What is Halloween?

Halloween has always been the spookiest night of the year and also a huge boost for the retail industry, with over 58% of Americans planning a Halloween event or activity. Although this holiday has origins on the other side of the world, it is becoming a common sight to see witches, werewolves and ghostly creatures in other countries, including Norfolk Island.

Where does the word Halloween originate? It is actually two words ‘smushed’ together. ‘Hallow-’ meaning holy person refers to a celebration on 1 November, called All Saints Day. The ‘een’ p

art is an abbreviation for eve or evening. So, Halloween originally meant ‘the night before All Saints Day’, a religious feast dedicated to celebrating the faithful departed, including the saints. It’s interesting to note that Christian tradition involved celebrating the night before an event was to take place e.g. Christmas Eve.

It has also been linked to Samhain, the Celtic festival of summer’s end, celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Mann.

Ancient Celts dressed up as evil spirits in order to confuse demons. ‘Soulers’ would travel from house to house, begging rich folk for ‘soul cakes’ on Halloween. The difference then was that they would pray for people’s souls in return for cake.

The mystical rituals of earlier times evolved into more light-hearted fun and games over the years.

Modern trick or treating didn’t catch on until the 1920’s. It has had a rocky road to the fun filled night it is now, especially with some adults referring to it as a form of extortion.

Costumes evolved over the years. What began as earnest tributes to saints, was changed forever when some young Scottish and Irish pranksters came up with the idea to dress up in scary looking outfits as a way to spook unsuspecting neighbours. Thanks to these young hooligans Halloween costumes became scary, spooky, funny and creative at the same time.

Black cat costumes are particularly popular. In the middle ages, black cats were often portrayed as witch’s familiars. It was also believed witches transformed into black cats to conceal themselves. Its interesting to note that throughout history, people have been afraid or wary of black cats for this very reason. However, most witch’s familiars or cats were actually tortoiseshell colouring and not black at all, so the black cat has been dealt a bad rap over the centuries.