How a Pagan holiday became Halloween, a night of candy, costumes and scares

Posted: Wednesday, Nov 01, 2006 - 01:41:35 pm CST

How a Pagan holiday became Halloween, a night of candy, costumes and scares

By Daniel Klote
Democrat Staff

An American child knows that Halloween is the day when a simple knock on the door, those magic words “Trick or treat!” and a pretty good costume result in handfuls of candy. What could be easier? Yet it took many years for the holiday to evolve into what it is now.

The Irish lay claim to first establishing the holiday, known in the sixth century as “Samhain Night,” a pagan tradition celebrating the end of summer. The holiday didn't extend into the Christian world, though, until Pope Gregory IV reestablished All Saint's Day, or All Hallow's Day, on November first. This marked Oct. 31 as All Hallows' Eve, which was shortened to Hallowe'en, and eventually Halloween, as people know it now.

Halloween wasn't celebrated here in America until the 19th century, when droves of Irish immigrants fled Ireland during the Irish Potato Famine, bringing with them the holiday. Even then, Halloween did not take on its present form until early in the twentieth century, when postcards made the holiday more popular than it ever had been before. It was in the 1950s that commercially made costumes began appearing in stores, and trick or treating became a fixture of the holiday. Classic monsters were instantly popular as costumes, from the Wolf Man to Dracula.

Now, Halloween is one of the most celebrated days during the year, having become one of retailers' most profitable holidays. In the 1990s, yard decorations became a staple of Halloween also. People carve jack-o-lanterns, prop scarecrows up in their doors, coat the eaves of roofs in spider-webs and even use an occasional fog machine for a bit of creepy effect.

Throughout the European and American traditions, though, is the held belief that on Oct. 31, the spiritual world can make contact with the physical realm, and magic laces the air. On Halloween, when the spirits of the dead are said to walk, and the supernatural is at its most potent, residents and trick-or-treaters of California should not be surprised by strange and unexpected sights.