10/31/2025
Lilli Learns - Boo
By: Lilli Stephens
Okay, let’s talk Halloween-aka the best holiday ever invented. Forget Christmas with its stressful shopping or Thanksgiving where your relatives ask if you’re dating someone and then they break into a fight about politics. Halloween is the one magical night where you can dress up as literally anything and get early onset diabetes. But do we ever wonder why we do this? Like why do we beg strangers for candy dressed up as the hulk once a year? No wonder aliens haven’t visited us! Well don’t worry, I did the research, so you don’t have to, (you’re welcome).
It all started over 2,000 years ago with some ancient Celtic people in Ireland, the UK and Northern France. They had a festival called Samhain. Samhain was like their New Year’s celebration, celebrating the end of summer and beginning of the dark, cold winter. Which let’s be so for real that’s the most depressing thing I have heard in a while. They believed that on the night of October 31st, the line between the living and the dead got super thin, so ghosts could come back to haunt them. Fun times!
To keep spooky spirits away, people would light big bonfires and wear costumes made of animal heads and skins. The idea was to confuse the ghost so they wouldn’t recognize you and, you know, possess you or something. Basically, the first Halloween costumes were less “lets dress up as the Louvre robbers” and more “please don’t haunt us”
Then came the Romans, because the Romans seemed to take over everything. They blended some of their festivals, with sahain-one celebrated Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruits and trees. That’s probably why we still do stuff like bobbing for apples.
Fast forward a few centuries to when Christianity was spreading across Europe the church didn’t love the whole ghost party idea, so they tried to make it more “holy.” They created All Saints’ Day (aka hollows day) on Nov 1st to honor saints and martyrs. The night before became known as Hallows Eve, which eventually turned into the word we all know and love: Halloween.
When Europeans moved to America, they brought their spooky traditions with them. But it wasn’t until the late 1800s that Halloween started turning into the candy-filled celebration we all know today. Irish immigrants especially helped make it popular after the potato famine. By the 20th century, trick or treating became a big deal- mostly because people figured out giving kids candy was easier than dealing with them pulling pranks.
Now Halloween is basically a mix of ancient superstition religious influence and modern capitalism, and we love it! People spend billions every year on costumes, decorations, and sugar highs. Honestly, it’s kind of amazing that a holiday that started with bonfires and dead spirits turned into a night where you can dress your dog up like a taco.
So, next time you’re out there trick or treating just remember, you’re participating in a 2,000-year-old tradition only better with candy and fewer animal heads.
