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Halloween has varied history
 Media Credit: Blair Schlichte SCSU junior Amanda Henry smiles as she presents her costume to the janitor judges on Wednesday in Kiehle Visual Arts Center. Henry’s woodland fairy costume earned her third place in the Art Student Union Halloween costume contest. Art students who participated in this competition were only allowed to wear handcrafted costumes. Nobody walked away a loser; all who took part received extra credit for their art classes. “Halloween is a great artist holiday,” said SCSU art professor Jenny Schmid.
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If someone asks you why you celebrate Christmas without skipping a beat you’ll respond, “It’s Jesus’ birthday,” assuming you are of the Christian faith.
Likewise, if someone asks you why you celebrate Thanksgiving, you’ll probably blurt out something about the pilgrims and the American Indians.
Both holidays have easy answers to this question, but what is the answer for Halloween? It’s the night the living walk the streets dressed as the dead; it’s the night kids demand candy from adults they don’t even know; it’s the night acts of vandalism are considered seasonal pranks; it’s the night to party.
But why?
Not too many people ask this question. Even though Halloween isn’t an official national holiday, nor is it officially associated with any major religion, Halloween has its own sacred place in our hearts and on our calendars.
It’s commonly thought to have descended from the Celtic celebration of Samhain, which takes place Nov. 1 and is also the Celtic New Year. This celebration was incorporated into the Christian calendar in order to discourage non-Christian celebrations.
In 733 A.D. it was given the name of “All Saints Day” or “All Hallows Day”, therefore making Oct. 31 “All Hallows Eve” or “Halloween.”
To further confuse things, American Indian elements have been adopted. The pumpkin is a member of the sacred trinity of American Indian foods and unknown in Europe. In fact, the European jack-o-lantern was a turnip.
The custom of “trick-or-treating” also has mixed origins. It is sometimes thought to be an adopted custom from Celtic Druidry, but a new book by David Skal on the history of Halloween disagrees.
“It’s almost impossible to trace anything back to the druids,” the book says. The custom was more likely created to curb the tide of vandalism that plagued major cities and rural areas alike dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. The phrase “trick or treat” wasn’t coined until 1941.
Why we celebrate this festival is also a complicated subject.
Some believe that it is an escapist way of dealing with death. By turning the subject of death into a light-hearted celebration of pranks and costumes, we’re able to avoid the more serious aspects of death and loss. It’s also considered that Halloween is a night where cultural restrictions are suspended.
People are allowed to dress in ways that aren’t normally acceptable. This is where we find some of the earliest examples of cross-dressing. In this fantasy world, the living masquerade as the dead, women can be men, men can be women, men and women alike can be animals, cartoons, celebrities, ex-presidents or hockey-masked slasher film heroes.
It’s a night to blow off steam and embrace the behaviors that otherwise would be considered weird. Or for some, it’s just another excuse to party.
Whatever the case may be, Halloween is definitely a complicated phenomenon both in its origins and in its practice.
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