Horror History : Halloween

Fall is not just about cinnamon brooms and pumpkin flavored EVERYTHING. It's also about the change in seasons and the old year giving in to the new.  I think that's one of the reasons autumn, Halloween, and horror appeal to me.  I have great respect for the cycle of life and death and the many ways in which different cultures represent these ideas. 

'We better hurry. It'll be dark soon.'

So with that in mind, how about a little Halloween history lesson? All Hallows' Eve, or Halloween, is a Western tradition with ties to historic harvest festivals.  While there are certainly pagan elements to Halloween and the holiday shares striking similarities to the Celtic festival Samhain, the current holiday as it stands has been Christianized.

Don't let your crazy, right-wing Aunt Fannie fool you! Halloween / All Hallows' Eve is a precursor to the Christian holy day of obligation, All Saint's Day.  Catholic and Orthodox Protestant denominations view this day as a time to reflect on all the Saints and souls that have departed for the great Hereafter.  Legend holds that at midnight on October 31st the veil between this world and the next is thinner than any other night of the year!

I carved this guy myself!

So how exactly did we go from honoring the dead to jack-o-lanterns and bobbing for apples? Well that beats the f*ck outta me, dear reader. I'm also confused on how we went from the birth of religious savior to a fat man that uses magic deer to deliver presents. Sometimes culture is just weird so I try not to worry about it too much and just enjoy the sugar rush.  However, I do know that the idea of costumes and Trick-or-Treating has Scottish/Irish roots with the earliest celebrations taking place in North America around 1930.

'Cool story, bro.'

As evidenced in the photo above, I enjoy Halloween in its current incarnation.  I even try not to go too wild the night before so I can go to Mass on All Saints Day, just like any other good Catholic school boy.  I can't say the same for my friend on the left.

On another note, I've changed my text message notification to the sound of the siren from Silent Hill. If you're unfamiliar, you can listen to audio here. It's freaking out my coworkers and even gave me a little bit of a scare after I forgot I changed it over the weekend.

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Recommended links:

Halloweenhistory.org

Library of Congress - American Folklore Article on Halloween 

Wikipedia article on Halloween

History.com article on Halloween