The History Of Halloween
The History of Halloween. Every year on October 31, many people throughout the world celebrate Halloween. Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition depending on how what group of people is celebrating it and where it is celebrated. Halloween History. Halloween is on October 31st, the last day of the Celtic calendar. It was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead. Halloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back to over 2000 years ago.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The story of Halloween dates back centuries, but the holiday we celebrate in 2016 is relatively new, especially the part where children dress up in costumes and beg for candy and young adults dress up and beg for booze. The family that owns recently spoke with a Cleveland.com reporter about how they've seen the holiday evolve through the years. It might be hard to believe, but there was an era before seasonal advertisements touted bite-sized candy bars and children's costumes. Today, as much as $6 billion is spent annually on Halloween merchandise, and Halloween commercials fill the airwaves as early as September.
In its early days, however, the occasion wasn't nearly as ceremonious. Halloween has gone from an informal affair to a holiday celebrated by millions of people across the country.
19 th and early 20 th century The concept of Halloween came to the United States thanks to Irish immigrants who traversed the Atlantic in the mid-19 th Century to escape the Irish Potato Famine, according to the. November 1 marked the Irish New Year, and every October 31, the Irish celebrated Samhain, a day when the spirits of the dead were thought to return to the world of the living. Their children would sometimes dress in costumes and go door-to-door to ask for food and money, the History Channel site says. Halloween celebrations proliferated by the early part of the 20 th century, but authorities limited them due to complaints of vandalism and other property crimes that supposedly followed raucous celebrations. Pumpkin carving - a modern Halloween tradition - originated in the mid-1800s. Irish immigrants carved faces into large turnips and put candles inside the hallowed out vegetables, and then left the turnips outside their houses to ward off unwanted spirits. Pumpkins were used in the United States instead of turnips because the large orange squash is more plentiful here,.
1950s The 1950s is when the celebration that we know of as 'Halloween' began to take shape. The post-World War II baby boom meant the communities across the United States had a plethora of children, and Halloween was seen as a relatively inexpensive way to bring the community together for a family-friendly event. Families handed out treats as a way to bribe children who might consider peppering houses with eggs or toilet paper, and 'trick-or-treating' was born. Children were at first given small fruit, nuts and tiny trinkets. But then the candy companies caught wind of the burgeoning tradition and started to, creating a tradition that flourishes to this day. 1960s The late 1960s saw the advent of the commercial haunted house, another modern Halloween staple. While Americans had been paying for the privilege of being scared out of their wits for decades, haunted houses were still a relatively obscure style of attraction through the first half of the 20th century.
And then Disneyland built the Haunted Mansion in 1969, the says. Haunted houses then began to proliferate throughout the nation. 1970s The '70s was the time that corporate America realized they could make money selling Halloween costumes and decorations. 'When we started (in the late-1970s) the retail part of the business was just beginning,' said Carol Pocock, whose family owns Mr. Fun's in Cuyahoga Falls. Big companies started manufacturing costumes around that time.
Before then, Pocock said, the most elaborate Halloween outfits one could buy were 'pillow case costumes,' which weren't much more than a mask and a decorative sheet. 'I remember the first year we could buy 20 different costumes in packages,' she said. 'Monk robes, French maids, and nuns, the real simple basic things. But we were so excited they were packaged for retail.' Fun's first rental costume was a gorilla suit they offered in 1979, she said. As the Halloween marketing machine continued to hum, young adults got in on the action.
College students started to buy costumes and celebrate at college parties on campuses across the nation. 'Now, it's just as much an adult holiday as a children's holiday,' Pocock said. 1980s With the advent of the 1980s came costumes that consumers could buy rather than rent, Pocock said. 'The rentals grew very quickly in the '80s,' she said. 'As Halloween was growing, the rentals were going quickly, and (costume stores) couldn't keep up.' 'Today there's only a few companies still making rental costumes because they're more expensive,' she said. Rentals cost more because they are worn multiple times by multiple people and must therefore be more durable and easy to wash.
As demand grew, companies started to realize that it was simpler to make a costume intended to be worn only a few times (or only once) and sell it to one person, Pocock said. The present Adults and children celebrating Halloween have shifted from buying full head-to-toe costumes, to buying the elements to make a costume themselves, Pocock said. 'It saves money and it's sometimes more comfortable,' she said. 'And kids working as waitresses, if they can add to accessories to their comfortable clothes, that works for them.' Masks that users can wear with their own clothing have become more popular as Halloweeners have shown a preference for home-made costumes, Pocock said. The costume preferences also change as pop culture shifts. As comic book movies have filled multiplexes, super hero costumes have become more popular.
'It goes with whatever movies came out over the summer,' Pocock said. Demand for Star Wars-themed costumes shot up last year in the midst of the marketing campaign for the seventh film in the series. 'Zombies were popular when the zombie shows (like 'The Walking Dead') first came out, but that's fallen off.
It's gotten to where it's more of a classic costume,' she said. The internet also seems to play a role in costume trends, especially with the proliferation of sites like user-generated content sites like YouTube.
'People will see someone dressed a certain way on YouTube, and all of a sudden, everybody wants it,' Pocock said.
While there are many versions of the origins and old customs of Halloween, some remain consistent by all accounts. Different cultures view Halloween somewhat differently but traditional Halloween practices remain the same.
Origin Of Halloween
Halloween culture can be traced back to the Druids, a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain and Northern Europe. Roots lay in the feast of Samhain, which was annually on October 31st to honor the dead. Samhain signifies 'summers end' or November. Samhain was a harvest festival with huge sacred bonfires, marking the end of the Celtic year and beginning of a new one.
The History Of Halloween History Channel
Many of the practices involved in this celebration were fed on superstition. The Celts believed the souls of the dead roamed the streets and villages at night.
The History Of Halloween Documentary
Since not all spirits were thought to be friendly, gifts and treats were left out to pacify the evil and ensure next years crops would be plentiful. This custom evolved into trick-or-treating.