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Pop quiz:
What do bobbing for apples, trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins, and decorating with black and orange all have in common, apart from being staples of the ostensibly secular October 31st celebration of Halloween?
Turns out all of these customs are rooted in the much older Celtic festival of Samhain.
Yes, the reason why, once a year, just after sunset, suburban streets bustle with the boisterous baying of becostumed boys and girls is because…
Well, consumerism? Sure. And because kids love candy? Absolutely. And because, let’s face it, dressing up in costumes and lunging at floating (or dangling) apples and plunging steely knives into unsuspecting gourds is silly and fun.
But the reason we do all of these things together, as part of a grand spectacle wrapped in black and orange, is because the ancient Goidelic a.k.a. Gaelic-speaking Celts—and potentially other Celtic tribes as well (we’ll get into it)—notoriously spent the evening of October 31st both feasting and defending against nocturnal ne’er-do-wells.
See, Samhain was the Celtic New Year, marking the end of one pastoral year and the beginning of the next. The occasion was marked by the lighting of druidic bonfires, their bright orange flames standing out in stark contrast to the encroaching blackness of winter.
Hollowed-out vegetable lanterns were employed to transport coals from these sacred fires so people could ceremonially relight their hearthfires at home, and apples were strung from tree branches as offerings to the gods, offerings meant to ensure the eventual return of the sun’s dominance over darkness.
To the Celts, Samhain was a liminal time, a time when the veil between this world and the Otherworld was at its thinnest and all manner of spirits and demons and fairies were wont to cross over.
Disguises were donned in an effort to blend in with or scare away the things going bump in the night, and sweet treats were left out in an effort to appease these beastly beings.
But in the absence of actual Celtic monsters, some enterprising (human) souls began going door-to-door every Samhain to collect the aforementioned treats.
And, naturally, whenever these opportunistic revelers visited a home that did not put out treats, they vandalized it. Ooor played some kind of trick.
So there you have it: the Celtic origins of all your favorite Halloween traditions.
Or the abridged version, anyway. Because in the video below, I unpack all of the customs I just mentioned one by one:
Want to learn the rest of the Samhain story? Check out:
Samhain in Your Pocket
Perhaps the most important holiday on the ancient Celtic calendar, Samhain marks the end of summer and the beginning of a new pastoral year. It is a liminal time—a time when the forces of light and darkness, warmth and cold, growth and blight, are in conflict. A time when the barrier between the land of the living and the land of the dead is at its thinnest. A time when all manner of spirits and demons are wont to cross over from the Celtic Otherworld. Learn more…
More the listenin’ type?
I recommend the audiobook Celtic Mythology: Tales of Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes by Philip Freeman (narrated by Gerard Doyle). Use my link to get 3 free months of Audible Premium Plus and you can listen to the full 7.5-hour audiobook for free.