The Long History of Halloween Taking Us Way Back 2,000 Years to the Celtics
The Origins of Halloween
May Not Be What You Expect,
But It's Still Quite Scary
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Celtic Halloween- Have you ever wondered why we dress up in spooky costumes on Halloween? The scary holiday has a very long history dating back to an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain. Over 2,000 years ago in Ireland this was a festival to mark the Harvest season on November 1. The festival rang in the fall season, and at a time when it was starting to get darker earlier, and maybe it felt more scary in the world. This time of year soon started to become associated with death. The Celts were superstitious folks, and they thought this day was where death and life collided. On the night of October 31 it was rumored the dead returned to earth as ghosts, roaming the land and ruining crops (due to some recent crop rotting events throughout Ireland).
Soon, Priests would predict the future on this day, and this started to mark an important and hopeful event for the population who relied heavily on the land and the natural resources in order to survive. On October 31, many people believed all trapped souls were set free from the "land of the dead". So, on this evening townspeople met, lit bonfires and groups gathered to burn and sacrifice animals while the Celts donned costumes (sometimes with animal heads and skin).
Before you start to think this is incredibly eerie and dark, it's important to understand the mindset at the time. Some believed the souls of the dead were trapped in bodies of animals, and the only way to free these souls was to sacrifice the animals. Wearing costumes was a symbol of relinquishing the souls to the world. At the end of the celebration people returned home, lit their fires (the ones they extinguished before the party) and all was right in the world again.
The holiday has taken many twists and turns over the centuries but these early roots show deep symbolism in community customs and all derived out of hopefulness and a need for survival.
American Halloween-- During the Colonial Days, Halloween landed in the United States. The holiday was combined with various other European and Native American traditions to eventually morph into a “party” atmosphere with dressing up and traveling house-to-house to
beg for food and money from the neighbors (the trick or treat tradition began). Soon, party goers would play pranks and partake in other practical jokes which became part of the new Halloween tradition and borrowed from our European ancestors (hence the toilet paper wrapping of trees today).
By the mid-century in the United States, Halloween became a community-wide holiday with school and community parades and parties, and some believe that due to the Baby Boom of the 1950s it changed into mostly a kid’s celebration. It is interesting to see how traditions change over time to today where Americans ring doorbells for candy dressed in costumes. Huh, from animal sacrifice rituals to candy collection- that's quite a leap!
left to right-
Tori Golub at Holiday House 2016; right former Greenwich, Ct shop Putnam & Mason
designer Michelle Nussbaume in Veranda
We also know that the dark and edgy feeling (possibly from Halloween) has creeped into our interior design. Take a look at some gorgeous interiors I've covered here on the blog all with a seemingly Halloween-inspired feel. 
