All Hallows’ Eve dates back to before 1846 and is still celebrated. However, over the past traditions have been altered. Some figure it is for the best, but who even knows why we celebrate Halloween now?
The Celts lived in what is now Ireland, the U.K. and Northern France. They celebrated their new year on Nov. 1, called Samhain. That day was marked as the end of summer and the start of a dark and cold winter.
The night before Oct. 31 was believed to be the only day when the boundary between the living and the dead is indefinite. Therefore the dead return to earth, cause illness, kill crops and priests are able to predict the future by contacting the dead.
To recognize the day, the Celts would dress in costumes made of animal heads and skin to copy the evil spirits. They would also have bonfires and throw the bones of slaughtered animals in to the fire as a sacrifice.
Now back to present day, none of the traditions the Celts practiced exist. Our Halloween consists of parties, eccentric costumes and trick-or-treating.
Halloween is the holiday when the most candy is sold and is second to Christmas in total sales. I doubt the Celts would approve of this.
Slowly in Europe people have began celebrating. I have been to Switzerland a handful of times and in the past five years my cousins have asked my family to mail them costumes.
I am not going to say I do not enjoy Halloween, but it seems everyone has forgotten the roots of the holiday. Already in September my sister read me a list of costume ideas she was considering and asked how I was doing. It caught me off guard because she was focusing more on Halloween than her own birthday, which was coming up first.
Now midway October she is already sewing and prepping her Harry Potter costume.
The holiday seems to have gotten out of hand and cops are patrolling now more than ever. Kids do not trick-or-treat alone for the fear of a menacing man or a house that is too inviting.
When I was younger, my mom would go through all my pieces of candy I collected and make sure none of them were opened or had any tiny hole marks.
She warned me of deranged people injecting a poison into my Snickers bar.
Teenaged girls find Halloween as an excuse to dress up in revealing outfits and get away with it to pass as a “costume”. It then becomes an either pleasing or dangerous invite for a stranger to come up and try to talk to the girl.
Even men dress in peculiar outfits or wear masks to scare children. I can never forget When I was trick-or-treating one night and a teenage boy in a mask jumps out of a garbage can and almost scared the life out of me.
Halloween is a thrilling holiday that has a lot to offer making it an enjoyable holiday for not only children but for adults as well. It does not follow the original tradition but, if I dig deep enough, I can see a hint of the Celt ways still practiced.
That long Celtic history of Halloween is something that I hope to keep as a tradition for future generations.