The modern Halloween, with its costumes, its lanterns, its ghosts, and its trick-or-treaters, is one of the most visible folkloric survivals in the contemporary world, and the tradition is in large part a product of the older Irish and Scottish festival of Samhain. The Celtic influence on modern popular culture is sometimes discussed in terms of the more self-conscious revivals of Celtic art and design, but Halloween is an example of a folk tradition that has gone global almost without anyone noticing, and the Celtic legacy today cannot be fully understood without a serious look at this most Celtic of modern festivals.
Samhain and the Celtic New Year
Samhain, the festival that falls on or about 1 November, was one of the four great fire-festivals of the older Celtic religion and one of the most important moments of the Celtic year. The festival marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the dark half of the year, and it was understood in the older Celtic tradition as a moment at which the boundary between the world of the living and the otherworld became particularly thin. The spirits of the dead, the sídhe of the Irish tradition, were believed to walk among the living at Samhain, and the festival was a time of particular vigilance, of divination, and of offerings to the dead.
The medieval Irish and Scottish sources describe a range of practices associated with Samhain. Fires were lit on the hills, and there are references to the lighting of a Samhnag, a fire-brand, by the household. The Mabinogion and the Irish mythological tales refer to great gatherings at Samhain, and the festival is described as one of the four quarter-days of the older Gaelic year. The Brehon law tradition also made provision for the customs of Samhain, and the laws describe the specific rituals of the festival in some detail.
The Practice of Disguise
The most distinctive feature of the medieval Samhain tradition in relation to the modern Halloween was the practice of going about in disguise. The medieval Irish and Scottish sources describe people going from house to house at Samhain in costume, sometimes in the guise of the sídhe or of the dead, sometimes in the simple disguise of the opposite sex, and sometimes in masks and other fantastical outfits. The practice was a way of confusing the returning spirits, of protecting oneself from the dangers of the night, and of participating in the inversion of the normal social order that the festival involved.
The medieval practice of going about in disguise at Samhain is described in a number of medieval Irish and Scottish texts. The Tochmarc Becfola, an early Irish tale, refers to women going out at Samhain and the related winter festivals in disguise. The Scottish Bonnie Bobby Shaftoe and similar ballads refer to the practice of going about in costume at the festival. The medieval Irish literature more broadly is full of references to the festivals of the year and to the rituals associated with them.
The Survival of the Tradition in Britain and Ireland
The practice of going about in disguise at Samhain survived in the British and Irish folk tradition long after the Christianisation of the festival as All Hallows’ Eve, the night before All Saints’ Day on 1 November. The Christian festival was established in the early medieval period, and the older folkloric practices of the night continued alongside the Christian observance. The result was a complex blend of Christian and pre-Christian elements, with the Christian feast of the saints sitting alongside the older folkloric concern with the dead and the otherworld.
In Ireland, the tradition of mumming at the festival continued into the present. The mummers of the rural Irish tradition went from house to house in costume, sometimes performing plays or songs, sometimes simply asking for food or drink. The Scottish guising tradition, in which children went from house to house in costume and performed a trick or a song in exchange for a treat, is also a survival of the older practice. The Manx and Welsh traditions also had their variants of the costume practice at the festival.
The Turnip and the Lantern
The jack-o’-lantern, the carved turnip (or, in the American tradition, the carved pumpkin) that distinctive images of the modern Halloween, is also a survival of the older Celtic tradition. The Irish tradition of the Samhnag, the fire-brand that was carried at the festival, was extended in the early modern period into the practice of carving turnips with faces and placing a candle inside. The carved turnip was believed to frighten away the wandering spirits, and the practice was particularly associated with the night of 31 October.
The story of Stingy Jack, the Irish folkloric figure of a man who tricked the Devil and who was condemned to wander the earth with a carved turnip lit by a coal from hell, is the most famous of the explanations of the jack-o’-lantern. The story, although it is preserved in nineteenth-century form, has its roots in the older Irish folkloric tradition, and the Stingy Jack story has been the basis of the modern iconography of the carved lantern.
The American Transformation
The modern form of Halloween as a costumed and trick-or-treating festival is, in large part, an American development. The Irish and Scottish immigrants who came to the United States in the nineteenth century, particularly in the wake of the Great Famine of 1845-1849, brought the older Celtic festival traditions with them, and the practices were adapted to the new American context. The carving of pumpkins, which were more readily available in the New World than turnips, replaced the older carving of turnips. The trick-or-treating tradition was adapted and standardised in the twentieth century, particularly in the post-1945 period, and the costume industry that grew up around the festival made the modern Halloween possible.
The American transformation of the festival was so successful that the resulting tradition has now been exported back to Britain and Ireland, and the modern British and Irish Halloween, with its costumed children, its carved pumpkins, and its trick-or-treating, is an American import that has its ultimate roots in the older Celtic festival. The trade in Halloween costumes, decorations, and accessories is now a substantial industry in Britain and Ireland as well as in the United States, and the festival is one of the most commercialised of the modern folk traditions.
The Broader Cultural Legacy
The Celtic roots of the modern Halloween are an interesting example of how a folk tradition can survive and transform across centuries and continents. The medieval Irish and Scottish festival of Samhain, with its practice of going about in disguise and its carved turnip lanterns, has given rise to one of the most distinctive cultural events of the modern world, and the Celtic influence on modern popular culture includes this most global of the Celtic-derived festivals. The festival is, a remarkable example of the way in which the older Celtic traditions have been transformed into something that is at once recognisably continuous with the past and distinctly modern in its forms.
Conclusion
The Celtic roots of the modern Halloween are a substantial and underappreciated part of the Celtic legacy today. The Irish and Scottish festival of Samhain, with its practice of going about in disguise, its carved turnip lanterns, and its concern with the returning dead, has given rise to one of the most distinctive global festivals of the modern period, and the transformation of the festival in America and its subsequent export back to the Celtic countries is one of the clearest examples of the cultural transmission of a folk tradition. The Celtic roots of the festival are a reminder that the Celtic influence on modern popular culture is not only a matter of self-conscious revivals and design traditions but also of folk practices that have continued in one form or another for centuries.
Related Topics
- The Celtic influence on fantasy and popular culture examines the broader literary and visual tradition of which the modern Halloween is a part.
- The Celtic cosmology and the otherworld is the religious background to the Samhain traditions.
- The Celtic identity in modern nations is closely connected to the cultural history of the festival.
- The Celtic revival of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries rediscovered and popularised many of the older folkloric materials.
- The Celtic art and craftsmanship of the older Celtic world, including the Celtic knotwork and symbolism that appears on the modern Halloween lantern, is part of the same broader inheritance.