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The Halloween (Samhain) season is approaching. As we prepare for the festivities, ever wonder where they started from. We dress our children up to go from house to house for treats. Jack-o-lanterns are put outside our doors. Bobbing for apples from a tub of water or from off a string is a great game to play at parties. The old Hag is probably the most recognized symbols of Halloween. All of these things have a long history and evolution that has made them the enjoyment we have today.



Dressing up and going door to door, singing “Trick or Treat” is a staple of Halloween celebrations. The easy answer for where this tradition came from would be that they dress up to ward away evil spirits. Well from what I have found that is not precisely why. There is a custom called Soul-caking. It is where a group dresses up and enacts scenes for the residences of the house and is rewarded with Soul-cakes. It may also be intertwined with the wassailing tradition at Christmas time. The scenes were a mummers play, “which consisted of a challenge, a battle, a death, and a magical revival.”(1) There is also another tradition linked with the Day of the Dead Ceremonies.

“The souls of small children are called 'angelitos' and they arrive earlier, on October 31st.”(1) Parents light fire crackers as children are dressed up and sent out with toys and sweets to guide the lost angelitos.



Carving a face on a pumpkin is another tradition that has most likely evolved from different traditions. An old pagan tradition was to carve faces in vegetables and placing them in windows and along to perimeter of their circles to ward off evil spirits. The candle placed inside could be traced back to putting candles in the window to guide spirits along their way.(2)



Apple magic is also a wide spread practice during Samhain. It is told that many heroes crossed the western see to retrieve the precious apples that are ready for harvest at Avalon. Bobbing for apples lays homage to the crossing of the water for the sacred apple. There are also many scrying methods involving apples that are appropriate for this time.(3)



As Samhain is the dying of the god and rising of the Crone goddess, the old hag stirring her caldron has become an icon of Halloween. “The popular image of her as the old Halloween hag menacingly stirring her cauldron comes from the Celtic belief that all dead souls return to her cauldron of life, death, and rebirth to await reincarnation.”(2)



So as you are celebrating summers end remember that many of the fun things you are participating in are probably very old rituals. They have evolved over many centuries to make sure that everyone has a good time on this most hallowed of evenings.

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1. Doug and Sandy Kopf "The Old Ways: Hallows" Wychwood 06 Sept 2007

2. “Samhain Lore” The Inner Sanctum of Wicca and Witchcraft

http://www.witchway.net/halloween.html 06 Sept. 2007

3. Mara Freeman. "Samhain." Celtic Spirit

06 Sept. 2007

Samhain or Halloween is a tradition that evolved from many cultures and races. Celebrated at a point in the year when the seasons are passing from a time of birth and growth to a time of withering and death. In almost every culture, there is a celebration of the dead. It is not coincidence that these observances would coincide with this point in time of the year.



Autumn, in many cultures, is celebrated because it is a time of year when you are able to reap the benefits of all of the hard, hot work that went into the spring and summer. It is a time to enjoy the fruits of your labor before having to stock everything up for the coming winter. Just a pause in the movement of the seasons to reflect on all you have done and to look forward to all that comes next.



It is also not surprising that this has become the beginning of the year for some cultures. A time when things begin to die. So it would seem a good time to venerate those that have already gone on to another plane. Whatever belief system you may hold dear, there is most certainly a celebration or at least a time of remembrance for the dearly departed.



So it really doesn’t matter whether you are celebrating Samhain, Halloween, All Saint’s Day or just the end of summer. Remember that no matter how the holiday evolved it is a splendid thing to spend a little time enjoying the fruits of your labor and it’s a good time to remember and honor the ones that have gone on before us.