Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

Every kid (and kid at heart) looks forward to October, 31st each year. Little boys magically turn into vampires and little girls into fairies, bidding for the greatest haul of sugar laden sweets and candies. However, Halloween has a much deeper, and in some ways darker history, that has given birth to one of the most beloved holidays in the world.

Halloween’s origins go all the way back to Ancient times with the Celtic festival of Samhain. This was the Celt’s version of a New Years Eve celebration honoring the end of summer and harvest time, and marking a period of cold, darkness, and death of winter. Celts believed that this end of the year time marked the time in which the barrier between the living and the dead became thin. On October 31st the spirits would come back from the dead and create havoc by damaging the crops with frost and causing a multitude of other troubles.

The Roman church soon enacted a holiday to detour the worship of spirits, and so proclaimed November 1st as All Saint’s Day to honor the saints and martyrs of the church. This day was also known as All Hallows Eve. As the two religions began to mix much of the traditions of Samhain, such as dressing up in costumes and dancing around the fire, became one with All Hallows Eve to create Halloween.

Tradition has always been a part of Halloween from its very start. It’s no wonder then that many of our traditions today came from this time period. An example of these traditions would be bobbing for apples. When Roman tradition mixed with Celtic tradition, so did their festivals. One festival near the time of Samhain was a day to honor the goddess of fruit trees, Pamona. Pamona is quite often symbolized as an apple, hence the modern day practice of bobbing for apples.

Trick or Treating is also a tradition of Halloween with early starts. Trick or Treating came from All Soul’s Day parades in early England. The poor citizens of England would line up on the sides of the street as the richer members of the community paraded by and threw them pastries called soul cakes. The starving citizens would accept these cakes in exchange for praying for the richer class’s dead family members.

Another tradition of Halloween is dressing up in costumes. This is another tradition that started in early England where citizens, knowing that Hallows Eve was a time for the spirits of their ancestors to come back and taunt them, would dress up in masks and costumes to keep the spirits from recognizing them.

Halloween is a fun time of year for the entire family. It’s incredibly rich with history and a tribute to the idea that cultures can intermingle and incorporate each other’s traditions to create a holiday that can be celebrated by all.

Read a lot more about Halloween — Halloween History