Fall festivities aren’t just an excuse to eat candy. This time of year is originally dedicated to the celebration of ancestral beliefs.
At the origin of Halloween: an ancestral belief
Putting treats in the spotlight is not new. 3000 years ago, every year, at the dawn of autumn, the Celts celebrated Samhain, one of the four major dates of the Celtic calendar, which would later give birth to Halloween. What was happening during this celebration? The world of the dead visited that of the living.
Why do we give candy on Halloween?
The belief that the dead could invite themselves into the streets and into homes was not without fear among the Celts. Frightened by the idea that malicious ghosts might visit them, offerings of cakes and apples were left at the entrance to their villages. A custom which aimed to calm the deceased and ensure that no reprisals would be inflicted on them.
These offerings have today transformed into a distribution of candy to children, making a terrifying ancestral celebration a festive celebration for the whole family: Halloween.
Halloween in France
If it was the Irish who brought the tradition of Halloween with them to the United States during the great migration movements of the 19th century, it was France Telecom who brought it to France. Indeed, in 1997, France Telecom launched its new mobile phone “Olaween”. The device being orange, 8,000 pumpkins were distributed at Place du Trocadéro in Paris. A marketing event which, in one day, internationalized Halloween as far as France.
Having become a popular holiday, “Halloween” (“All Hallows Even” which means “eve of All Saints’ Day”) no longer really celebrates the dead. Although it takes place the day before November 1, a day dedicated to the memory of the deceased in several European countries including France, it has no link with All Saints’ Day. A day during which it is customary to gather in cemeteries and place a few chrysanthemums, flowers of November 1st.
If there is one country where celebrating the dead is not done halfway, it is in Mexico. There, “El Dia de los Muertos” (“Day of the Dead”) is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd. A religious festival which honors the deceased with songs, face painting, dances and decorations of graves in cemeteries.
