The Origin of Halloween
Halloween today comes from several different holidays. The most common theory among historians is from the Gaelic (Ireland and Scotland) harvest festival Samhain. The festival is celebrated from October 31st to November 1st, to mark the beginning of the winter season. Samhain was said to be Christianized by early Christians around the 4th century into All Hallows Eve Although it is thought that the holiday emerged as its own. All Hallows Eve is a feast before All Saints’ Day on November 1st. Halloween came to the US by way of Irish and Scottish immigrants in the 19th century.
Trick-Or-Treating
Trick-or-treating is said to come from souling a type of mumming that started in the Middle Ages. Mumming was done on holidays in the UK (I know the UK didn’t exist until the 1700s will be using it for simplicity) such as Samhain. Mumming consists of people going door to door to perform scenes from plays in exchange for food and drinks. Trick-or-treating comes from the Scottish tradition of guising where kids would go door-to-door to beg for treats. Early trick-or-treating appeared in North America in 1911 in Kingston Ontario, but it was called guising. Scary costumes were all there was till the 1930s when pop culture characters' customs started to be made. The actual phrase came about in the 1930s-1940s.
Jack-o’-lantern
Jack-o’-lanterns weren’t always pumpkins but oftentimes root vegetables turnips being the most common. The story of the Jack-o’-lantern comes from the Irish folk of Stingy Jack, a drunkard who tricked the devil, and trapped him in a tree surrounded by crucifixes. Jack freed the devil in the deal that his soul would never go to hell. Jack continued his life of drunkenness and when he died, he was not allowed into heaven he was said to now roam the earth with only the carved root vegetable with the light inside as a guide.
Apple bobbing
Apple bobbing comes from the roman era, two unmarried people would try to get the apple that was on a string the first to get it would be the next to marry.
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