KIRKSVILLE, MO -- Ghosts, goblins, witches and skeletons…these are some of the things that put us in the Halloween spirit every year on October 31st. But how did Halloween come about? According to many, Halloween was known many years ago as All Hallows’ Evening in which pagan religious festivals focused on the end of the harvest season and the transition of fall to winter. But also pagans called this season of Halloween the season of death and evil.
"We notice the death of nature and the coming of winter. It reminds of our mortality and reminds us of those that were gone before us. Some of that sense of the unknown and that death was a mystery and what death meant and what happened with death. There were different expressions of evil and darkness," said Father Chris Cordes of Mary Immaculate Catholic Church.
Over the centuries, people have forgotten the bad and evil significance behind Halloween and made it into the exciting and fun holiday that we know today that brought along with it the costumes and of course all the candy for the kids.
In the old days “Trick or Treat” meant that evil or mischief would be put on a homeowner if no treat was given to a visitor on Halloween night. Of course, today it’s a celebration for kids to go house to house to get their candy treats. But how did the costumes and symbols such as the Jack-O-Lantern came about?
"The restless souls of the dead would come out, and people dressed in odd costumes to confuse any evil spirit or unhappy dead that were coming back to life. The Jack-O-Lantern was this character that was a restless spirit who was out and about on Halloween and people would carve on pumpkins to keep him from bothering or harming them," Cordes said.
Even though Halloween is a fun holiday today, we shouldn’t forget to remind ourselves that there is still some forms of evil out there but good will always triumph.
"Our faith does overcome evil and is more powerful than evil," Cordes said.
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