Contemporary Halloween celebrations are generally associated with pumpkin-carving, trick-or-treating and haunted houses, but the night of Oct. 31 is fraught with an ancient history that draws from different cultural traditions.
The term “Halloween” comes from “All Hallow’s Eve,” which is the night before All Saints’ Day, said Scott Bartchy, a history of religions professor.
“(All Saints’ Day) is meant to commemorate all those who have died and those who reside in heaven,” he said.
“All Saints’ Day” is a term which has only been around since the eighth century, as the day itself has origins in old Celtic feasts that celebrated the start of winter.
Although Halloween is seen to represent evil today, the festival from which it originated had religious significance, Bartchy said. In the 18th century, the night of Oct. 31 began its celebration in Ireland and parts of Scotland, said Henry Kelly, distinguished professor emeritus of the English department.
Evidence of these celebrations are also demonstrated in literature and a poem by Robert Burns titled “Halloween” (1785), describes the nature of the celebration.
Kelly said the poem described scenes in which people participated in dunking and fortune-telling games.
Halloween was brought to America in the 19th century by the Irish.
“(The Irish) added two elements: partying and vandalism,” he said.
Contemporary Halloween celebrations in America are generally accompanied by both costumes and trick-or-treating, but even these customs can be traced back to previous eras.
“The idea of trick-or-treat was an ingenious thing that was started in the 1930s in this country, and the idea was to diffuse the vandalism by having people come to the door and ask for a treat instead of play a trick,” Kelly said.
Bartchy said costumes have been a part of the holiday since it developed as a night to scare off evil. Although today Halloween has come to be associated with evil, it originated as a festival to drive it away, Bartchy said,
There are fewer denominations that still celebrate All Hallow’s Eve and All Saints’ Day, and there are groups of people who don’t partake in Halloween festivities at all.
Alpha Gamma Omega, the Christian fraternity on campus, typically does not celebrate Halloween as an entire group, but the fraternity will be hosting an event for the first time this year.
Rey Henry, president of AGO, said although individual members partake in different celebrations, generally the holiday has been viewed as being contrary to the organization’s beliefs.
“It’s kind of considered a demonic type of holiday,” Henry said. “It antagonizes what we stand for.”
Most members did not celebrate Halloween even before coming to college and joining AGO. Consequently, the fraternity usually just holds a barbecue.
A haunted house, which will start this Thursday at 10 p.m. will be held at the fraternity house. The night will serve as a fund-raising event that aims to raise money for Invisible Children., a group that assists war-torn youth in different parts of Africa, according to the organization’s Web site.
In addition to Halloween, there are a number of other cultures which celebrate the dead and have festivals with similar themes.
“In general, in many cultures around the world and in human history, communities have come up with days or specific nights when they celebrate the return of dead relatives,” said Jacco Dieleman, associate professor of Egyptology in the near Eastern languages and cultures department.
David Delgado Shorter, associate professor of world arts and cultures, said a big part of the reason why cultures celebrate the dead is because they are not sure what happens after death.
“Making a ritual for the dead … provides a way for us to deal with the fact that we don’t have an answer for what happens after life,” he said.
These celebrations of the dead are usually built around a sense of community.
Dieleman, who specializes in ancient Egypt, said a very elaborate festival for the dead called Wadi was very important in Pharaonic Egypt.
During Wadi, living villagers, who lived on the East Bank of the Nile river, would cross over to the West Bank, where bodies were generally buried, and spend the night there, Dieleman said.
Although this festival is no longer present in contemporary Egypt, many communities do still practice some form of remembering those who are deceased.
One of the most well-known festivities is the Day of the Dead, which originated in Mexico, but a number of other celebrations have other origins.
For example, Obon, has its roots in Japan and will be celebrated in De Neve quad on Nov. 4.
“It’s usually when ancestors are thought to come back from the dead to visit people who are currently alive,” said Edward Kiboyashi, president of Nikkei Student Union.
The festival has its origins in Buddhism but is celebrated by non-Buddhist people as well, he said.
Obon started in Japan, but after it was brought to the U.S., the festival transformed.
In addition to honoring ancestors, Obon also serves as a more general celebration of Japanese heritage, Kiboyashi said.