Halloween is a holiday observance worldwide that is celebrated on October 31 each year in Australia.
As a celebration of Celtic origins, it has spread to several countries around the world, and in recent decades, Australia has begun to take part in the day’s festivities.
Halloween Holiday 2019 & 2020 Dates
Halloween is observed as the 31st of October as it is the eve of the Christian Feast day of ‘All Hallow’s Day’. When tracing the history of Halloween back as far as it can go, it’s believed that the ancient Celtic Harvest Festivals, such as the Samhain Gaelic Festival, was the origin of the Halloween tradition.
Celebrated in Scotland, this festival marked the end of the harvesting season and the beginning of winter. It’s seen as a time where the darkness of otherworldly origin creeps into the human realm, according to legend.
It was believed that darker spirits roamed the lands during this time, and souls of the dead returned to visit their families. Throughout the regions of Britain and Ireland, traditions of the like carried on.
Households put out candles and prayers to offer to souls of the dead at this time of year. Protective and cleansing rituals involving bonfires and the smoke from the ashes were also a big part of the observances.
Costumes began to be worn during this time, in the 16th Century, with people going from home to home to recite songs in exchange for food. It was believed that not donating food would bring bad misfortune on the household.
This tradition was observed in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and later Britain before it later spread to the Western world. Despite these Celtic traditions, it’s noted in history that the name of Halloween and the celebrations that were carried through the years were of Christian origin.
November 1 is known on the Christian holiday calendar as All Hallow’s Day, or sometimes All Saints. Major feasts were taken part in, and it was a time period of three days where people honoured saints and prayed for departed loved ones who had not yet reached heaven.
The door-to-door tradition was also seen in the custom known as ‘fouling’, which was where people baked ‘soul cakes’, and children would come to each home to collect a cake, in exchange for offering prayers to the dead.
Interestingly, this custom has even been mentioned in Shakespeare’s comedy ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona.’
Spreading Around the World
Representing the souls of the dead, the carved pumpkin symbol known as the Jack-o’-Lantern has been around since medieval Europe. Fires were also lit as a way to deflect evil spirits from haunting people, as well as being a guiding light to return souls to their family homes to visit during this time.
European observances of Halloween spread to France, a place which also believed that the dead of the churchyard memorials would rise up during the night to have an evening in the human realm.
This reveals the significance of gravestones and later symbols of ‘undead’ folk like zombies being recognised as Halloween icons. In Italy, families had a custom of leaving meals for their passed relatives so their ghosts could take the offering when they left to attend church services.
Spain also took on a custom of baking special pastries which were called ‘Bones of the Holy’, and they were placed on churchyard gravestones. This custom still continues in modern Spain.
The colonisation of Anglican and Catholic peoples into the United States brought with them the Halloween celebrations in their local communities. However, it wasn’t until the 19th Century, when there were large numbers of Irish and Scottish immigrants entering North America, that Halloween became known as a major day of celebration.
By the 20th century, it was part of mainstream holiday celebrations, regardless of whether the people observing the proceedings had an affiliation with the religious origins.
From the way that it spread to the United States in particular, many people now believe that Halloween was always an American holiday, and are unaware of the European religious origins.
Only much later, in the last three decades, has Australia gotten on board with Halloween celebrations. Even still, it is not at all like the united states and European observances.
More history on the origins of Halloween can be found here.
Halloween Traditions
From the early 18th Century, imitating evil spirits was a custom that has been continuing as a modern Halloween tradition. Drawing from that history of door-to-door offerings, as well as night rituals of lighting candles and fires, we can see the early influences of our current modern customs of celebrating Halloween.
Trick-Or-Treats
Generally just a custom for children, this is where children will dress up in scary costumes – or in more recent times, any kind of character costume – and go door-to-door around their local neighbourhood.
The point is to spend time with friends and collect candy and other small gifts. The name ‘trick or treat’ implies that if no treat is given, there would be a ‘threat’ of sorts.
The phrase is merely a custom, with no real trick actions being taken as part of the tradition. This practice is rooted in those customs of souling and door-to-door visits as described above.
Costumes
Dressing up in costumes became commonplace for Halloween events in Scotland and Ireland by the 19th Century, and this spread to the other areas of the world in the modern take of Halloween.
The first mass-produced Halloween costumes were seen in the 1930s, as the Western world found this a festive part of the events. Adults began to get involved with Halloween dress-up parties, and that is now a common way to celebrate.
Even pet costumes are being marketed and sold, and Halloween costume events, competitions, and parties draw in big business for the industries involved in the decorations and events.
Lanterns and Candles
Again, drawing from the early customs of lighting spaces for the deceased souls to come back, the lanterns and candlelight have been an ongoing custom for people to do in the evening time on Halloween.
Houses become darker with spooky lights, and lanterns are carved from pumpkins in Europe, and especially in America. It is now a big tradition to have pumpkin carving as a family activity to get children involved in the crafts and decorations.
Decorations around the home inside and out with cobwebs, those pumpkins, and other candlelight, and more scary symbols are all part of the long-standing traditions.
Halloween in Australia
In Australia, it’s not a public holiday, but it is a growing festive observance. It took some time for the Halloween celebrations to come to the nation, and it’s still less popular than in America and Europe.
Supermarket chains sell more and more candy each year, and Halloween decorations and costumes will be found in many stores in the lead up to this day.
Trick-or-treating will happen in some areas, though it’s not uncommon to have certain neighboughhoods choose to not take part in the events. For young families in particular, Halloween may be more interesting to celebrate. For ideas on how to celebrate with children, read more here.