The history of Halloween isn't as dark as you might think

'Ghost Hunters' Dustin Pari explores Halloween's origins in East Providence lecture

By Ethan Hartley
Posted 10/30/24

The Weaver Library hosted a ghoulishly entertaining and informative Halloween event, hosted by Dustin Pari, one of the stars of the mega popular paranormal show, 'Ghost Hunters'.

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The history of Halloween isn't as dark as you might think

'Ghost Hunters' Dustin Pari explores Halloween's origins in East Providence lecture

Posted

You might assume that someone who has dedicated 32 years of their life to exploring and soaking in the energy of some of the world’s most haunted places with some of the most horrifying histories would have an irrepressibly gloomy outlook on life, and by extension, the living.

On the contrary, Dustin Pari — a Providence native and an oral surgeon who works right here in East Providence and spent over 20 years as an investigator for the worldwide hit television show, “Ghost Hunters” — did everything in his power to spread a message of uplifting positivity throughout his well-researched and well-delivered deep dive into the history of Halloween, which captivated a full room at the Weaver Library on Monday evening.

“Halloween isn’t as dark as people think it is,” he said to the attendees of the lecture. “Halloween is about some very beautiful things. It’s about life and love and helping each other through the dark times. And trusting that things are going to be okay.”

Pagan beginnings
During the roughly one-hour lecture, Pari neatly walked through various elements of history, religious traditions, myths, and the experiences of a multitude of cultures that make up the complicated weaving we know today as simply the spookiest day of the year: Halloween.

Going all the way back over 2,000 years ago in ancient Celtic pagan cultures, Pari discussed how the people then understood that tangible and spiritual changes were imminent and happening around them, and so there was need for religious traditions that reassured them about the harsher days ahead.

“They knew there were these two halves to the world, and knew they needed to celebrate the transition,” he said. “The dark could be very scary. Not just because it was dark, but with the darkness they knew it was going to get colder, the nights get longer, and there were very real fears. Are we going to have enough food to get through? How are the crops looking for next year? Is anybody going to get sick this winter? There are a lot of real human fears they experienced.”

The prevailing religious event that emerged from those times is known as Samhaim, which occurred during what we now know as the end of October, where the spirits of those who passed away might come back to visit. In order to protect themselves, pagans would build large bonfires, praying to their gods for the sun to return, and paraded around towns leaving food and drink offerings to the spirits. They would sacrifice animals, wearing their pelts and skulls to either appease or trick the spirits into leaving them be.

Pari said that owls and bats, a common Halloween trope today, could have been inspired from these fires, as people would see owls during their nighttime fires, and see bats swoop into the light from the flames, attracted by the flies generated by the scent of the sacrificed animals. The swapping of ghost stories was also commonplace during this time.

Along came the Romans
When the Roman Empire conquered the Celtic pagans around 43 AD, they would continue their rule in the area for over 400 years. Pari explained that in an effort to help assimilate the pagans into Roman culture, which were comprised of many different sects, they tried to combine various existing celebratory religious feasts to provide a sense of familiarity for the newly conquered peoples.

Several remnants of these feasts can also be found in our modern traditions, like the Roman holiday of Feralia — which concluded the 9-day feast of Parentalia — where a period of public mourning was required to remember the dead and provide tributes to them. Pomona, a feast dedicated to the goddess of fruitful abundance observed around the same time as Samhaim, held nuts and apples as sacred food items; something any fan of candied apples today will recognize as an important historical lineage.

As time went on and the Catholic Church rose to prominent power, ancient Roman rites such as Lemuria, a three-day festival dedicated to the casting out of demons, turned into All Saint’s Day, held on Nov. 1 to commemorate all saints.

Since the pagan groups didn’t recognize saints or follow the Catholic tradition, they were given the opportunity to use All Hallows Day, a holiday dedicated to prayer for and remembrance of the dead observed on Nov. 2, as a chance continue to practice their own traditions. Another custom that developed from this holiday was members of the poor going around to the houses of the wealthy class and singing songs in return for “soul cakes” — creating one direct thread to modern day trick-or-treating.

A brief history of witchcraft
Other links to modern Halloween that Pari explored included a brief history of witches, and how hundreds of thousands of people were persecuted, arrested, or killed due to a fear or misunderstanding of the practice.

Much of this, Pari discussed, became exacerbated because of the influence of Pope Innocent VIII, who justified a widespread campaign against witches through his belief that there was a direct link between all manner of magic with the devil. This led to widespread persecution, accusations, and the executions of at least 80,000 men, women, and children suspected of being involved in any way with the practice.

In reality, Pari said, what it really did was give people a convenient way to remove eccentric people or those who did not conform to the societal expectations of the day.

“Pretty much, they were an unpopular neighbor, and this was a way of getting rid of them,” he said, referring to one woman in an historical account who was accused and later executed for being a witch simply because someone claimed to have seen a bat frequenting the yard in front of her home.

Pari indicated that the campaign ultimately failed, as the Wicca religion has only gained in popularity since the 1950s, and that there are over 400,000 self-identifying witches in the United States alone who believe in the power of magic to provide therapeutic healing, rather than evil destruction.

Symbols of witches commonly associated with Halloween, such as the riding of broomsticks and wearing of floppy hats, can also be attributed to this time period of witch hysteria. It was believed witches used the fibrous part of brooms to hide wands. The hats, meanwhile, were likely the product of common class people trying to imitate the style of the upper class at the time. Pari explained that while the expensive versions of the hats would stand straight up, the knock off versions affordable to lower class individuals — and those accused of witchcraft were primarily lower class individuals — would sag and flop around due to being made with inferior craftsmanship and materials.

The birth of Halloween
Several other traditions — including Guy Fawkes Day, held on Nov. 5 in England to commemorate the efforts of one of the men who schemed to assassinate King James I in 1605 during the Gunpowder Plot — lead directly to modern Halloween elements as well. In that tradition, Pari said, people would go door to door with burning effigies of Fawkes, wearing masks resembling his face, asking people for money.

Certainly, Halloween also owes a debt of gratitude to Dia De Los Muertos (The Day of the Dead), which some claim originated with ancient Aztec traditions of dedicating a day to honoring their deceased loved ones. The modern tradition, held throughout Mexico mostly, takes on a lighthearted approach with families holding picnics and parties at the gravesites of their loved ones who have passed on.

It’s the kind of commemoration Pari understands well.

“Halloween has always had a special connection for me and my family, especially my grandfather. He brought me to a pumpkin patch when I was a little kid, and we only got to go one time before he got sick and then passed away. But I have never forgotten it,” he said. “So every year I go and get a pumpkin and I bring it to the gravesite on or around the 24th of October when he passed away. And I tell him about how I’ve been doing and about my day and it’s a nice little remembrance and a nice way to communicate with those who have gone before us. It’s a beautiful holiday.”

Other well-known traditions, like jack-o-lanterns, fairies, and boogeymen, come from Irish and Scottish fables. In fact, the first use of the term “Halloween” as one word dates back to 1786, courtesy of Scottish poet Robert Burns, and hearkens back to the combination of two Old English words from a dozen years prior, “Hallow” (meaning holy or saint), and “een” (meaning evening), which was written as Hallow-e’en.

As for the American version, while the Pilgrims who founded the first colonies certainly did not abide by any pagan belief systems, their fear of witchcraft and spirits remained. The same traditional beliefs that had been around now for thousands of years endured in various forms, eventually taking firmer root in the American South. By the 1800s, ghost stories became popular, and bobbing for apples becomes a game; all hearkening back to the original Samhaim tradition.

Doris Hudson Moss, Pari explained, was the first to coin the term “trick or treat” in a 1939 edition of “The American Home” magazine. She let neighborhood kids into her home, treating them to popcorn balls, bobbing for apples, and giving them a positive outlet amidst the time of fear and uncertainty.

And while both World War I and World War II put an understandable damper on the celebration of the holiday, once the widespread fighting had concluded, the floodgates for celebrating Halloween broke open and would never again close.

“Then things get better. The war comes to an end. We can celebrate again,” Pari said. “We can come together as a country and we feel okay about pouring out into the streets and trick-or-treating and making merry, and being happy together.”

This leads into the Halloween we know today, which Pari cited as a $10 billion industry responsible for the sale of a remarkable 1/4 of all candy sold in the nation in any given year. It is a holiday only surpassed by Christmas in terms of industrial output.

Hugging the monster
Pari, who made several references to his prolific ghost hunting career throughout the lecture, ended the talk on a positive note about the connections he sees between the evolution of Halloween itself and the lives of the people who celebrate it.

“I think about all the masks that Halloween has worn and all the different forms it had to go through since that bonfire to get to where we are today. I think about the masks that many people still wear today…A lot of us feel brave to put on that smiling mask all day and pretend things are okay when they’re not. If you feel like things aren’t okay in life, find someone to talk to. Family members, friends…reach out to somebody. Mental health is something we need to talk about and need to do more for. Not just hide behind a mask and pretend everything is fine.”

He said despite spending time in some of the darkest places in the world, he has found that “the biggest monsters I’ve met…are other people. That’s just the way it is,” but that people also are the only beings in the world who have the capacity and the choice to do good for others for no other reason than wanting to help them out.

“And I feel like that’s what the early people understood maybe even better than we know today,” he said. “Because they were more connected to each other. People cared about looking after one another, because we had to rely on one another to make it through these times.”

Pari said that while dark and light are a constant, unrelenting forces that are required to bring balance to the natural order, he encouraged everybody to take opportunities to spread light when they can.

“Sometimes I think all we can do is hug the monster,” he said. “Plant a little seed of kindness.”

And although Halloween’s roots are tied to various religions, sacred rites, and practices that have clashed with one another throughout history, he said that the true spirit of Halloween is applicable regardless of what faith you hold in your heart, and that it’s worth celebrating.

“Regardless of whatever you may or may not believe —and spirituality is meant to be a personal journey — I don’t want to live in a world without magic,” he said. “I don’t want to live in a world where all I do is get up, sit in the broken bridge traffic every day, try to get to work, try to pay my bills, hopefully have enough money for mozzarella sticks, and then do it again. Like, there’s more to life than that.”

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.