History of Halloween

There's something haunting our history, and it comes round but once a year. As the days grow darker, we dress up our children and send them forth to trick or treat with little reasoning. As we are farther removed from whence we came in both time and space, it's easy to accept that what we do out of tradition is just for fun, but it's also illuminating to know the why. Along with Halloween, quickly follows el día de los muertos, but its past has not been forgotten; a day to remember the dead and keep them close to our hearts, celebrated with beauty, brightness, food, and love reminds us all of our mortality and that without death, there would be no life as shown when the seasons turn.

These juxtapositions are who we are as humans and rather than hide in the shadows, we should bring them to light. According to History, "[Halloween] originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts...Celts believed that on the night before the new year [Oct. 31], the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred," much like el día de los muertos. No doubt these are deeply rooted in the changing of the seasons, the darker days and longer nights that follow summer into fall.

Over time All Hallow's Eve lost its history and became the watered-down version of Halloween, easily swallowed but with little sustenance. As Z&X prepare to carve pumpkins rather than turnips, we'll do it just for fun, and they'll dress up and trick or treat too; you can even dress up your dog! We'll spend some time, though, remembering our loved ones because those lines still blur for us. Our past doesn't have to haunt us, if we look our ghosts in the face and remember to carry our own little light through the darkness of the days that follow.