Why I dislike so-called Hallowe'en "celebrations"

If you ask people, "What is Hallowe'en about?", they'll start talking about trick-or-treating and dressing up in ghoulish [makaber] fancy dress costumes. As though that is the meaning of Hallowe'en. Most people have no clue of its origins and think it's just an excuse to dress up, play tricks on people and stuff one's face with sweets. 

When I was growing up in Wales, you didn't go out in the dark hours of the last day of October. No, you stayed firmly behind closed (or even locked) doors. And why did we not venture [wagen] outside? Because on that day, the dead rose up again and they, along with ghosts and ghouls, walked abroad. 

As History.com puts it: 

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 1 November.

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.

Now, who in their right minds would 'celebrate' the dead coming back to earth? Not me.

At least we have the first of November to make us feel safer again. That day is know as All Saint's Day or Allerheiligen. The name 'Hallowe'en' comes from the term 'All Hallows Eve' or the day before All Saints' Day ('hallow' meaning 'saint'). 

Back to History.com

On May 13, A.D. 609, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honour 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 honour 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.

So now you know all about these two special days: the last day of October, a scary time to go outside, and the first day of November, which commemorates all the Christian saints and martyrs. Yin and yang.

Here are some pumpkin lanterns to keep the evil spirits at bay: