23 Awesome Halloween Costume T-Shirts

Halloween, celebrated on October 31st, is a festive time recognizing the end of harvest season, paying homage to the recently departed, and denoting the beginning of winter. There are two popular thoughts on the origin and history of the holiday.

Origin

Celtic Roots
Over 2000 years ago in pagan Celtic regions people celebrated the festival of Samhain on October 31st. The day honored the end of the summer and harvest seasons, paid respect to the dead, and celebrated the coming New Year on November 1st.

The pagan belief was that with the ending of one year and the beginning of the new one, there was a short period of time when departed spirits would be able to cross over and visit with the living. The Celtics would build big bonfires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals to invite the good spirits and shield them from the evil spirits.

Christian Roots
In 835 A.D. Pope Gregory IV changed the Christian holy day, All Saints Day, from May 13th to November 1st. Pope Gregory IV also named November 2nd as All Souls Day for honoring all the recently departed. Over time All Hallows Eve became known as Halloween.

During the Middle Ages the Christian deities wanted to encourage Christian values in the Celtic population. To help bring about Celtic converts to Christian beliefs, Pope Gregory IV retained several of the pagan rituals into the Catholic holy day of All Souls Day. This day included praying for the dead and having children go door to door asking for Soul Cakes as a means of helping troubled souls get into heaven. Landowners would also give donations of food to help the poor people make it through the coming cold winter months. The landowners believed that their donations would be seen as a blessing by God and that their actions would result in the landowners remaining warm and well feed throughout the winter.

Traditions

Both pagan Celtics and early Christians believed that the souls of departed had an opportunity to visit the world of the living on All Hallows Eve. Both groups also believed that evil souls would attempt to frighten those who the spirits believed had wronged them while they were alive. To disguise their appearances so that evil spirits would not recognize them, both groups would wear masks to hide their faces and not be seen by tormented souls. Celtics wore animal skins and skulls over their faces while Christians wore handmade cloth masks.

Celtics and Christians made lanterns out of large turnips with drawings of scary faces to carry for street light and to place on the doorsteps to their homes. They believed turnip lanterns would keep individuals safe from evil spirits on Halloween and at other times during the darker months. Large turnips are hard to carve and not as plentiful in America as they are in Europe. Immigrants found American pumpkins were larger and softer to carve. Ireland still uses turnip lanterns; but the carved pumpkin holds favor with a larger audition.

Trick-or-treat began as a custom of poor people and young children asking for soul cake offerings while praying for the souls of the departed. This expanded into the offerings of food to the poor by landowners on All Hallows Eve. Over time the tradition of begging for food became the secular custom of asking for sweet treats.

A Modern Take on Halloween

Today Halloween is celebrated both religiously and secularly in most parts of the world. Both children and adults dress up in costumes and hold community parties and parades. Most trick-or-trick events have become a scheduled neighborhood activity for a few hours on Halloween evening. Parents or neighborhood volunteers walk with the children as they go door to door collecting sweet treats. Costumes range from the demonic to the angelic and everything in between. Friendly fun is the aim and the reward of all who participate.