But really? Why does this holiday even exist? And are Americans the only ones who actually go around in costumes and knock on peoples' doors?
I ask this because while me and my friends (yes, I have friends) were trick or treating, this woman from England took pictures and asked if she could post them on facebook to show her British friends what Americans do on Halloween. And it wasn't creepy at all. Just kidding, it was.
Halloween is thought to have originated either from Christians or from Celtics. Celtics celebrated a day from about October 31- November 1 that celebrated the end of summer and the beginning of the darker days called Samhain, which wast the first of four quarter days in their calendar. Samhain was also a time when spirits (both good and evil) from the Otherworld could come out and mingle with the people, so costumes were traditionally worn to ward off the evil spirits. There was a lot of door-to-door type things as well-- costumed folk would go around collecting food for the Samhain feast, little boys would knock on doors for fire fuel, stuff like that. Pumpkins may have been used to both represent and ward off spirits.
Following a Christian tradition, Halloween would be the celebration of the eve of All Saint's day, which is a day of a giant feast honoring all the saints, on November 1st. After that there's All Souls Day on November 2nd. It actually used to be on May 13, but they changed it to November in the year 609. Groups of mostly poor children would go souling, which is when they would knock on doors and collect soul cakes, which are cakes that people would bake for that purpose.
Because Halloween occurs towards the beginning of winter, many people think it has to with festivals and harvests, but these are also probable origins.
Halloween is celebrated sort of differently around the world. Most places involve children dressing up or "guising" themselves in costumes. In Ireland, they have bonfires and fireworks. Because America trick-or-treats, a lot of other countries do as well. There are parties, bobbing for apples, cake, and pranks.
Apparently, the long-standing practice of knocking on someone's door and then answering it is an actual tradition in Ireland, originally called knock-a-dolly.
Austrians leave out bread, a lighted lamp, and water on their doorsteps to help welcome back dead souls.
Belgians light candles to honor the dead.
Similarly in China, they put out pictures of their loved ones, light candles, and set bonfires in order to aide the dead's journey to the underworld and other such things.
France didn't celebrate Halloween until 1996, and only because it's an American holiday.
In England, Halloween was mushed together with Guy Fawkes' night on November 5th, but now they have two separate days. They have a bunch of traditions on Halloween, including fun games and such, some of which can be seen in Agatha Christie's mystery, a Halloween Party. It's absolutely necessary that you watch it.
I'm just kidding, it's not, but Agatha Chrsitie (and, more importantly, Hercule Poirot) are fantastically amazing. Now that I'm reading about Hallowwen, this mystery makes slightly more sense. And Poirot is brilliant and Agatha Christie is brilliant and.......end rant. But really. It'll give you some background and baffle you with a bafling mystery.
On Guy Fawkes' day, the English celebrate the foiled attempt by Guy Fawkes and his cleverer accomplices to blow up Paliament by making bonfires on which they would burn him. This is probably my favorite holiday background story. Fun fact-- we get the word "guy" from Guy Fawkes because he was the fall Guy on whom everything got blamed when they discovered his plot. Kids also go around asking for money to buy more wood for the bonfire.
Bonus fact about ! I've never actually seen V for Vendetta, so this might be obvious, but the "Remember remember" rhyme from it is a children's rhyme about Guy Fawkes day.
There are a lot more festivals that are celebrated on Halloween across the world, mostly to honor the harvest and the dead. From this (very extensive) research I have done, it makes more sense that we trick-or-treat, but I feel like we could have so many more interesting traditions that have to do with dead spirits and harvest. Oh well. If you want to know more Halloween traditions, you can go to this website. Or just Wikipedia it.
That's all. Since people in England seem to celebrate Halloween more or less the same as we do, I don't understand why that woman needed pictures I guess we'll never know. Now that I think about it, it probably wasn't a fantastic decision to let her photograph us, but I think my friend sort of knew her? So we'll be ok. I hope. Remember kids, don't talk to strangers unless it's a day where we celebrate ghosts! Stranger danger! Happy late Halloween and almost Guy Fawkes day to everyone.
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