A Celtic harvest festival. A Christian holiday. A party night. Although its meanings have changed over the years, Halloween has a history that spans across many centuries and many borders.
Frederick Suppe, an Associate Professor of History at Ball State University, said Halloween traces its origins to an ancient harvest festival known as Samhain that was celebrated in present-day Ireland, Wales and Scotland.
"The pre-Christian belief is this is the end of the harvest season," Suppe said. "This holiday allows the dark spirits to come back. So the way to respond is to stay in your home and to use fire in certain places of the house."
Samhain was one of two holidays that split the Celtic year between the light and dark seasons, Suppe said. The festival began at sunset on October 31 and continued until sunset of the next day.
Suppe said the Samhain holiday allowed for a release for many of the young farmworkers at the end of the stressful harvest season.
"There was no TV, no internet," he said. "So beliefs start to develop to help people let off steam. Young men would go house to house wearing disguises, pretending to be evil spirits. It was kind of the equivalent of trick-or-treat."
The tradition of bobbing for apples also has its roots in the ancient Celtic world where it was used to predict the future, Suppe said.
"Apples were connected with the future or the other world," Suppe said. "Girls would bring apples and the boys would bob for them and try to grab them to find out who they would marry."
Suppe said when Christianity came to the area religious leaders chose to incorporate the holiday rather than trying to outlaw it. The festival continued to be associate with the dead, but it became a holiday where people prayed for the souls of the departed rather than trying to appease them.
"After Christianity came, the Church was willing to accommodate certain beliefs," he said. "November 1 became All Saints Day."
Over the centuries, the name for the night before All Saints Day, or All Hallows Day, changed from All Hallows Eve to Halloween and Irish immigrants brought the traditions to the United States and Canada. In the 20th century, Halloween spread into popular culture and became a largely secular holiday.
Suppe said the historical connection between the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain and the Pagans and Wiccans who celebrate it today is dubious at best.
"For people now who claim to be Christian, there's a continuity with the Bible and the teachings of Christ," Suppe said. "I don't think there's the same continuity between modern Pagans and Wiccans and the beliefs of ancient, pre-Christian Celts."
Associate Professor of History Abel Alves said although Halloween's religious side has largely died off, a similar festival known as the Day of the Dead still retains its own religious aspect.
The Day of the Dead, a holiday which is widely celebrated in Mexico, shares some similarities with Halloween, such as parades, candy and costumes, Alves said.
"It's seen as a time when the dead come out and mock the lives of the living," Alves said. "You have this whole satire of how the living live their lives."
During the holiday, which is also celebrated on November 1, children eat special foods like candy skulls, Alves said.
Alves, who has written extensively on Meso-American cultures, said skeletons were important symbols for both the Aztecs and the conquering Spanish.
"The use of skull imagery was important for Christians because they are called to remember the shortness of this life," Alves said. "The Grim Reaper came to take you away whether you were a king or a peasant."
Alves said both cultures associated death with a sense of reverence and wonder.
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