In conjunction with the holiday, Main Street Saint Charles hosted its annual Legends & Lanterns every weekend of October. They also hosted their pumpkin glow events on Friday, October 24th, and Saturday, October 25th. Main Street has now hosted Legends & Lanterns for a decade, and this is their ninth year hosting the Pumpkin Glow.
Halloween first originated with the ancient Celtic Festival of Samhain. This event marked the end of summer, the beginning of winter, and the Celtic New Year. People would wear costumes and light bonfires to ward off ghosts, because the night of October 31st was believed to be the night of the boundary between the living and the dead. On this night, blurred and ghosts returned to Earth. In 835 AD, Pope Gregory IV designated November 1st as a time to honor all saints. All Saints Day eventually incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain, in which the preceding evening became ‘All Hallows Eve’ (Halloween). This became a holiday all across the United Kingdom and eventually all over Europe. All Souls’ Day was eventually established in 998 AD by St. Odilo of Cluny after directing his monks to pray for the souls of the faithful departed on November 2 of that very year.
Halloween, along the way, evolved into a day of activities such as trick-or-treating, jack-o-lantern carving, costumes, and eating treats. After the time when the Romans conquered the Celts, they merged Samhain with festivals of their own. These festivals included Feralia (a day to commemorate the dead) and Pomona (goddess of fruit), which may have introduced the apple-bobbing tradition. During the 1840s and 50s, when many Irish and Scottish people immigrated to the U.S. due to the Irish Potato Famine, they took their Halloween traditions with them. Trick-or-treating itself emerged in the late 1800s and early 1900s, evolving from older customs where children would play pranks and adults would give them treats to prevent mischief. It was not until the late 1950s that the phrase “trick or treat” became popular. This year will mark the 267th Halloween in the history of the United States.
