The Spooky History Of Halloween

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Whhahahahaha! Boo! On October 31st, we celebrate Halloween, the one night of the year when ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and all things that go bump in the night are especially active. There´s lots of orange and black - the colours associated with harvest, darkness and death; blazing bonfires, apple bobbing, scary stories and horror films. Grinning, glowing Jack o´ Lanterns sit on doorsteps and children wander the neighbourhood clad as vampires, super heroes or mummies, filling their plastic bags or pumpkins with spooky gifts and delicious sweets. And as for the grown-ups, they often celebrate the occasion with costume parties. That´s all very nice, but why do we commemorate Halloween?

The second most popular holiday after Christmas, Halloween isn´t just an excuse for kiddies to dress up and overload with sugar. This occasion can be traced back all the way to the Druids, a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain and Northern Europe. Halloween falls on the eve of the pagan Celtic festival known as Samhain, pronounced ´sah-win´, which literally means ´summer´s end´ in Gaelic.

Samhain is a celebration that marked the end of the harvest season. The ancient pagans used it as a time to assess supplies and prepare for the cold winter months ahead. These folks believed on October 31st, the margins between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would return to life and wreak havoc on humanity, such as damaging crops with frost or inflicting illness.

The Celts supposed these spirits were looking for bodies to possess. Naturally, the villagers didn´t fancy the idea of being invaded by a ghoul, so on this eve, they wore masks and ghoulish costumes to mimic the evil spirits and would rowdily parade around the neighbourhood so as to scare them away. They´d also leave out gifts and treats to appease the ghosts and make sure next year´s crops would be bountiful. Hey presto, this is where the ´trick-or-treating´ tradition came from - and it´s due to the Celts that we give kids Halloween gifts and dress up in creepy costumes.

Back in the day, the Roman church enacted a holiday in an effort to detour the worship of spirits, and so declared November 1st as ´All Saint´s Day´ to honour the saints and martyrs of the church. This occasion was dubbed ´All Hallows Eve´ and is now one of the oldest holidays still celebrated today -almost 2,000 years old!

If you want your children to get more out of the occasion than just a fun-filled night and a bag of sweets, consider personalised Halloween gifts. More than just ordinary presents, these chilling Halloween gifts for kids feature their name on anything from mugs to T-shirts to photo frames. For something a little different, why not star the little´un as one of the main characters in a Gothic horror story such as Mary Shelley´s Frankenstein? Or blow their socks off with a terrifying ghost hunting tour at one of the UK´s most haunted locations.

From carving pumpkins, to collecting sweet treats, to donning creepy costumes, to honouring those who´ve gone before, Halloween is a time of merriment, superstition, and of course Halloween gifts for children. It´s a mix of ancient Celtic traditions and Catholic religious rituals that blended together over time to create the holiday we know so well today.

Need some unusual Halloween gift ideas? GoneDigging have a brilliant range of personalised halloween gifts.