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SCOTT GULLEDGE / Scroll Photo Illustration
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Trick-or-treating, jack-o-lanterns and haunted houses all lead to the holiday of horrors – Halloween. Second only to Christmas in money spent, Halloween has become a billion-dollar industry, according to the National Retail Federation at www.nrf.com.
Two thousand years ago, the billion-dollar Halloween industry didn’t exist. The Halloween of that time is made up of bonfires, animal sacrifices and reverence for the dead, said Nicholas Rogers, author of “Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night.”
The Celts, a people who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated the festival of Samhain. The people wore costumes made of animal heads and skins while dancing around large bonfires. This ritual founded the tradition of costumes that would emerge thousands of years later, Rogers said.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands and the Pope had designated Nov. 1 as All Saint’s Day. All Saint’s Day was a time to honor saints and martyrs. The night before, the night of Samhain, began to be called
All Hallows Eve, according to the History channel at www.history.com.
All Hallows Eve was often marked by reverence. It was a day for honoring the dead, with midnight vigils at gravesites.
“People dressed up in costumes on All Hallows Eve to drive the evil spirits away,” said Justin Nielsen, a senior from Shelley, Idaho.
However, some of the villagers didn’t observe All Hallows Eve with reverence or respect. As the poet Richard Crashaw said in his book “The Poems”:
“How fit our well-rank’d Feasts do follow All mischief comes after All Hallow.”
In other words, All Hallows Eve was when the young men of the village would play the fools, gang together to play football or pull practical jokes on the unpopular neighbors.
All Hallow’s Eve and All Saints day eventually became the familiar holiday of Halloween. Halloween appeared with the immigration of the Scottish, but it was missing most of the old religious traditions. New York started selling masks for costume parties and throwing “petty celebrations” instead of the solemn gatherings it once had.
Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up and go to houses asking for food or money on Halloween. It was a common joke that if one gave a treat to a child they could avoid tricks being played on them, bringing about the common term of “trick-or-treat,” Rogers said.
Once Halloween hit Hollywood in the 1930s, haunted houses began to emerge. Their popularity skyrocketed, and entrepreneurs quickly cashed in. In the year 1991 there were an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 haunted houses open in the United States, Rogers said.
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