# Halloween Folklore: Where Our Spookiest Traditions Come From Canonical: https://chapterchase.com/blog/halloween-folklore-origins/ Read on ChapterChase: https://chapterchase.com/blog/halloween-folklore-origins/ Author: ChapterChase Editorial Team Published: 2026-10-16 Updated: 2026-10-16 20:15:42 Categories: Myths & Folklore Tags: halloween, folklore, samhain, jack-o'-lantern, day of the dead Word count: 1840 > Halloween folklore explained: what Samhain really was, how All Saints added the ghosts, why jack-o'-lanterns began as turnips, and where 'trick or treat' started. **Halloween folklore** is a patchwork, not a single ancient festival. The date comes from Samhain, the Gaelic turn from summer to winter. The ghosts arrived with the Christian feasts of All Saints and All Souls. Lanterns, costumes and door-to-door begging came from Irish, Scottish and English customs, and "trick or treat" first appears in print in Canadian newspapers in the early 20th century. That answer surprises people, because most Halloween explainers repeat one tidy story: the Celts celebrated their new year and their dead on October 31, and the Church covered it over. Historians are far less sure. Below, we trace each tradition back to the oldest source we could verify, show where the evidence runs out, and look at how other cultures honour the dead at other times of year. > **Key takeaways** > - Medieval Irish tales describe Samhain as a night when the otherworld opened, with feasts and games. According to historian Lisa Bitel, they did not link it with death and horror. > - The ghosts came later. Sources date the move of All Saints' Day to November 1 to the 8th or 9th century, and All Souls' Day followed. > - Jack-o'-lanterns began as carved turnips in Ireland. Irish emigrants switched to pumpkins in America. > - The chant "trick or treat" first shows up in Canadian newspapers: "Tricks or treats" in 1917 and "Trick or treat" in 1927. > - Halloween is still growing. US spending was forecast at a record $13.1 billion in 2025, according to the National Retail Federation. ### Is Halloween really based on Samhain? Partly, and less than you have probably heard. **Samhain** was one of four seasonal markers on the early Irish calendar, the night that turned summer into winter. Our best evidence for it is a set of medieval tales. Lisa Bitel, a professor of history and religion at the University of Southern California, notes that these legends were written down by churchmen around 800 AD, roughly four centuries after Ireland became Christian ([The Conversation, October 2024](https://theconversation.com/the-ancient-irish-get-far-too-much-credit-for-halloween-239801)). Those stories describe Samhain as a night of magic when the *sí*, the otherworld, opened to mortals, and kings held feasts, markets and games. In Bitel's words, "The stories did not link Samhain with death and horror." The neat Samhain-to-Halloween line was drawn much later by 19th-century folklorists such as John Rhys at Oxford and James Frazer at Cambridge, who were hunting for pagan roots in rural custom. Bitel calls their theories outdated and concludes that "the only real remnant of Samhain in Halloween is the date." Not every source goes that far. The [Library of Congress](https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/10/the-origins-of-halloween-traditions/) still introduces Halloween through Samhain as a harvest festival when "spirits walked the Earth." Our reading: treat any confident claim about what pre-Christian Celts believed with caution, because the written record starts in a Christian monastery. ### Where did the ghosts come from? All Saints and All Souls The dead came in with the Church calendar. **All Hallows' Eve**, shortened to Halloween, is simply the night before All Saints' (All Hallows') Day on November 1. All Souls' Day on November 2 was added later, when people prayed for their own dead relatives. Sources disagree on which pope fixed the date. The Library of Congress credits Gregory III in the 8th century. Bitel points to a decree by Gregory IV in 834, and argues he was standardising the liturgical calendar rather than trying to stamp out Samhain. Either way, it was this pairing of saints and souls that tied the end of October to the departed. Bitel also notes that Protestant rulers suppressed many saints'-day customs in the 16th century. Only events with a documented date are shown. The pope who moved All Saints' Day is disputed. ### Why do we carve jack-o'-lanterns? Because of a man so stingy that neither heaven nor hell would take him. In Irish folklore, **Stingy Jack** tricked the devil twice, so when he died he was refused entry to both places. The devil tossed him a burning ember, which Jack put inside a hollowed turnip to light his endless wandering. Microbiologist Raúl Rivas González of the University of Salamanca dates the figure to 18th-century Irish folklore ([The Conversation, October 2025](https://theconversation.com/how-a-microbial-infestation-in-ireland-gave-us-the-modern-day-jack-o-lantern-268791)). The vegetables were real long before the pumpkin. Rivas González notes that Irish families carved turnips, potatoes and other root vegetables into lamps, some with faces to scare off wandering spirits, and the Library of Congress likewise traces the jack-o'-lantern to Ireland "using turnips instead of pumpkins." The pumpkin is a story of famine and migration. Late blight destroyed Ireland's potato crops in the Great Famine of 1845 to 1849. Rivas González reports at least 1.1 million deaths and about a million emigrants. In the United States, he writes, "turnips were not easy to find," so the emigrants carved the native pumpkin instead. Nearly half of Americans still planned to carve one in 2025, according to the NRF survey charted below (46%). ### Where did trick-or-treating come from? From several begging-and-performing customs that merged. The Library of Congress lists three competing theories and calls the origins a matter of "much debate": - **Souling.** In England, from at least the 16th century, children and poor adults went from house to house collecting food or money in return for prayers for the dead. National Geographic describes 16th-century English poor people "begging on All Souls' Day" for soul cakes ([National Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/the-history-of-trick-or-treating-and-how-it-became-a-halloween-tradition)). - **Guising.** In Scotland, guisers dropped the prayers and performed songs, jokes and other "tricks" instead. The Library of Congress calls guising "a secular version of 'souling.'" - **Belsnickeling.** A German-American Christmas custom of disguised visitors may also have fed the modern American form. The phrase itself is North American. The Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, compiled at the University of British Columbia, finds "Tricks or treats" in the *Sault Star* of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, on November 1, 1917. The modern "TRICK OR TREAT" appears in the *Lethbridge Herald* in Alberta in 1927 ([DCHP-3](https://dchp.arts.ubc.ca/entries/trick%20or%20treat)). National Geographic adds that trick-or-treating became widespread in the United States after the Second World War, once rationing ended and candy was easy to buy again. ### Black cats, witches and fortune-telling games Black cats joined the holiday through witch beliefs. The Library of Congress notes that in the Middle Ages black cats were "considered a symbol of the Devil," that accused witches were often found to keep cats, and that cats came to be seen as a witch's *familiar*, a spirit helper in dark magic. Halloween was also a night for predicting your future spouse. In Scotland, young people pulled kale stalks blindfolded and read the size and shape of the stalk as a sign of their future partner, and couples set hazelnuts on the fire: a quiet burn meant a happy match, a hiss and crackle a stormy one. Robert Burns described both customs in his poem ["Halloween."](https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/halloween/) Old games like these are a gift to fiction writers. They work as ready-made scenes where a character tries to read fate and gets an answer they did not want. ### How do other cultures honour the dead? Many cultures set aside a time when the dead come close, and only some of them fall in autumn. Halloween is often confused with Día de los Muertos, but the festivals below show how differently the idea can play out. Festivals of the returning dead, compared | Festival | Where | When | What happens | | Halloween | Ireland, Scotland, UK, North America | October 31 | Lanterns, costumes, door-to-door treats | | Día de los Muertos | Mexico | Late October to early November | Petals, candles and offerings guide the souls of loved ones home | | Obon | Japan | July or August | Lanterns or fires welcome ancestors home, and floating lanterns send them back | | Hungry Ghost Festival (Zhong Yuan Jie) | China and Chinese communities | Seventh lunar month | Offerings to wandering spirits while the gates of the underworld are believed open | **Día de los Muertos** is not "Mexican Halloween." UNESCO added Mexico's "Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead" to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. It describes families laying petals, candles and offerings along the path from the cemetery to the home, and a blend of pre-Hispanic rites with Catholic traditions brought in the 16th century ([UNESCO](https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/00054)). **Obon**, which has Buddhist roots, is Japan's summer welcome for ancestral spirits. Households set a lantern or fire by the gate to guide them home, then light another fire or float lanterns on water to send them back ([Nippon.com, June 2025](https://www.nippon.com/en/guide-to-japan/gu019013/)). China's **Hungry Ghost Festival** falls in the seventh lunar month, when popular belief holds that the gates of the underworld open. Its Buddhist form, Ullambana, is associated with the story of the monk Mu Lian, who sought to free his mother from suffering ([National Library Board Singapore](https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_758_2004-12-16.html)). If you want a ghost story from outside these calendars, our retelling [The Drowned Bride's Lament](https://chapterchase.com/novel/the-drowned-bride-s-lament/) begins when a young fisherman casts his net into the sacred waters of Ghana's Lake Bosomtwe. More world tales are collected under the [folklore tag](https://chapterchase.com/tag/folklore/). ### Halloween today, in numbers The old customs are thriving. The National Retail Federation expected US Halloween spending to reach a record $13.1 billion in 2025, up from $11.6 billion in 2024, with 73% of Americans planning to celebrate. Costumes ($4.3 billion) narrowly beat decorations ($4.2 billion) and candy ($3.9 billion). The survey of 8,045 adults ran September 2 to 9, 2025 ([NRF, September 2025](https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/nrf-consumer-survey-finds-halloween-spending-to-reach-record-13-1-billion)). Souling's descendant, handing out treats, is still the most popular plan. Source: NRF, 2025. ### Frequently asked questions #### What is the oldest Halloween tradition? The date itself. Samhain marked the turn from summer to winter on the early Irish calendar, and Halloween still falls on that night. Most other customs, from soul cakes to turnip lanterns, are medieval or later. #### Did the Church create All Saints' Day to replace Samhain? That is a popular claim, but historian Lisa Bitel argues the November 1 date was most likely about standardising the Church calendar, not suppressing Samhain. The sources do agree that All Saints and All Souls are what tied the season to the dead. #### Why are jack-o'-lanterns called that? They are named after Stingy Jack, the figure from Irish folklore who was barred from heaven and hell and wandered the earth with an ember inside a carved turnip. #### Is Día de los Muertos the same as Halloween? No. It is a separate Mexican festivity recognised by UNESCO, centred on welcoming the souls of loved ones home with offerings. It overlaps Halloween on the calendar but has different roots and customs. ### The short version Halloween folklore is layered. Samhain gave it a date, the Church gave it its ghosts, Ireland and Scotland gave it lanterns and guising, and North America gave it a name for the begging game and a pumpkin to carve. The best way to enjoy it is with the sources in hand: the true stories are stranger than the tidy myth. Many older ghost stories are in the public domain; see this guide to [reading classic literature free online](https://chapterchase.com/blog/read-classic-literature-free-online/).