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Is Halloween an invention of the American consumer industry?

2023-10-31 10:24:24Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA SILKE WüNSCH
Is Halloween an invention of the American consumer industry?
A girl has stuck her head in a ghost-shaped pumpkin

October 31 is the day when children and young people knock on doors and ask for sweets. But why do they dress like ghosts?

When dusk comes, they go out into the streets, two by three, disguised as vampires, as ghosts, as witches, and knock on doors calling out: Sweet or sour? It's Halloween - the day when children are allowed to tease the neighbors, because if they don't give them candy, they can do something to them, that is, to make them sour. October 31 is the day when you should have some sweets in your cupboard.

From the harvest to the saints

Where does this habit come from? They say it is an invention of the American consumer industry, like Coca Cola, or Santa Claus, or Valentine's roses. Because even the Halloween industry never gets tired of marketing plastic pumpkins and scary masks around the world. They say that it comes from the Celts, that is, from their celebration at the end of October called "Samhain", with which the Celts celebrated the harvest at the beginning of winter. But the church, which made the law throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, declared the night dawning November 1 on the feast of All Saints. Since then, November 1 is a holiday, that is, an official holiday in some German states with a Catholic majority.

Halloween derives from "All Hallows Eve" - ​​the night before All Saints' Day. It is the day of remembrance and prayers for the dead. Who, according to the Christian faith, await the Last Day, which coincides with the reappearance of Christ. In early Christianity people believed that this day would come soon. But that didn't happen. "And then," explains the cultural anthropologist from Bonn Dagmar Hänel, "people asked themselves more and more often: What is really happening to the spirits, what are they doing? How can we pass this period in a meaningful way? "And so the concept of purgatory was born: a kind of intermediate station between death and eternity, in which man begins to be cleansed of sins.

Connection to the afterlife

Dagmar Hänel: "This belief is present in all religions: We can influence the afterlife and vice versa. So we pray, do charity, donate - and this has a direct effect on the suffering of the poor souls in purgatory . "In the Middle Ages, people went from house to house the night before All Saints' Day to ask for gifts. In some rural areas of Germany, this custom has continued to this day: Singles go through the countryside, pray, sing and bless and ask for money or food in exchange. In the USA, this custom has turned into a children's party: "Trick or Treat".

With the advent of the Enlightenment in the 18th and early 19th centuries, churches became skeptical of old customs and even banned some, says cultural anthropologist Hänel. In addition, in the course of industrialization, there was a denser social network, so there was no longer a need to collect so many gifts for the poor. Moreover, with the social laws issued by Bismarck at the end of the 19th century, this need disappeared. Because now the state was responsible for providing for the poor. And so this habit disappeared.

Reimport from USA

But the custom did not die completely. It was Irish immigrants who would bring Halloween to America during their exodus in the 19th century. They were poor, but they kept their customs. Lars Winterberg, an expert in historical anthropology and European ethnology, believes that Halloween was originally celebrated mainly in the immigrant areas of big cities. "Integration rarely works as a one-way street," says Winterberg, "in fact, there is almost always a blending of the migrant's culture with that of the host society."

This is how the custom of Halloween spread across the US. At first it was more of a children's party. Later it was "expanded", the first parties, costumes and decorations started. During and after World War II, the holiday returned to Europe: The first to celebrate Halloween were American soldiers stationed in Germany. But the Germans began to become friends with this holiday many years later only through films and series. / DW


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