From Samhain to Trick-or-Treat: The Long History of Halloween

Every October 31, neighborhoods fill with ghosts, witches, superheroes and monsters as children travel from door to door in search of candy. Pumpkins glow from front porches, homes are covered with spiderwebs and skeletons, and scary movies become required viewing.

But behind the costumes, candy and jack-o’-lanterns is a holiday with roots stretching back thousands of years.

The Halloween celebrated today is the result of centuries of traditions that blended together as cultures, religions and people changed. Customs that once marked the end of the harvest, honored the dead or protected people from wandering spirits eventually became one of America's most recognizable celebrations.

An Ancient Beginning

Many Halloween traditions are connected to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. More than 2,000 years ago, Celtic communities in areas including present-day Ireland and Britain observed the transition into the darker months of the year with gatherings, fires and religious customs.

Samhain was also associated with beliefs about the dead. People believed the boundary separating the living and the dead became especially thin at this time of year, allowing spirits to return. Masks and disguises became associated with the celebration, while bonfires played an important part in community gatherings.

The Romans had traditions of their own surrounding the dead. Feralia, for example, was associated with remembering those who had died. As Roman and Celtic cultures interacted, customs surrounding seasonal celebrations and remembrance of the dead influenced one another.

From Samhain to All Hallows' Eve

Christianity brought another transformation.

All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day, eventually came to be observed on November 1. The evening before it became known as All Hallows' Eve. Over time, the name was shortened to "Halloween."

Older traditions did not simply disappear. Instead, customs from different celebrations blended together.

One practice that developed in Britain was known as "souling." Poor people would travel from house to house asking for small cakes, sometimes called soul cakes, in exchange for offering prayers. The custom of visiting homes and receiving food bears a noticeable resemblance to a tradition familiar to almost every child today.

Halloween Comes to America

Halloween did not immediately become a major American holiday.

That began changing dramatically during the 19th century as immigrants—particularly Irish and Scottish immigrants—brought Halloween customs with them to the United States. The large wave of Irish immigration associated with the Great Famine of the 1840s helped spread those traditions across the country.

Among the traditions immigrants brought with them was the jack-o'-lantern.

In Ireland, people traditionally carved faces into turnips. The practice became associated with the folktale of "Stingy Jack," a man condemned to wander the earth carrying a light inside a hollowed-out turnip. Once Irish immigrants arrived in America, they discovered that pumpkins—native to the Americas—were larger and considerably easier to carve. The pumpkin gradually became the familiar glowing face of Halloween.

Halloween in America, however, wasn't always innocent fun.

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pranks had become an important part of the holiday. Some were harmless, while others involved damaged property, overturned wagons, released livestock and vandalism. In growing cities, Halloween mischief could include fires and damage to buildings.

Communities began looking for ways to channel that energy into something less destructive. Halloween parties, costume contests and community celebrations offered alternatives to a night of mischief. In 1914, for example, Elizabeth Krebs helped organize a large Halloween celebration in Hiawatha, Kansas, after years of frustration with annual vandalism. The event included entertainment, a parade and costume contest and became an influential example of a community-centered Halloween celebration.

Trick or Treat?

Exactly how trick-or-treating developed is complicated because several older customs likely contributed to it.

There was the centuries-old tradition of souling, in which people went from door to door seeking food. There were also traditions of wearing disguises, as well as Halloween's long association with pranks.

Eventually, those ideas came together in a rather simple bargain: give us a treat and we won't play a trick.

One of the earliest known printed appearances of the phrase "trick or treat" appeared in a Canadian newspaper in 1927. The custom spread through North America during the following decades, although World War II sugar rationing temporarily limited the availability of candy.

After the war, Halloween increasingly became centered around children and families. By the 1950s, trick-or-treating was commonplace, with communities encouraging children to collect candy rather than engage in destructive pranks.

Centuries of Tradition in One Night

By the latter decades of the 20th century, most of the pieces of modern American Halloween were firmly in place: trick-or-treating, costumes, jack-o'-lanterns, parties, parades, haunted attractions, ghost stories and scary movies.

Yet beneath the plastic skeletons and overflowing candy bowls are echoes of celebrations stretching back centuries.

The bonfires of Samhain became part of Halloween's imagery of autumn nights and fire. Ancient masks and disguises evolved into costumes. Carved turnips became glowing pumpkins. Souling and other door-to-door customs helped pave the way for trick-or-treating. A night once associated with preparing for winter and contemplating the boundary between life and death gradually became a night when communities gather for costumes, candy and a little carefully controlled fright.

Halloween has changed dramatically during its long journey.

Perhaps that is the tradition that has remained most consistent of all: transformation.

For thousands of years, the arrival of the darker days of autumn has inspired people to gather, tell stories, disguise themselves and confront the mysteries that frighten them. Today we may do it while wearing a superhero costume and carrying a plastic pumpkin filled with miniature candy bars—but the impulse behind the celebration is much older.

Sources: World History Encyclopedia — History of Halloween; DeKalb Public Library — The Spooky, Fun-Filled History of Halloween; and The Frick Pittsburgh — A History of Halloween: Tricks, Treats and Enduring Traditions.