Halloween : Halloween or Halloween (Canadian usage) is a traditional folk and pagan festival originating in the Anglos-Celtic Islands celebrated on the evening of October 31, the eve of the Christian feast of All Saints. Its name is a contraction of the English All Hallows-Even which means the eve of All Saints 'Day in contemporary English and can be translated as "the vigil of All Saints' Day".
Despite its name of Christian and English origin, the vast majority of sources present Halloween as a legacy of the pagan feast of Samain which was celebrated in early autumn by the Celts and was for them a kind of feast of the New year. Halloween is thus known until today under the name of Oíche Shamhna in Gaelic. It is a very popular festival in Ireland, Scotland and Wales where there are many historical testimonies of its existence. Jack-o'-lantern, the iconic Halloween lantern, itself derives from an Irish legend, starting in the 731th century, under Pope Gregory III (741-827) and, in the following century, under Pope Gregory IV ( 844-1), that the Catholic Church moved the feast of All Saints, which could be celebrated until then after Easter or after Pentecost, on November XNUMX, thus Christianizing the feasts of Samain.
Halloween was introduced to the United States and Canada after the massive arrival of Irish and Scottish emigrants, particularly following the Great Famine in Ireland (1845-1851). It gained popularity there from the 19203sXNUMX and it was on the new continent that the lanterns appeared. Jack-o'-lanterns made from pumpkins, of local origin, replacing rutabagas used in Europe.
Germany, the German part of Switzerland and Austria have a fairly similar traditional festival called Rübengeistern.
Halloween is today celebrated mainly in Ireland, Great Britain, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and to a lesser extent in many other countries. The best known modern tradition is that children dress up in scary costumes like ghost, witch, monster or vampire costumes and ring the doorbell asking for treats with the formula: Trick or treat! which means "of candy or a spell! ". The evening can also be marked by bonfires, fireworks, children's games, the reading of horrific tales or Halloween poems, the screening of horror films but also the holding of anticipated masses. of All Saints' Day in its strictly religious component.
The hunt for candy : A child spending Halloween in Redford Township, Michigan (United States).
The main event of the holiday is the candy hunt, also known as the Halloween passage, during which children in disguise go door to door asking for treats. The little English speakers shout "Trick or treat!" ", Which means" Stuff or treat! ". In France and Belgium, it is customary to say a phrase similar to that of English speakers "Des bonbons ou un sort!" ". While in Quebec, children are shouting “Candy please! ". In this sense, Halloween was first known as "Evening of the Tours" in the first parts of the United States where it spread. The children's costumes, often frightening, serve to give the illusion that the evil spirits of the past are returning to haunt the streets of the towns in which door-to-door operations are practiced.
The tradition of door-to-door asking for food already existed in the UK and Ireland: children and the poor sang and said prayers for soul cakes. The Halloween tradition originated in the 1930th century in Scotland and Ireland. In the United States and Commonwealth of Nations, trick-or-treating has been a tradition since the XNUMXs.
Homeowners wishing to participate in this tradition usually decorate their door with cobwebs, plastic skeletons or Jack-o'-lanterns. The inhabitants themselves are often disguised, give treats, bars of chocolate, and sometimes even soft drinks. Some people use sound effects and smoke to add ambiance.
At one time in the United States there were many rumors about children finding pins and razor blades in apples and candy collected on Halloween night. Although there is evidence of these incidents, these malicious acts are extremely rare and have never resulted in serious injury. Nevertheless, certain security measures have been put in place to reassure the population.
Collecting forUNICEF has become a tradition during Halloween in Canada and the United States. Beginning in 1948 as a local event in a Philadelphia suburb, the program consists of distributing small boxes to school children, with which they can solicit donations by visiting homes. It is estimated that the children have raised over US $ 119 million for UNICEF since the start of the program. In 2006, UNICEF removed these boxes in some parts of the world, citing administrative and security concerns.
Food for Halloween: A tradition that has survived into modern times in Ireland is baking (or buying) a barmbrack (báirín breac in Irish), a light fruit cake. A ring is placed in the cake before baking. It is said that whoever finds the ring will find true love during the year. The pumpkin does not only have a decorative aspect. The roasted seeds can be eaten, and the flesh can be used to make pie, soup, pie. jam or bread. Other foods are associated with the holiday, such as Colcannon (in Ireland),
bon fire toffee (in UK), Toffee Apple (in Australia; in Great Britain instead of love apples), hot cider, roasted corn, donuts, and popcorn.
In France, there was, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a cake marketed during the Halloween party: Le Samain. It was then patented by the company Optos-Opus, which had already registered the Halloween trademark, and sold as the official Halloween cake. The Samain, whose name refers to the Samain of Celtic mythology, was then made from puff pastry, apples, Hazelnut grillées, raisins and caramel. Its appearance gave it the impression of being illuminated from within with the heads of pumpkin.
Finally, the children collect the treats associated with "Trick or treat".
Halloween popularity around the world:
Europe
- In Ireland, Halloween is a very popular holiday, known as the Gaelic Oíche Shamhna (literally the night of the end of summer), and celebrated for centuries. On Halloween night, children and adults alike dress up as evil creatures (ghosts, zombies, witches, goblins), large fires are lit and fireworks are fired all over the country.
- Scotland: Scotland, having a common Gaelic language and culture with Ireland, has celebrated Samhain's Day for centuries. Robert Burns portrayed the various customs in his poem Hallowe'en (1785). Halloween, known in Scottish Gaelic as Oidhche Shamhna, consists mostly of children in disguise (often witches or ghosts) going door-to-door and providing a variety of entertainment. If the performance is appreciated, the children are rewarded with candy, fruits or a little money. Folklore, including Halloween, centers on the belief in fairies. Children dress up and carry a Neepy Candle, a devilish face carved into a swede (nope in English) hollowed out, lit from the inside, to scare off evil fairies. A popular children's game on this evening is where an apple has to be grabbed from a tub of water using only its mouth. Another game is to try to eat, while blindfolded, a bread coated with molasses hanging from the ceiling by a string.
- England: In England, the Halloween party was formerly called "the night of the Nutcracker "Or" the night of the apple crunchy ". The families gathered around the fire told stories while eating nuts and apples. On that day, the poor received cakes called “the cakes of the spirit” 30. Halloween was criticized in England during the reform period for opposing the notion of predestination, and its popularity declined there.
- France :
Brittany: In France, there existed in Brittany, in Finistère, from the XNUMXth century until the middle of the XNUMXth century, a custom among children, "towards the approach of All Saints' Day, to dig beets, to practice there. holes in the shape of eyes, nose and mouth, to insert a piece of candle there and to close the whole thing ”; In addition to this "lamp with a human head, placed at night on an embankment or hidden in the undergrowth of a hollow ground" to frighten people, the same testimony evokes children with this time the beet head carried on their heads and mounted on stilts, in a terrifying procession supposed to represent the Ankou and the beings of the Other World.
In Finistère as well as in Vannes, the tradition of the Halloween vigil, although obviously not bearing this English name, can still be told by the elderly. In Vannes, it is called gouel kalan-gouiañv, the “festival of winter calends”.
Linguistically and culturally, it is interesting to note that the Gaelic languages have kept the word samhain, built on the root sam (summer), equivalent of Breton haf (summer), hañv in modern Breton (by aspiration of s and lenition of m, both regular diagrams of the passage from Gaelic to Brittonic). Thus, whether samhain is composed on a (disputed) etymology sam (summer) + fuin (end), or on a dative of sam which would lack a word equivalent to "the end" before the root word sam, we note that this Fête is in Gaelic languages “the end of summer”, where it is “the beginning of winter” in Breton (gouiañv winter, gouiam in old Breton, on the basis gou- (prefix with diminutive value) and ham summer, which gives haf; cf: Brittonic / Gaelic correspondence * giiàmo / gaim-), where the “black months” begin, ar mizioù du. This feast was accompanied by symbolic rituals, such as that of chasing the spirits by sweeping the dust accumulated the rest of the year on the doorstep with a broom broom, or leaving an extra plate at the table for the dead who would visit their families. This is what Tanguy Malmanche describes in 1900 in his play The Tale of the Hungry Soul (Bret: Marvaill ann ene naounek). In Finistère, although very alive, it is only in Plougastel-Daoulas that the apple tree ceremony, gwezenn an anaon33, would have survived. This pre-Christian tradition has, over time, been integrated by the Catholic executives of the parish on November 1, for the benefit of the feast of All Saints, thus providing the opportunity for donations in the form of alms. It is described as a gathering of one or more families organized in breuriez under one roof to share a meal and party, singing gwerz and telling each other the stories of Ankoù by the fire. A breuriez being a frairie, and knowing that in the 1970s, after Vatican II, the clergy wanted this ceremony to cease, and taking into account that the breuriez / frairies were known throughout Brittany (at least Breton), one can wonder if it is not indeed, in Plougastell, the only survival of a celebration until then much more widespread.
Moselle: In Moselle, the Rommelbootzennaat (night of beets grimacing in Francique Lorraine) is a tradition celebrated on the eve of All Saints' Day, mainly in the Pays de Nied and in part of the neighboring Land of Sarre. On the eve of All Saints' Day, children carve grimacing heads in beets, vegetables whose harvest marks the end of work in the fields. Lit by the light of a candle, the heads are placed on the windowsills, wells, the walls of cemeteries or at crossroads to frighten passers-by. This holiday continued to be celebrated long before Halloween fashion returned to Europe at the end of the years.
- Belgium: In Belgium, there were, in rural areas, traditions similar to those of the Jack-O-Lantern. In Flanders, on the occasion of Saint-Martin, children actually dig beets and drill holes in them to represent a grimacing face lit by a candle placed inside the beet. In Wallonia, these lanterns were called Grign 'Dints. These lanternes were carried out at the time of the harvest which coincides with the beginning of autumn and with the All Saints' Day celebrations. This practice has tended to disappear since the 1980s. Halloween has only started to be celebrated since the early 1990s.
- Switzerland: The city of Richterswil hosts the old festival of Räbeliechtli on the 2nd Saturday in November where we parade through the city with raves hollowed out and lit by a candle inside. This festival is part of the living traditions of Switzerland.
- North America :
USA: It was at the end of the XNUMXth century that Halloween became a source of festivity in the United States with disguises and decorations revolving around skulls, ghosts, skeletons, witches. Children disguised as witches or ghosts march through the streets knocking on doors and claiming small gifts ( candy) under threat of curse if refused. The custom of Trick or treatNote 3 first appeared in the United States in the 1930s. Today Halloween is celebrated by one in two Americans, one in two decorates their home, 72,3% give out candy and 40,6% are celebrating. disguise. They spend an average of $ 62 per person, for a total of $ 8 billion.
Canada: In Canada, Halloween is widely celebrated. On October 31, in the evening, children don all kinds of costumes, funny or scary, and take to the streets to knock on every door and ask for treats. Households participating in the party adorn their doorsteps with a lighted pumpkin or simply plug in the decorations to indicate that children are welcome there. In recent years, this festival has grown and gives rise to multiple activities for young and old. The festival also arouses a growing craze for the creation of real horror sets in front of certain houses. Shops such as restaurants and nightclubs also lend themselves to the game.
However, it was not until the 1960s and 1970s that it really established itself in regions with a large French-speaking majority, such as Bas-Saint-Laurent. By its manifestations, the Halloween party is similar to that of Mardi Gras, or Mi-Carême, which gave rise, in certain regions of the country, to disguises and the collection of candy, notably in Goulet (New Brunswick) and Saint-Antoine-de-l'Isle-aux-Grues (Quebec).
Caribbean: Halloween is celebrated in the Caribbean. In parts of the British West Indies there are celebrations in honor of Guy Fawkes Night that take place around Halloween. On the island of Bonaire, the children of a city gather in groups, and unlike other places in the world, they celebrate Halloween in candy shops, instead of going door-to-door.
Controversies over Halloween: In several countries that do not traditionally celebrate Halloween, its introduction has met with varying degrees of opposition. Some voices have been raised to denounce a growing Americanization of the world, or to fear that religious holidays around October 31, such as All Saints' Day, will be swept away by this holiday.
Commercial aspects: Logo of the Halloween brand, registered by the company Optos-Opus, which has given significant visibility to the festival in France.
In France, the indigenous tradition of the Rommelbootzennaat (night of beets grimacing) has been maintained in the Pays de Nied, in Moselle. On the other hand, Halloween was mostly celebrated in Anglo-Saxon families or groups, but no distributor dared to market the party on a large scale. Halloween developed in France from 1991/1992 with an acceleration in 1994/1995. Noting this phenomenon, Philippe Cahen, creator of forward-looking advice, decided to found the company Optos-Opus and then register the Halloween brand. The company then markets confectionery, drinks, cakes and various food products, which has helped to enhance the image of the festival and give it significant visibility with supermarkets. The Halloween party then becomes a visible phenomenon from 1997.
Everything accelerated in 1997, when the telephone operator France Telecom launched an orange mobile phone called "Olaween". A major advertising campaign (8 pumpkins are distributed at the Trocadéro), associated with other commercial initiatives (including specific events within the Disneyland Paris theme park) give this celebration instant media visibility. Coca-Cola, in partnership with other brands, created a splash in 1999 by organizing a Halloween Party at the Zénith in Paris reserved for people aged 15 to 25. At the same time, the brand organizes more than 400 operations in bars and nightclubs in France42. Other important brands, such as Orangina, Haribo, Materne, BN, M & M's or even McDonalds are also trying to take advantage of the popularity of the holiday to launch various ranges of products in Halloween colors. The Demon's Salsa is reissued in a remixed version. From 1998, Halloween was adopted by traders and certain media, the festival falling just at the time of the "slack period" before the holidays. Holidays.
Quickly, this importation (especially in mass distribution) is criticized by denouncing it as marketing aimed at making more profit from young consumers (confectionery, toys, masks and costumes…) Nevertheless, the party is essential in France in less of four years as the third commercial holiday of the year, just behind Holidays and new Year's Day. The company Optos-Opus, which had registered the Halloween mark in the mid-1990s, ended up losing its right to use the mark after a decree issued by the commercial chamber of the Court of Cassation in 2004. The national trade union chamber de la Confiserie declares that the filing of a trademark such as Halloween, which represents a public event, is considered a fraudulent act and thus prevents other traders from marketing products in the name of the holiday. Optos-Opus was then fined € 5 for the benefit of various organizations.
But as early as 2006, many media such as L'Express and 20 minutes reported a progressive lack of interest among the French for Halloween. The pure commercial logic and the media overselling of the festival in France are put forward to explain this rapid backlash. The situation changed in 2015 when several media, such as 20 minutes, announced a comeback of the festival with renewed interest among the French and a new success for traders.