The history of Halloween is rooted in Irish Celtic traditions which is so interesting and unexpected for me! I guess you could see how the dark, misty, moody backdrop Éire
has to offer might inspire some of the spooky Halloween traditions, but that’s not exactly the case. Thousands of years ago they celebrated a festival called Samhain on the last day of October/1st of November to mark the end of the harvest and start of winter.
Dating back to the 9th century Samhain, entails gatherings for feasts, massive bonfires, and the opening of sacred burial grounds believed to lift the veil between the world of the living and the dead.
Today, we have forgotten nearly all about the ancient origins and society has modernized the meaning of Halloween! Every year when summer ends, it’s such a treat to transition into the next season with the colors of autumn leaves, black cats, and all things witchy. I come from a family, specifically a Mother, who is OBSESSED with Halloween. She goes ALL out with decorations in the windows, on the porch, in the yard, and we haven’t even stepped inside the house yet. Smells of cinnamon and pumpkin candles burn through the air while an apple delicacy of some kind goes into the oven. It’s such a blessing when someone's in your life makes the holidays so special! My mom has always gone all out for halloween, adding to our costumes with things from around the house and devoting glam time to our bloody, undead makeup.
And I think she only buys more lights and decorations every year.
For me, at 20, Halloween has very much turned into a social affair. There were parties full of scary teenagers for “Halloweekend” in high school and now in college a costumed celebratory Thursday night out in addition to the actual holiday. It turns into my running joke all month: “Will I go as him/her/this/that for halloween?” My favorite part of Halloween, though, has to be that it is the season of horror movies, where everyone at least feels obliged to TRY not to be a scaredy-cat. Again, I come from a home very fond of the horror genre, and I can’t seem to grasp when people don’t like them! There’s nothing better than either at home or at the cinema with your family/friends all grasping onto each other for dear life, hearts pounding at the next jump scare. You can feel the magic of the season then. As well, and this may be another hot take, but the crisp autumn weather also falls in my good graces. It scratches something in the human psyche when that first draft of cold autumn air hits the dome.
All in all fall and Halloween is a wonderfully special time of year that can be easily celebrated in different ways across all ages. Don’t be shy of your purple and green stripes, maybe socks as Gaeilge, your potions, or your evil laugh this season. And don’t forget to put a hex on all the people that cut you off in traffic.