Allhallowtide - Remembering The Dead
Updated: Feb 22, 2020
Now that we’ve reached All Souls’ Day, I thought it would be interesting to share a little bit about the origin of Halloween and the Allhallowtide season. Allhallowtide refers to the three days of Halloween, All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days and it ends today, November 2nd. I’ve had the fun of celebrating Halloween in several cities in the US as well as in London and India. I’ll say that with the globalization of culture, things aren’t that different in these other countries. That’s true about so many things when you really get out and see the world. In India, there was more a focus on the candy and not as much trick or treating and spooky costumes. It’s definitely less celebrated there but certainly known through Western entertainment. When I was in London on Halloween it was also a weekend so there were lots of adults in costumes hitting the bars and nightclubs. I didn’t experience at all the children’s element of Halloween that we celebrate in the US, but I suspect it’s there too. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.
There’s a fair amount of certainty that Halloween (or All Hallows’ Eve), which is the evening before All Saints’ Day (hallow is an archaic term for saint or holy person), originates from Celtic Ireland and Scotland. Samhain was a mediaeval Gaelic festival which celebrated the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter. It’s widely believed that this festival was appropriated by the early Christian church, beginning the transformation to our modern holiday. Samhain, and this time of year when it’s getting darker and colder, also conjured a closer linkage between this world and the afterlife. As spirits and the souls of the dead were able to get closer to our world, they needed to be appeased with offerings and other forms of hospitality. Over time, people began to dress up in disguises to either pretend to be spirits or to hide themselves from them (or both). People would roam around in these disguises and receive the offerings for the spirits. Candles were used to light the way and small lanterns would be carved out of turnips. As you can easily see, these traditions likely evolved into our modern costumes, trick or treating, and jack o’ lanterns.
Around the year 800, the Christian Church solidified All Saints’ Day as November 1st which was the same date as Samhain. The two days took on a more reverential tone with required religious observances and blessings for the Saints and recently departed. The holiday also spread more widely through Europe and other Christian geographies, with more focus on the religious components and less on the secular Celtic traditions. During the Protestant Reformation, many non-Catholic denominations rejected the symbolism of the Catholic faith, including adoration of Saints. This change shifted the focus away from All Saints’ Day and the religious elements but the Halloween traditions remained in many areas. To this day, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are primarily celebrated by Catholics and a few other faiths. In Mexico and Latin America, these holidays are more commonly knows as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
The United States, probably most known for Halloween celebrations, was not initially very welcoming to the custom. A few Catholic and Anglican areas in the South celebrated the three religious holidays, but the more Puritanical North and New England did not. It was not until significant immigration of Irish and Scots in the 1800’s that Halloween really took hold more widely and by the early 1900’s it was generally celebrated coast to coast. Today the largest Halloween parade in the world takes place in New York City, as it has since 1974. As Halloween become more popular, and commercial, its modern shape took form and spread to many other countries like Chile, Australia, and Asia.
Personally, I have never been one to dress up in elaborate costumes, at least as an adult. But I certainly do enjoy Halloween candy! Below are a few spooky (and not so spooky) pictures from my neighborhood in Washington, DC and from some friends around the US.
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