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Halloween – in the USA and Canada and now many other countries, Halloween is getting to be as important a holiday as Thanksgiving or even Christmas.

How did this tradition come about? Well, it all started with the Celts, people who lived about 800 AD in Britain and Ireland.

In their traditions, they thought turning points were highly significant and had magical aspects to them. Turning points were times when things changed from one state to another like summer giving way to colder weather or the shift from life to death. The Celts believed that turning points opened up a connection with the dead and the world of the living was closest to the dead at the time of one of their primary festivals – Samhain. On that day the spirits of the dead moved amongst the living and many of the activities connected with the festival of Samhain are the basis of our Halloween traditions today.

It is said that the Celts would dress up as ghouls and walk through the villages to lead wandering spirits away. The children would go door to door collecting firewood for a great communal bonfire. The people would then extinguish all the fires within the village and relight them from the flames of the Samhain bonfire symbolising the connection people had with each other.

Another element of the Samhain festival was that of honouring the gods. They dressed up as the gods and going to each person’s door, collected offering of food for the gods.

The Celts also believed in fairies and creatures that played mischievous tricks on people. And since this was a festival there was lots of drinking, letting go of inhibitions, and some historians believe, the tradition of playing tricks comes as a result of this festive revelry.

Jack-o’-lanterns can also be traced back to the Celts in the ritual of carrying an ember home from the communal bonfire. These embers were carried home in a hollowed out turnip.

Another version of this tradition comes from 18th century Ireland. Stingy Jack , a popular character in Irish folk tales, was a disreputable miser. On several occasions, usually on All Hallows’ Eve, Jack tricked the devil and avoided damnation. As one story goes, he convinced Satan to climb into a tree for some apples and then cut crosses all around the trunk so the devil couldn’t get down again. The devil promised to leave Jack alone for eternity if only he would let him come down.
Because of his life of sin, Jack was turned away from Heaven when he eventually died. But in keeping with their agreement, the Devil didn’t take Jack either. Therefore he was cursed to travel forever as a spirit in limbo. As Jack left the gates of Hell, the Devil threw him a hot ember to light the way in the dark. Jack put the ember into a hollowed-out turnip and wandered the world. According to the Irish legend, on All Hallows’ Eve, you might see Jack’s wandering spirit, carrying his turnip lantern in the darkness.

A couple of hundred years ago in Ireland and Scotland, hollowed-out turnips with embers or candles inside called jack-o’-lanterns became a very popular as All Hallows’ Eve or Halloween decorations. People thought they would ward off ‘Stingy Jack’ and other spirits and the jack-o’-lanterns served as representations of the souls of the dead. Those Irish families who emigrated to America took the tradition with them, but once in American, they used the more plentiful pumpkins which were also easier to carve than turnips. To scare away evil spirits, people cut frightening faces into their jack-o’-lanterns.