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October 2000 Issue

A Spiritual History of Halloween

By Laurence Constable

Witches, warlocks, goblins and ghouls. What do these fantastic creatures have to do with the history of Halloween? As it turns out, not much. These days, that costume-wearing and trick-or-treating celebration seems decidedly without religion. But the spiritual roots of Halloween go back thousands of years, all the way to the beliefs of Europe's ancient pagans.

October 31st, well before it became Hallmark's spookiest day, was celebrated as the eve of the pagan New Year, Samhain (pronounced "sow-in"), and represented the ends of both the summer and the long harvest season. For pagan practitioners, who placed a great deal of religious importance on nature, the night of the 31st was a very special time that marked the transition from one year to the next.

On this night, it was said that the barrier between life and afterlife was at its thinnest, and part of the New Year celebration involved warding off jealous spirits who returned to Earth by cover of darkness to stake a claim on land taken over by their descendants. It was a harmless superstition, which became much maligned when Catholic missionaries spread rumors in an effort to convert pagans to their own faith. They put forth that "Samhain" was actually the name of the Celtic god of Death and that he was worshipped on that last night of October with practices that involved ritualistic sacrifice, sexual offences, and other fearsome pursuits.

Despite its propagandist overtones, and even an occasional Papal renunciation, the rumors were embraced by Christians the world over and resulted in the persecution of many a non-believer. But the truth is that the Celts were a mostly agrarian people and Samhain was more a harvest festival than anything else. If the day in question did originally carry any dark symbolism, it was reflected only in the blackness of the long, cold winter ahead.

So where does this holiday fit into the Jewish tradition? Well, much of the early persecution of the Jews by the Catholic church mirrors that of the pagans. Exemplified by a practice called "Blood Libel," Jewish rituals were often fictionalized to include things like human sacrifice, blood drinking, and "host desecration" (in which it was said that Jews would blaspheme the body of Christ in its symbolic form of a bread wafer).

Such calumny may have helped the Roman Catholics in their attempt to rid Europe of the Jews, but of course there was no factual evidence for any of it. Common-sense dictated that practices like drinking human blood and host desecration were no more than tall tales. The Torah, for instance, specifically forbids the consumption of blood of any kind, and belief in transubstantiation--that a communion wafer could actually become the body of Christ--is a decidedly non-Jewish one. Still, as the Catholic church hoarded power, illustrated images of Jews throughout the Middle Ages took on the characteristics of so many modern day Halloween costumes: frightful and ghastly things to be afraid of.

Today, many Jews choose not to celebrate Halloween. Though the holiday has all but lost its religious significance and has become very much a commercialized and secularized tradition, it continues to run against the value systems of any number of different faiths. Ironically, despite the fact that October 31st marks the beginning of a three day Catholic commemoration of saints and martyrs, there are many of that particular religion for whom ŒAll Hallows Eve¹ still represents an embrace of heathen ceremony.

Not dissimilarly, there are Jews who thumb their noses at Halloween, because of the archaic representation of their people during the Middle Ages. More often, though, dissenters from the Jewish perspective say simply that Halloween runs contradictory to their spiritual values. They contend that the idea of dressing up as ghouls and demanding "trick or treat" is not a virtuous pastime nor is it a good lesson for their children. Instead, many choose to celebrate Purim as an alternative to Halloween--reading the Megillah, which tells the story of how Esther and Mordechai saved the ancient Jews from demise; and dressing up in costumes, attending carnivals and parties, and giving gifts to friends, neighbors, and the needy.

Nevertheless, Halloween is still overwhelmingly seen as an American holiday that has evolved far apart from its storied and ancient, religious past. For most of us it's a fun, mischievous time of year when all people--no matter what their faith--can take part in another, much less controversial, ritual: stuffing our faces with candy!

Laurence Constable is currently putting his dentist's children through college. He celebrates Halloween every day of the year and has never met a candy bar he didn't like.

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