Halloween

Today, Halloween is primarily a celebration of spooky fun. It spread from America to Europe. Across the Atlantic, the scary festival holds roughly the same significance as Carnival does in Germany. At Halloween, people dress up as zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and other terrifying creatures. There is spookily presented food, and the decorations evoke places that send shivers down your spine. Hollowed-out pumpkins with ugly or funny faces are, of course, a must.For every horror fan, Halloween is terrifyingly fun.

Samhain

Halloween is presumably rooted in Celtic customs. On the night of the eleventh full moon of the year, the Celts in ancient England celebrated Samhain in pre-Christian times. It roughly means “end of summer” and was one of the most important festivals of Celtic culture.

Samhain was the Celtic lord of the dead. In his honor, they held a festival every year at the end of summer. They celebrated the beginning of winter and the start of a new calendar year. The Celts knew only summer and winter—summer was the time of life, while winter was the time of death. Therefore, they believed that on Samhain, the souls of the deceased haunted the earth and visited them.

To ward off vengeful spirits, people dressed in scary costumes and wandered through the streets. Large fires were meant to keep evil spirits away during the festival of the dead and to show the deceased souls the way. Small offerings were placed in front of houses to appease the souls and prevent them from committing misdeeds.

It was not until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar that Samhain was assigned a fixed date—the night from October 31 to November 1. Samhain is still celebrated today in the so-called “modern pagan” movement.

All Saints’ Day and Reformation Day

In 837, the pope decided that the feast of All Saints’ Day should no longer be celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost, but on November 1. With Christianization, Samhain was given another name. The Catholic Church called the pagan festival “All Hallows’ Evening”—the evening before All Saints’ Day. In abbreviated form, it was called “Hallows E’en,” which eventually became Halloween.

However, another church holiday is celebrated on Halloween. In 1517, the theologian Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the church in Wittenberg. Reformation Day, celebrated on October 31, commemorates this important event, which initiated the Reformation and the division of Christianity. Today, this day is a public holiday in the eastern German states.

Halloween Conquers Germany

Irish immigrants brought the Celtic festival of the dead to America in the 19th century. There, it evolved into a fun American festival with scary costumes and a cemetery-inspired atmosphere.

Eventually, Halloween came to Germany, where it is particularly popular with children, who dress up, carve pumpkins, and throw parties. Many adults also enjoy the festival of fright. For most people, it is great fun, detached from the old traditions. As during Carnival, people can celebrate exuberantly for one evening and leave the seriousness of life outside the door.

The legend tells of Jack O., who outwitted the devil on the night before All Saints’ Day. The devil wanted to take him, but Jack captured him and only set him free after the devil promised to leave him in peace for ten years.

After the ten years had passed, the devil returned, and Jack asked for an apple, picked by the devil, as his “last meal.” When the devil had climbed the tree, Jack carved a cross into the trunk. The devil was trapped, and Jack forced him to promise that he would never go to Hell.

A few years later, Jack O. died and eagerly approached the gates of Heaven. But he was denied entry because he had led a sinful life. He was also turned away at the gates of Hell, because the devil kept his promise. Since then, Jack O. has wandered the world as an undead being. Out of pity, the devil gave him a piece of coal from the fires of Hell to light his way. Jack placed the coal inside a hollowed-out turnip so that it would not burn out.

That is how the English name Jack-O’-Lantern came to be used for pumpkin lanterns.

In North America, the tradition of hollowing out pumpkins and carving faces into them spread quickly because pumpkins are plentiful in the country. In particular, the hard-skinned winter squash harvested from mid-September to the end of October—right around Halloween—is especially well suited to carving.

The jack-o’-lantern is meant to keep evil spirits away from the house. That is why it usually sits beside the front door, guarding the house with as gruesome a grimace as possible.

Halloween for Young and Old

The Halloween party always depends on the guests’ age group and tolerance for scares. Children are allowed to enjoy a fright too, and many love this celebration. However, overly realistic decorations such as bloody body parts and costumes featuring lifelike wounds and fake blood should only be found at an adults-only party.

If your children get frightened easily, take a gentle approach and keep the celebration more humorous than scary. If there is someone in your family or circle of friends who does not leave their house on Halloween, it is also better to be considerate.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about Halloween. Critical voices come mainly from the church. Believers fear that the worship of ghosts is being glorified and that death is being reduced to a superficial phenomenon.

The Protestant church also criticizes the date, as the holiday falls exactly on Reformation Day, when Protestants celebrate Martin Luther’s Reformation and the beginning of the church’s division.