Halloween: A History of Ghoulish Proportions

Since The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is based on ghost stories and legends of the past, it is only fitting that Fox aired its new show during the fall. Having been on a two-week hiatus, there will not be a Halloween special as with the case of most shows, but we can expect more suspense with next week’s new episode. In the next post I will dive more into the history of the town of Sleepy Hollow, but given today’s holiday, it is only appropriate to provide a bit of history on it.

Historical Facts about Halloween

• Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows' Evening also known as Hallowe'en or All Hallows' Eve
• The holiday celebrated on the night of October 31 
• Its origins go back to the ancient Celtic festival Samhain, celebrating the end of the harvest season
• They believed that on this day the boundaries between the living and dead coincided and that the dead would come back to life and spread illness and/or damage crops
• To avoid running into ghosts when leaving homes, people would wear masks so they would go unrecognized
• Then on Halloween night, people would leave food bowls outside to please the ghosts and prevent them from entering homes
• The concept of trick-or-treating dates back to the Middle Ages; the saying would be to play a trick on the homeowner if they did not provide any treat
• Flash forward to Halloween today and Americans alone spend an estimated $6 billion annually on the holiday
• The costumes have also undoubtedly gotten more risqué throughout the years as well, and nowadays, don’t leave much to the imagination

The history of Halloween has been referenced from this website, which goes more in depth. 

Typical Halloween symbols include bats, black cats, jack-o-lanterns, spiders and witches.

Bats: commonly seen at bonfires due to the attraction of insects

Black cats: believed to be a facilitator to other worlds/realms

Jack-O-Lanterns: used to provide light for those trick-or-treaters

Spiders: like black cats, they were thought to have supernatural abilities

Witches: since Halloween marks the time when the wall between living and dead is lowest and witches are devoted to the supernatural, it’s only fitting they’re a traditional symbol of Halloween