Learn about the history of Halloween, and amaze your kids with your knowledge of this spooky holiday.
1. Dressing up in costumes was once a way to hide from ghosts
The custom began as a strategy for Celtic and other European people to conceal themselves from the spirits who returned at this time of year. When people left their dwellings after dark, they wore masks to fool the ghosts into thinking they were fellow spirits. People would leave bowls of food outside their dwellings to make the ghosts happy and keep them away from their homes.
2. Jack-o-lanterns were originally carved into turnips
According to legend, a man named Jack deceived the Devil, and after he died, the Devil sent him out into the night with only a burning coal to guide him. Jack became known as Jack of the Lantern after putting the chunk of coal in a carved-out turnip, a common produce in the area. To frighten away Jack or other evil spirits, Irish and Scottish people would carve their own copies of Jack's lantern with frightful faces and place them near windows or doorways. When the ritual was brought to America by immigrants, the local pumpkin was more readily accessible than turnips, and jack-o-lanterns were born.
3. Trick-or-treating likely evolved from the medieval custom of "souling" in England.
Poor people would knock on doors on All Souls' Day, begging for food in exchange for offering prayers for the home's deceased relatives.
4. Cats have been part of the history of Halloween for centuries
Priests used cats as part of a rite to try to prophesy the future during the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain.
5. The "bon" in bonfire is a reference to bones
During Samhain, priests lit large fires to represent the sun returning after the hard winter. They would throw the bones of cattle into the flames, creating a "bone fire."
6. The custom of decorating with black and orange for Halloween makes perfect sense
Orange is a symbol of power and endurance that may be observed in the changing leaves of autumn, whereas black is often associated with death. The Celtics may have been the first to utilize this color scheme to gain stamina for the long winter ahead and to commemorate the dead during the Samhain festival.
7. The history of Halloween includes a lot of romance
During the holiday, Scottish girls hung damp blankets in front of the fire to glimpse pictures of their future husband. Young women would also peel an apple in one strip and hurl it over their shoulder, frequently at midnight. The strip was supposed to land in the shape of her future husband's first letter. Bobbing for apples on Halloween was a fortune-telling game in colonial America: the first person to get the fruit without using his or her hands would be the first to marry.
Halloween cakes with a ring and a thimble inside were very popular. You'd be married in a year if you got the slice with the ring. What about the thimble? In love, you'd be unlucky.
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