0 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 Every year millions of people around the country spill into streets dressed as 1 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,000 fairies, goblins, characters from their favorite movie franchise, and everything 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 in between, partying and making mischief. But outside of a good time, how many know 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:19,000 why they do it? Today Halloween is a billion-dollar industry, but exactly how 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,000 did it get there? 5 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:35,000 While today Halloween is synonymous with commercialism, it wasn't always that way. 6 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:40,000 The word Halloween comes from the words hollow, meaning holy person, and een, 7 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,000 deriving as a contraction of Eve. And All Hallows' Eve finds its origins all the 8 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:48,000 way back in the time of the ancient Celtic pagans with the holiday of Samhain, 9 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:52,000 a three-day fire festival that essentially celebrated death and rebirth. 10 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:56,000 The Celts, who lived in what is now Ireland, Scotland, the UK, and parts of 11 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000 northern Europe, based their calendar on the wheel of a year, essentially divided 12 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:05,000 into two halves, the light and the dark. When one gave way to the other, this 13 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:10,000 transition was marked by a fire festival. The word Samhain translates in the 14 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:15,000 modern Irish to summer's end. Samhain celebrated the dead, and particularly the 15 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:19,000 celebratory feast paid homage to loved ones who had passed away recently, 16 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:24,000 essentially as an invitation for their spirits to rejoin the living. Many of 17 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,000 Samhain's original rituals have been lost, but what we do know of their holiday 18 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,000 traditions from Celtic folklore and ancient Roman historians is that they 19 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,000 were intended to connect them to spirits, including costumes, most likely animal or 20 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:39,000 furs to help them hide from the unfriendly ones, feasting, and making 21 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:43,000 lanterns from hollowed-out gourds, seemingly the birth of the modern pumpkin 22 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:48,000 jack-o'-lantern. Sacrifices, generally of crops or animals, were made during this 23 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:53,000 time as an offering to the spirits. It was popular for tricks or pranks to be 24 00:01:53,000 --> 00:02:02,000 played by humans and blamed on mischievous spirits. As a result of the 25 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:06,000 Roman invasion, with most of the Celtic land being conquered by Rome in 43 CE, 26 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,000 the spread of Christianity and Catholicism would force pagan Celtic 27 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:15,000 traditions to evolve or be completely repressed. In part, many Celtic traditions 28 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,000 and popular pagan practices were reframed to fit within a Christian 29 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:23,000 narrative as a way of converting people with greater comfort and ease. Samhain 30 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:27,000 would evolve into All Saints Day, which was also referred to as All Hallows Day, 31 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:30,000 and was intended to be a day to celebrate the Christian saints and 32 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:34,000 martyrs. Essentially, instead of honoring pagan gods and mischievous spirits, they 33 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:39,000 now celebrated Christian figures. While the sacrifices were replaced by food 34 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:43,000 offerings to the poor, the tricks and pranks continued, but instead they were 35 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:47,000 now attributed to the spirits of the saints. Halloween evolved as a more 36 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:52,000 secular version of All Hallows Eve, and eventually it would become more popular 37 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:58,000 in common practice than All Saints Day. While Halloween has its origins in the 38 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:02,000 British Isles, there's a great disparity in its popularity in former British 39 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:06,000 colonies. The Puritans who came to colonize America were Protestant and did 40 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:10,000 not celebrate holidays of the Catholic Church, as they were believed to lead to 41 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:15,000 idolatry. In the early days of the American colonies, celebrations of 42 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:19,000 Halloweens were mostly forbidden, as they were deemed too pagan or too Catholic by 43 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:23,000 the Protestant colonizers, though elements of it began to incorporate into 44 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:28,000 secular harvest-related events in the 1800s. The mid-19th century saw a large 45 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:32,000 influx of immigrants entering the country, especially Irish immigrants who 46 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,000 were greatly impacted by the potato famine. With these people came Halloween 47 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:42,000 customs, out of which one of America's favorite holidays was formed. In keeping 48 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:46,000 with the mischief, children would dress in costumes and be given money or fruit 49 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:50,000 for artistic offerings like poetry, songs, or even jokes instead of prayers. 50 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:54,000 By the late 19th century, children were playing seemingly innocuous pranks on 51 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:58,000 their small local communities. Adults would soon find incentive to dissuade 52 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:03,000 children from playing pranks. Enter trick-or-treating. The 20th century would 53 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:08,000 finally see the commercialization of Halloween. By the 1920s and 30s, Halloween 54 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:12,000 merchandise evolved to pre-made costumes for both children and adults. After 55 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:17,000 World War II in the 1950s, the economic boom had candy manufacturers getting on 56 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:21,000 the Halloween bandwagon. Movies and TV are also largely responsible for the 57 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:26,000 proliferation of Halloween as a mass-market holiday. Cinemas in the 50s 58 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:31,000 offered scary movie festivals, and in the 60s, the new television industry began 59 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:37,000 running Halloween specials during Halloween season. By 2015, the National 60 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:41,000 Retail Federation predicted spending on Halloween could reach 6.9 billion 61 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:46,000 dollars. Whether you believe that we've lost the meaning or not, Halloween has 62 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:49,000 since evolved far beyond the days of pagan fire festivals. For more than a 63 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:53,000 month out of the year, costume stores show up out of nowhere, candy corn and 64 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:57,000 Halloween themed candies dominate whole aisles of grocery stores, and spooky 65 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:01,000 shows and movies build out entire TV station schedules. Whether you like it or 66 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:06,000 not, whether you want to dress up as a gruesome goblin or a sexy cat, or ignore 67 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,000 the holiday altogether, Halloween has stood the test of time and proven itself 68 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:14,000 as a holiday that's here to stay.