The date is October 31st, Thursday, and today I’m traveling from Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon in Vietnam to Sydney, Australia.
Today is Halloween for most of the globe. Halloween is typically celebrated with costume dressing, trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins, bobbing for apples and general mischief.
Many people believe that Halloween traditions have sprouted out of a Christian festival, but its true roots are not that simple.
Halloween is indeed a Christian name: it is a shortened version of “All Hallows’ Eve.” November 1st is celebrated as All Saints Day, or All Hallows’ Day and November 2nd is All Souls Day in the Christian tradition.
Of course, All Saints Day and All Souls Day didn’t start out on Nov. 1st and 2nd - at first they were celebrated by Christian parishes at all different times, many occurring in April or May.
When the church finally did decide on November 1st and 2nd, the Gaelic festival Samhain began to blend with the feast days.
Samhain celebrated the end of the harvest season and kicked off the darker part of the year. It was a day of cleansing and so big bonfires were lit, offerings were made to the dead, and the barrier between worlds was supposedly at its thinnest.
The spookiness surrounding Halloween likely stems from the clear ties to honoring those that have died but whose souls live on - and may try to come back to Earth.
The trick-or-treating and costuming is theorized to mainly be a repeating of Christmas traditions, which included almsgiving to the poor, role swapping, and “mumming,” a silent play where actors wear costumes, similar to a nativity pageant.
The practice of “trick or treating” is said to derive from the practice of working-class people visiting the homes of their employers asking for a handout or donation. If the upperclassmen did not comply, “tricks” were played, usually on the boss’s property. Again, this was originally part of Christmas celebrations, but it seems to have duplicated at Halloween.
Candles and fires, part of the Gaelic Samhain, became integral parts of the new Halloween tradition. Candles helped offer the dead light to see by while mating their way out of the world. Jack O'Lanterns then served a dual purpose: to scare away evil spirits and offer light for the good ones.
It’s a bit difficult to say just how much businesses have contributed to Halloween, but it’s safe to say the candy and confectionery industry have done their best to make and keep candy an integral part of Halloween. In 2018, Americans spent $2.6 billion on Halloween candy.
After Halloween traditions spread to North America in the late 19th century, the holiday began its slow evolution into the spooky day we know now. Today countries all over the world celebrate Halloween - even here in Vietnam there are pumpkins and cobwebs decorating restaurants and homes.
If you’re looking for the full story on Halloween, check out the book Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night by Nicholas Rogers.
A Little Ghost
Dame Mary Gilmore
The moonlight flutters from the sky
To meet her at the door,
A little ghost, whose steps have passed
Across the creaking floor.
And rustling vines that lightly tap
Against the window-pane,
Throw shadows on the white-washed walls
To blot them out again.
The moonlight leads her as she goes
Across a narrow plain,
By all the old, familiar ways
That know her steps again.
And through the scrub it leads her on
And brings her to the creek,
But by the broken dam she stops
And seems as she would speak.
She moves her lips, but not a sound
Ripples the silent air;
She wrings her little hands, ah, me!
The sadness of despair!
While overhead the black-duck's wing
Cuts like a flash upon
The startled air, that scarcely shrinks
Ere he afar is gone.
And curlews wake, and wailing cry
Cur-lew! cur-lew! cur-lew!
Till all the Bush, with nameless dread
Is pulsing through and through.
The moonlight leads her back again
And leaves her at the door,
A little ghost whose steps have passed
Across the creaking floor.
Thank you for listening. I’m your host, Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a Happy Halloween.
