How Trick-or-Treating Became a Halloween Tradition
Historians say the holiday grew from Celtic harvest rites that honored the dead and later evolved into trick-or-treating and other customs.
- Today, October 31, marks Halloween, also known as Samhain or the "Witch's New Year," a day many spiritual traditions view as a moment when the veil between physical and spiritual worlds is thinnest.
- Ancient Celtic traditions celebrated Samhain from October 31 to November 1 to mark the harvest and welcome "the dark half of the year," with celebrants historically hosting a "dumb supper" to commune with the Otherworld.
- Economic analysis by Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation found candy prices rose 15% this year, roughly four times the inflation rate, while Americans spend billions annually on costumes and decorations.
- Besides seasonal observances, October 31 marks Reformation Day, commemorating 509 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to a church door in Wittenberg, challenging the Church's sale of indulgences.
- Luther's challenge sparked the Protestant Reformation, shifting religious focus toward faith rather than works; today, many view this legacy as providing freedom from fear, allowing modern celebrations like Halloween to coexist with religious observance.
50 Articles
50 Articles
Halloween, also known as Halloween, is celebrated on October 31st around the world, with costumes, carved pumpkins, sweets and themed parties. Although today it is mostly associated with American pop culture, this holiday has a much longer history, with its roots going back centuries to ancient Celtic customs.
Kreiszeitung
Sweets, hollowed-out vegetables and the idea that on the night of November 1st, the boundaries between this and the afterlife are blurring: Many of the Halloween brides, disguised as U.S. commerce, have historical roots in the customs of old Europe.
What today is sold as an American import holiday, Halloween, is nothing more than a recent commercial reworking of a liturgy of memory born, with millennia of advance, to the South. Indeed, in the United States, the Puritan and Protestant America fiercely opposed for centuries any celebration linked to the cult of the dead who remained confined in the ghettos. The [...] The article Halloween? Other than American festival, was born in Naples 3000…
Pumpkins, candy and monsters coming from beyond graves... everybody knows Halloween. If many think this party comes from the United States, its history draws its roots from the old one.
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