Was Halloween started in Ireland or America?

Question

my (so called) friend thinks she knows everything, shes Irish, and she thinks it was started in Ireland. Wasn't it started in America?

Answer 1

Germany

Answer 2

it started as a pagan holiday in Ireland.

Answer 3

It is celtic, It started as a festival called Samhain. Originally it was celebrated as their New years Day and the end of harvest and summer. They believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.

Then the romans got their hands on the celebration and after that the Catholics added their own beliefs to it and called it All-hallows Eve(meaning All Saints Day) then it was changed to Halloween when the Irish immigrated to America (1940s) and brought the celebration with them, were it was commercialized.

Trick or treating is apparently derived from a tradition called souling.

The Jack-o-lantern also comes from Irish folklore but originally they used turnips.

Answer 4

Rome. All Saints Day (all Hallows Day) was started in Rome in the 7th century. The day was considered as beginning at sundown the night before which was called All Hallows Eve (All Saints Eve) or Allhallow-even. All Souls Day (Nov. 2), the day that gives us the idea of the dead returning on Halloween, was started by Odilo, abbot of Cluny, in France.

"Halloween" is the Scottish shortening of "Allhallow-even". She is correct that the version of Halloween we know today came from Ireland. The Irish took All Hallows Eve and turned it into a holiday that was quite different in many ways from the traditional Catholic All Saints celebrations. In Ireland, and in turn Scotland, All Hallows became entwined with Samhain (Samhuinn). The Irish and Scottish immigrants brought their Halloween traditions to the United States and that evolved into today's Halloween.

All Saints couldn't have originated in Ireland for several reasons:

1. Feasts for the saints and martyrs were being held before Christianity came to Ireland.

2. All Saints was, and still is, widley celebrated in non-Celtic areas.

3. There are no church records that indicate that Samhain or the Irish had any influence on establishing All Saints.

4. It was started in Rome.

Even though "Halloween" still means "All Saints Eve", the way we celebrate it today is quite different from All Saints celebrations in Continental Europe, Mexico, South America, and among the Native Americans, which have all retained their Catholic flavor (some more so than others). Today's style of Halloween did come from Ireland.

However, you are right that it is considered a mainly American holiday now. Even the Irish are adopting the Americanized version.

EDIT: Let me correct something I didn't make clear: Feasts for the saints were being held before All Saints was *officially* established.

And the U.S. has added many customs like trick-or-treat and haunted houses.