebrated in the southern colonies. Immigrants brought the popular holiday to the states. The beliefs and customs of the Europeans and Indians merged together and created the version of Halloween we know today. They would tell stories of dead people, celebrate the harvest, and would dance. By the middle of the 19th century people tried to escape the Irish Potato Famine and came to America, this made Halloween become even more popular.

In the 1800’s, several people started to take part in the tradition of playing tricks on Halloween. According to “LiveScience”, in North America pranks involved tipping over homes. Others consisted of opening farmers' gates and the most well known one, egging houses. By the 1920s and 1930’s, these types of celebrations started to become wild block parties. The vandalism grew more serious. So, parents and town leaders decided for kids to dress up and trick or trick as a substitute. Halloween was also as much a time for festivities/games as it was for playing tricks and asking for treats.

References:
https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
https://www.livescience.com/40596-history-of-halloween.html