A Horrific History of Halloween

 Halloween is celebrated in a number of countries on the night of October 31. 

The word Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows’ Eve, it's an occasion that is thought to be a "Christianised" version of Celtic harvest festivals and pagan festivals of the dead.

Celtic and Gaelic people believed it was a time when the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped. On this date the deceased would return and cause havoc for the living - the destruction of crops was thought to be a particularly popular activity of the living dead.

The Christian appropriation of Halloween dates from about 1745. It became a day dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers.

In the 1800s people in Scotland, Wales and Ireland celebrated Halloween by going from house-to-house in costume reciting songs in exchange for food and drink, this was called "mumming" or "guising."

Migrants from Scotland, Wales and Ireland carried versions of the tradition around the world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Until the middle of the twentieth century  only Scottish and Irish communities celebrated Halloween in the United States. 

Trick or treat

 

Today, Halloween is associated the world over with trick-or-treat, a phenomenon that began in North America in the1950s. 

Trick-or-treating is popular with children on or around Halloween, it's an activity in which they proceed from house to house in costumes, asking for treats, such as sweets, with the question: "Trick or treat?" The "trick" part of trick-or-treat is a threat to play a trick on the homeowner or their property if no treat is given. 

Until recently trick-or-treating was unknown in the UK, British children would dress in costumes and knock on doors in their neighbourhood asking for "a penny for Halloween." Now, trick-or-treating is as popular here as it is in the US and it is expected that if you live in a neighbourhood with lots of children you should buy treats to avoid those tricks.

Ghastly goings on at IH London for Halloween

Our social programme has organised some fittingly frightful activities for Halloween this year:

• Wednesday 30 Oct – A Jack the Ripper tour of the Victorian streets of old East London
• Thursday 31 Oct – Ghost Bus tour of the haunted streets of London
• Friday 01 Nov – Enter the London Dungeons, but make sure you know you’re way out.

To book a place, stop by the Social Programme desk on the ground floor.