Halloween is a Catholic tradition remembering the dead every year around the beginning of November. It begins the period known as the Allhallowtide, occurring on the three days between October 31 and November 2. The first day of the triad called All Hallows’ Eve has transformed into a secular, commercial observance. The hitherto somber holiday has now become an occasion to wear spooky costumes and party; its folkloristic traditions today are associated with popularized customs that have lost their mythical or religious meaning. Nowadays, October 31 is called Halloween, as the words of “All Hallow’s Eve” have merged, and it is a holiday when vampires, witches and other fairy tale and horror creatures become prominent. Due to many customs surrounding the day there are more names describing it: Nut-crack Night, Thump-the-door Night, Apple and Candle Night, Bob Apple Night or Duck Apple Night. The holiday’s traditions revolve around trick-or-treating, foretelling, eerie decorations and specially designed Halloween sweets.

Many scholars trace the holiday back to pagan festivals, such as Celtic Samhain or Roman Feralia. They both were concerned with the theme of death and passing, and the period in late October was believed to be the time of travel between the worlds of the living and the dead. Other scholarly sources, however, believe that Halloween originated as a Catholic observance, first proclaimed by Pope Boniface IV in the year 609. He established May 13 as the day for commemoration of all martyrs and, subsequently, all dead. All Martyrs Day’s date was moved to November 1 as a result of what Pope Gregory III and Gregory IV proclaimed in the 8th and 9th century. As Christianity was spreading through the Celtic land, pagan and Catholic traditions merged; in 1000, the church introduced All Souls’ Day which would be observed on November 2. The two holidays from the beginning of November were supplemented by their eve, which in the future would become Halloween. During and after Reformation, many Protestants chose to reject the observance of a holiday that was based on the Catholic concept of purgatory, which is why Halloween was not an instant success in the largely Protestant America. Although some communities celebrated the holiday from the inception of the United States, its full form was observed only after the mass migration of the Irish to America in the middle of the 19th century. From then on, Halloween became a yearly occurrence, gradually transforming into the secular holiday that we know today.

Almost all Halloween traditions have their origins in Irish and British folklore. Trick-or-treating derives from the English medieval custom of souling and the Scottish and Irish guising. Poor soulers would go from house to house and ask for soul cakes in exchange for a prayer favorable to the family who shared the food. Those who were guising, on the other hand, were dressed up children that demanded some kind of small gift or treat for reciting a poem or displaying a self-made lantern. The costumes and masks originated as disguises against evil spirits.

The edible symbols of the holiday, apples and hazelnuts, derive from the Celtic belief: the former were associated with the world of the dead, and the latter with divine power and wisdom. The Irish and British folklore adopted these as the main tools for foretelling of love, for example by throwing a nut into the fire and checking whether it burned or exploded. A skin of an apple was thrown over the shoulders in order to see whether the initials of a future husband could be deciphered from it. Another tradition was apple bobbing, in which a girl should try and catch the fruit with her teeth, with hands tied back. If she succeeded, she would soon meet her man. All these customs are sometimes practiced today.

The more popular way to spend Halloween, however, is to decorate the house with cobwebs, spiders and carved-out pumpkins and invite guests to a costume party. Main symbols of the holiday are now graves, bones, skulls and blood, but all are used in a wacky way.

Halloween is a commercialized holiday that many countries have adopted as an annual observance. In Great Britain, it is sometimes joined with Guy Fawkes’ Day, and in Ireland, it may fall on the October Bank Holiday. Apart from these public holidays, however, none of the remaining Anglophone countries observe Halloween as a day off. Even though it is not a public holiday, it is an important day for everyone. October 31 is a big date for all commerce, since the celebrations attract a large number of Halloween-oriented customers. The holiday in its present form originated in the United States and is nowadays a worldwide occasion for making pumpkin food, dressing up and organizing themed parties.