Halloween: Origins, Meaning & Traditions | HISTORY

Ancient Origins of Halloween

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.

This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes.

When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

Did you know? One quarter of all the candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween.

By A.D. 43, the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of bobbing for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

READ MORE: Halloween Costumes That Disguised, Spooked and Thrilled Through the Ages

Halloween Costumes through the decades — In the early 20th century, Halloween costumes were geared toward spooky themes (as opposed to current events), and were mostly homemade. Here, women dressed as witches line up for a Halloween portrait, circa 1910.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — The goal of early costumes wasn’t necessarily to dress up as a particular creature or character, but rather to conceal one's identity in a spooky way that evoked themes like ghosts, witches, black cats or the moon. A man dressed in a cat costume for Halloween, circa 1920.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — Since teenage pranksters were known to wreak havoc on Halloween night, starting around the Great Depression, adults started organizing neighborhood activities like trick-or-treating, haunted houses and costume parties to keep young people from making trouble.Three girls pose in their masked costumes as they prepare for Halloween festivities in the College Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1929.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — Box costumes were considered expensive luxuries during the Great Depression era, so most families continued to make their own Halloween outfits using costume patterns,Children in costumes gather at a Halloween party in Madison, Wisconsin, 1931.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — A person wears his homemade mummy costume in this undated 1930s Halloween photograph.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — As parents encouraged community activities for children on Halloween, costumes expanded to include characters that children might have seen and enjoyed, as in this undated 1930s photo of girl holding a Mickey Mouse mask.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — These fifth- and sixth-graders prepare for Halloween by creating papier mache masks, 1947.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — In the 1950s, mass-produced box costumes became more affordable, so more kids began to use them to dress up. Here, children pose as they trick or treat with their costumes and masks, 1955.How Donald Duck and Peanuts Saved Trick-or-Treating

Halloween Costumes through the decades — Costumes in the 1950s also started to take inspiration from current events, such as the launch of Sputnik in 1957, as shown in this photo of a couple dressed as Sputnik and a Soviet officer on October 31, 1957 in Los Angeles, California.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — As store-bought costumes became more affordable, parents could suit up their children for the holiday at the last minute.READ MORE: Thank This Man For Your Last-Minute Halloween Costume

Halloween Costumes through the decades — Halloween masks became more elaborate in the 1960s, as shown by this store display from the decade.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — Sometimes a good mask makes up most of the costume, as on this boy, photographed in 1968 as he tries to scare a young girl.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — Other times, good makeup is the key costume element. Here, an 11-year-old KISS fan poses in his Paul Stanley makeup on Halloween.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — Movies became popular costume inspirations. Here Star Wars characters, C3P0 and Darth Vader, celebrate at Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1977.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — The 1970s saw some more changes to Halloween costumes. This is the period when Americans began wearing presidential masks, particularly the most famous one of all: Richard Nixon’s—shown here in 1978.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — “Sexy” versions of costumes for women were common from the 1960s on and became an established commercial product in the 1990s. Here, a woman dressed like a Playboy Bunny dances at Studio 54 Halloween party in New York City, 1979.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — Box costumes could transform young children into superheroes for the night. Here two boys, dressed as The Thing and Batman, are photographed at the annual New York City Halloween Parade in this photo from the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — Halloween costumes in the 1970s and ‘80s became more gruesome with the rise of slasher horror movies. Horror movies also cemented Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees masks as classic horror costumes. Here people pose as Dracula, a skeleton and werewolf at Morrissey Magic store in New York, 1985.READ MORE: 6 Horror Movies Inspired by Real Stories

Halloween Costumes through the decades — Abracadabra store manager Darin Pellegrino, left, wears a Vice President George H.W. Bush mask and Lourdes Lopez wears a Gov. Michael Dukakis mask as they ready for the upcoming Halloween season at their Greenwich Village store in New York, 1988.

Halloween Costumes through the decades — In 1995, the year of the O.J. Simpson trial, costume shops, like this one in New York City, sold hundreds of masks of both Simpson and the presiding Judge Ito.

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All Saints' Day

On May 13, A.D. 609, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1.

By the 9th century, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted older Celtic rites. In A.D. 1000, the church made November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It’s widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, church-sanctioned holiday.

All Souls’ Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints’ Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

READ MORE: How the Early Catholic Church Christianized Halloween

Halloween Comes to America

The celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies.

As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing.

Did you know? More people are buying costumes for their pets. Americans spent nearly $500 million on costumes for their pets in 2021—more than double what they spent in 2010.

Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the 19th century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing the Irish Potato Famine, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally.

READ MORE: Monsters in the White House: The Best Presidential Halloween Costumes

Patricia Nixon, wife of then-Vice President Richard Nixon, with her daughters 8-year-old Patricia and 6-year-old Julia on Halloween, 1954. Mrs. Nixon made the costumes herself.

President Kennedy enjoys a laugh with his children Caroline and John Jr. dressed in Halloween costumes, 1963.

Tricia Nixon, daughter of President Nixon, greets guests coming to trick-or-treat at the White House, 1969. The Nixon’s hosted a Halloween party for underprivileged children in the Washington area.

First lady Betty Ford and her secretary dress up a skeleton for Halloween in the President’s chair in his private study, 1974.

President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton dressed as James and Dolley Madison at Hillary’s Halloween costume birthday party at the White House, 1993

Vice President Al Gore and Tipper Gore pose for a photo in their elaborate Beauty and the Beast inspired costumes, 1995.

Four years later, the Gore’s again wowed the White House with their renditions of cartoon characters “Underdog” and “Polly Purebred.”

Even the White House pets join the festivities. Here India, Miss Beazley and Barney, the pets of George W. Bush, sit for photos on the White House lawn in their Halloween costumes, 2007.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s Labrador retrievers also dressed up that year. Jackson dressed as Darth Vader, and Dave as Superman.

First lady Michelle Obama greets trick-or-treaters at the Obama’s first Halloween at the White House, 2009. They celebrated by inviting students and military families over for some Halloween fun.

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History of Trick-or-Treating

Borrowing from European traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.

WATCH: Trick-or-Treating's Tricky History

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes.

Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

Halloween Parties

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide Halloween parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague some celebrations in many communities during this time.

By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated.

Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats.

Thus, a new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday after Christmas.

READ MORE: The Haunted History of Halloween Candy

Halloween Movies

Speaking of commercial success, scary Halloween movies have a long history of being box office hits. Classic Halloween movies include the “Halloween” franchise, based on the 1978 original film directed by John Carpenter and starring Donald Pleasance, Nick Castle, Jamie Lee Curtis and Tony Moran. In “Halloween,” a young boy named Michael Myers murders his 17-year-old sister and is committed to jail, only to escape as a teen on Halloween night and seek out his old home, and a new target. A direct sequel to the original "Halloween" was released in 2018, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle. A sequel to that—"Halloween Kills," the twelfth film in the "Halloween" franchise overall—was released in 2021.

Considered a classic horror film down to its spooky soundtrack, "Halloween" inspired other iconic “slasher films” like “Scream,” “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13.” More family-friendly Halloween movies include “Hocus Pocus,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Beetlejuice” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”

READ MORE: The Real Stories Behind Classic Horror Movies

The Exorcist — How do you make a horror tale scarier? Just say it’s “based on a true story.” In August 1949, The Washington Post ran at least two stories about a 14-year-old boy’s exorcism in Maryland. The story inspired author William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel The Exorcist, the basis for the 1973 film.

The Real History behind Horror Movies: Nosferatu — The 1922 German film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is an unauthorized knock-off of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. Stories of undead beings feeding off the living have been around a lot longer than Stoker’s novel.

The Real History behind Horror Movies: The Amityville Horror — On November 13, 1974, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. murdered his entire family in their sleep. A year later, the Lutz family purchased the house in Amityville, New York. The Lutz's then claimed they experienced shocking paranormal phenomena in the house. The claims are described the 1977 book, The Amityville Horror, which inspired the 1979 movie.

The Real History behind Horro Movies: The Serpent and the Rainbow — In 1985, a white U.S. grad student, Wade Davis, published a book claiming he’d discovered that secret Haitian societies used tetrodotoxin to trick people into thinking they’d died and come back to life as zombies. The story was adapted into the 1988 film The Serpent and the Rainbow.

The Real History behind Horror Movies: Ed and Lorraine Warren and the Haunting in Connecticut — Allen and Carmen Snedeker claimed they’d experienced paranormal phenomena at the Connecticut house they rented in 1986. Ed and Lorraine Warren hired novelist, Ray Garton, to write a book about the haunting. In 2009, the book was made into the movie, The Haunting in Connecticut.

The Real History behind Horror Movies: Ed and Lorraine Warren and the Conjuring — Ed and Lorriane Warren promoted so many hauntings during their decades-long careers that they became horror movie characters, themselves. Actors portraying the couple have appeared in The Conjuring (2013), The Conjuring 2 (2016), The Nun (2018) and Annabelle Comes Home (2019), and will appear again in The Conjuring 3 (2020). Read more: The Real Stories Behind Classic Horror Movies

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All Souls Day and Soul Cakes

The American Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as “going a-souling,” was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry.

On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.

On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

READ MORE: 8 of Halloween's Most Hair-Raising Folk Legends

Witches — Images of witches have appeared in various forms throughout history, from evil, wart-nosed women huddling over a cauldron of boiling liquid to hag-faced, cackling beings riding through the sky on brooms wearing pointy hats. But the real history of witches is dark and dates back to as far as about 900 B.C. Read more

Vampire — Vampires are evil, mythological beings that roam the night in search of victims for their blood. Often associated with Count Dracula, the legendary subject of Bram Stoker’s epic 1897 novel, Dracula, the history of vampires began long before Stoker was born. These dark characters harken back to Ancient Greek mythology and embody a superstition that thrived during the Middle Ages. Read more

Werewolf — Werewolves are, according to some legends, people who morph into vicious, powerful wolves. Others are a mutant combination of human and wolf. All are bloodthirsty beasts. Descriptions of werewolves date back as early as Greek mythology and early Nordic folklore. Read more

Zombie — The zombie, often portrayed as an undead, flesh-eating, decaying corpse, has seen a popularity surge in recent years thanks to music videos and TV shows. Unlike many other monsters—which are mostly a product of superstition and fear—zombies have a basis in fact. Several credible reports in medical journals describe people using certain compounds to first induce paralysis in people, and then revive them. In Haitian voodoo culture, folklore featuring undead beings has been around for centuries. Read more

Mummies — A mummy is a person or animal whose body has been dried or otherwise preserved after death. When people think of a mummy, they often think of Ancient Egyptians, who have been making mummies as early as 3700 B.C. Mummies may not literally rise from their ancient tombs and attack with their arms outstretched—like the Hollywood-era versions. But they’re quite real and have a fascinating history. Read more

Ghost — As in many cultures, tales of spooky visitors from the grave abound throughout American history. Some anecdotes relate the sightings of dead shipmen, another famous tale involves the portrait of a forgotten beauty. And many of the enduring ghost stories describe famous men and women who have passed through the White House. Read more

The Devil — The Devil, also referred to as Satan, is known as the nemesis of good people everywhere. Although the Devil is present in some form in many religions and can be compared to some mythological gods, he’s arguably best known for his role in Christianity. His image and story have evolved over the years, but this malevolent being and his legion of demons continue to strike fear in people as the antithesis of all things good. Read more

Clowns — Clowns are tricksters and represent one of the oldest and most pervasive archetypes in the world. They can be both funny and scary, cheerful or creepy, and they often make it difficult for others to tell whether they're lying. In the 1970s and early ‘80s, the American image of the clown shifted toward something more sinister with the media coverage of John Wayne Gacy, a serial murderer who had occasionally dressed as “Pogo the Clown.” Read more

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Black Cats and Ghosts on Halloween

Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.

Today’s Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into black cats.

We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred (it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe). And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

READ MORE: Why Black Cats Are Associated With Bad Luck

Halloween Matchmaking and Lesser-Known Rituals

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today’s trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead.

In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday—with luck, by next Halloween—be married. In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it.

In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl’s future husband. (In some versions of this legend, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.)

Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband.

Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands’ initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands’ faces.

Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry. At others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.

Of course, whether we’re asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the goodwill of the very same “spirits” whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly.

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