The Backstory: Trick or Treating . . and Human Sacrifice

Halloween is really festive and a little spooky. But its origins and most of its traditions were both festive and spooky, on steroids! They originated in ancient Ireland, where the Celts held raging parties involving human sacrifice!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We love Halloween, but did you ever think about how
it all started? It actually goes back thousands of years
to ancient Ireland. Irish folks or celts celebrated their autumn
festival with costumes, treats, and jack o lanterns, just like you,
I'm Patty Steele, but unlike you, at least I hope,
they also celebrated with bloody human sacrifice. That's next on

(00:23):
the backstory. The backstory is back. I know you're getting
ready for Halloween. Between autumn leaves, jack o lanterns, giants, skeletons,
little kids and adults dressed in all sorts of costumes,
and of course boatloads of candy, it's a festive time.

(00:44):
Even Hollywood joins in with Halloween themed movies and shows
that are just as thrilling as they are spooky. But
where did this all come from? Well, here's the thing.
Our festive celebrations were all part of traditions that were
born from some not so very festive traditions in ancient Ireland,

(01:04):
and those traditions have a really dark, frightening origin, involving
torture and human sacrifice. Irish folks or celts worshiped pagan
gods as well as nature and the land itself. Ancient
Ireland was a place of rugged coastlines, misty valleys, and
deep green forests. So let's go back. Imagine, as the

(01:26):
golden leaves are falling and the air is crisp, you
and your clan are taking in the harvest and preparing
for the frost and ice of the winter to come.
Your religious beliefs include fairies, mysticism, and animal as well
as human sacrifice. You and the Celts have a celebration
called Sowen. It's both a harvest festival and the time

(01:49):
of year when you believe that the walls between our
world and the next become translucent and almost fragile. It's
the end of the harvest season, late up October, and
legend tells you that other worldly beings will break through
to the living world and prepare it for winter by
ravaging the landscape, turning it into the golden brown of

(02:12):
autumn before winter arrives. And there's only one way to
stop them from delivering a vicious winter. You have to
sacrifice your food, your livestock, and sometimes even your life.
Everyone gathers in one place in particular to celebrate the
harvest and most importantly, to pay tribute to the gods.

(02:34):
It's a settlement called Rethcoggan and it's known as the
birthplace of Halloween. A temple there sits on a huge
mound in the middle of the settlement, surrounded by a
graveyard for the Celtic nobility. It's a pretty wealthy place,
but working class folks also travel there to take part
in the festivities. It's definitely festive. You eat, play games,

(02:57):
enjoy adult beverages, although kids during them too, sort of
like today's Halloween parties. But it's more than that. Swen
is also the place to announce declarations of war and peace,
and even arrange marriages. On top of all that, the
Celts believe this is the time the spirits of dead
ancestors return, as well as apparitions demons, fairies and monsters,

(03:21):
some of which they feel are incredibly dangerous. Ah this
is where you see the beginnings of Halloween, the witches, ghosts,
goblins and the skeletons pushing their way out of the earth.
It's believe their arrival is through what's called the Cave
of the Cats or the hell Caves in northwestern Ireland.

(03:42):
They still exist today, and nearby archaeological digs date the
caves and activity around them back almost six thousand years. Anyway,
to pacify these beings and protect the crops and livestock,
the celts offer them food, drink, and part of their harvest.
And to protect themselves, they light ritual bonfires everywhere on

(04:05):
hilltops and in fields. Now, really close your eyes and
imagine what this looked like. Huge feasts, barrels of mead
and wine, dancing around huge bonfires as the flames leap
into the night sky. And here's something you'll recognize. They
carry small parts of the fire home with them to

(04:26):
keep it lit and safe from the demons. How do
they do that Well, they carve frightening faces into root
vegetables like turnips and potatoes to intimidate the demons, making
the veggies look like the severed heads of enemies. And
they place burning embers inside the hallowed out vegetables to
animate the carved face and protect the embers. That's it,

(04:49):
It's the first jackal lanterns. On top of that, they
also wear disguises masks with different animal skins to make
themselves look like the demons so they wan be dragged
into the underworld. Aha, the first costumes. But here's where
it gets really creepy and disturbing. Late in the evening,
the priests, called druids would begin sacrificing animals and humans

(05:14):
to placate a god who is said to control in
underworld known as the House of the dark one, the
Realm of the Dead. In fact, if the harvest is bad,
they'll even sacrifice local kings, blaming them for angering the gods.
The deaths involve torture and dismemberment to further placate those
furious gods. Plus, they'd even use dismembered body parts as

(05:39):
a way to predict the future, including the weather. Tell
that to your local meteorologists. Amazingly, this goes on for
centuries until the Romans arrive in Ireland. They add their
own harvest festivities, including honoring their Goddess of Fruit and trees,
whose symbol is the apple. That sort of helps explain
the old tradition of bobbing for apples and Halloween. Eventually,

(06:03):
Christianity takes hold for most people in Ireland. But here's
the thing, and it's understandable. It's all about tradition. The
party surrounding Sowen is so ingrained in the Celtic culture
that the harvest festivals, including the gifts of food and
costumes continue. Centuries ago, the Church tried to replace the

(06:24):
pagan festival by dedicating November first as All Saints' Day
or All Hallows and the night before it was called
All Hallows Eve or Halloween. But the church can't compete
with a wild party. It was never able to get
rid of the celebrations surrounding Sowen since they were deep
in the culture. So the two holidays finally managed to coexist.

(06:49):
But it doesn't stop there in Ireland. When the Irish
arrived in America, the tradition came with them. They continued
to celebrate and give small gifts of food during their
harvest vestilavals. Children would dress in costumes and jackal lanterns
were placed outside homes to represent the souls of the departed. Hey,
we still carve and light our jack lanterns. But as

(07:11):
one Irish anthropologist said, the minute the lights came on,
a lot of the stories lost their potency and people's
imaginations weren't running quite as wild, that's for sure. So
it changed by the nineteen thirties, children began trigger treating,
but they were given cookies, fruit, nuts, and toys. It

(07:32):
actually wasn't until the nineteen fifties that big business saw
big business in Halloween and promoted the idea of handing
out candy. Hershey's, Reeses Mars, and Nesle were just a
few of the companies that began making affordable candy on
a huge scale in the twentieth century. They packaged them

(07:52):
to make them inexpensive and easy to hand out. So
Halloween in its present form is just part of its evolution,
with its roots in a prehistoric tradition going back thousands
of years. This Halloween, as you carve your pumpkin or
maybe old school Bob for an apple, and pass out
candy for just a moment, close your eyes, can you

(08:16):
hear the distant chance? Can you feel the crackling bonfire?
The whispers of the ancients are still here, reminding us
of a time when the line between this world and
the next was beautifully but frighteningly blurred. I hope you're
enjoying the backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review

(08:36):
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have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook,
It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm
Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,

(08:59):
the Elvis Deup and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is
Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes
every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out to
me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at
Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks
for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces

(09:20):
of history you didn't know you needed to know.