The True Nature of Halloween

“It means the Lord of the Dead…the end of summer…the festival of Samhain…October 31st.”-

Dr. Sam Loomis, Halloween II

I am completely blown away at how the concept of Halloween has become an incredible staple in our society. It’s a fun time of the year for getting dressed in cool costumes, going trick or treating, and having parties. It’s a celebration of just having fun of sorts. Actually, I don’t like the word “celebration” because it suggests a more serious and even religious tone to the day of Halloween. Some people tell me they don’t “celebrate” Halloween. Well, I don’t either. I take my kids trick or treating and that’s all. So what’s the point you’re making? And what’s with this “Happy Harvest”crap? It’s PC jargon. Happy Halloween dammit! Have some candy! And this thing about Halloween being the Devil’s birthday? Stop it. Stop it right now….

In any case Halloween does indeed have its origins very early on in our history on this earth. It actually began in the British lands of Ireland and Scotland predating Christianity. The name of the festival was Samhain or Sowen (Remember Cochran’s little history lesson in Halloween III Season of the Witch?). It was Gaelic for “Summer’s end”. It was harvest time and it was the beginning of the dark time of the year. The fields of harvest would be ripe for picking and giving thanks to the souls of the departed, who would visit the world upon this time of year to their former places of residence. There would be an empty chair at the dinner table on that evening with the hope that the departed would sit in with the family that night. Samhain actually began in the evening of October 31st and would end in the evening of November 1st. Many wiccans today as well as other forms of nature worship still honor this day with seriousness and virtue as the time of harvest and loved ones gone being remembered and honored.

That’s why it was easy for the holiday to be Christianized. The Catholic feast of All Saints Day was originally on May 13th, but in the year 835 the Church moved it to November 1st so to give the pagan people who celebrated Samhain the contrast to their customs so as to encourage conversion. Samhain eventually became All Hallows Eve….the Eve of All Saints. November 1st became a holy day of obligation for Catholics to attend Mass and honor the great saints of history who helped spread the word of God in both deed and word. It would be followed by All Souls Day by which we would pray for those who have passed on and are still on their way to Heaven via the cleansing process Catholics call Purgatory. Once again this all ties into the original feast of Samhain, the time when the veil between the world of the living and the dead was at its thinnest and therefore the dead would visit the living. See the connection?

Wait there’s more. The concept of wearing masks goes back too. To avoid the pesky, evil spirits of murderers, robbers and the like, people would “guise” in masks and costumes in order to fool them. This lead to pranks being done by younger people so in order to appease these jokesters on Samhain, people would leave “treats” Trick or Treat. And let’s not forget those jack o'lanturns. Instead of pumpkins they actually used turnips. I guess pumpkins are easier to manage.

Eventually as time passed, All Hallows Eve became secularized and became what we know as Halloween. I must say that in a very strange way, the spirit of Samhain still lingers on this solemn and festive night. As a matter of fact, most of October is all about scary spooky things…things we cannot explain. We bring about the essence of the feared in the form of our beloved horror movies. John Carpenter made the awesome connection by creating 1978’s Halloween with Jaime Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance. The character of Michael Myers was played by Nick Castle and Tony Moran, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Salem last year.

Halloween II was also a hit and in my opinion arguably better than the original. There was something about the eeriness of it. The darkness. The empty hospital halls. It brought about a dread and fear of the Shape as he stalked poor Laurie as she still was trying to heal from her ordeal in the first film. I had the honor of meeting Dick Warlock, the guy who played both Michael Myers in Halloween II and one of Cochran's robots in Halloween III...awesome guy!

Oh and don’t forget Halloween III, Season of the Witch. It pissed a lot of people off, thinking they were going to get one thing and instead got another. I for one enjoyed the movie for what it was. I think that if they would do a remake of it, it would be even better. I can always hope right?

What about Trick or Treat? It’s a series of different stories with a common goal…to scare the wits out of us. Well, it didn’t actually scare me but I still liked it. Hollywood tends to come out with big time horror films in October. This year it’s all about Carrie, the remake of the Stephen King story from back in 1979. That film scared me to death. I’m looking forward to watching the remake. I hope not to be disappointed.

Halloween speaks to our fun and mischief, but it also speaks to our fears and our hopes. It speaks about the promise of an afterlife. It speaks about the world of good and the world of evil. We project Samhain to our films, our literature, our arts and our faiths. If I do any kind of celebrating regarding Samhain, it’s by watching the latest horror flick. It’s also by celebrating my children’s joy as they dress up as superheroes or princesses as they go door to door trick or treating.
With adult supervision, of course….