Maybe it's the proliferation of internet sharing, but it seems like people are more into Halloween these days than ever before. I'm not saying that it wasn't a big thing in years past. I'm saying that the celebrations are lasting longer, are more elaborate, and are embraced even by vast numbers of adults. No, I don't think it's a Peter Pan complex. I think the magic of Halloween is getting bigger and better.
Halloween originated with the Celts in a festival called Samhain (pronounced sow-in), and the tradition of dressing up was originally to ward off evil spirits as their new year came around. Now the act of dressing up for Halloween has been broadened. Some dress to scare, some dress to be cute, some dress to be sexy, and some dress to be clever. The modern celebration of Halloween is as much about expressing your identity as the clothes you choose to wear on a normal day.
In the early 20th century, after Halloween had jumped continents and came to America, there were many community celebrations surrounding Halloween, but also rampant vandalism. By the middle of the century, the holiday had been successfully marketed as more for children, and the once sinister term of trick-or-treating became the expectation of a treat, even when there is no trick. Even teenagers and young adults like to trick-or-treat, and there's nothing like taking a small child out for Halloween and sharing in the candy plunder.
Apparently many of our superstitions have origins in Halloween. Of course, black cats signalling bad luck started with the idea that witches would turn themselves into black cats in order to escape recognition. (Black cats, by the way, are not bad luck and are pretty awesome.) People feared witches pretty much all year round, but they were most afraid around the Celtic New Year, when the lands of dead and living supposedly overlapped, allowing demons to freely roam the earth. Not walking under ladders, not breaking mirrors, not spilling salt...these were all extensions of the cultural fear of witches.
So while the origins of Halloween are a little spooky, I think we can all agree that it has evolved into something fun, with a few frights, and sometimes a trick or two.
