In October, as autumn settles over the northern hemisphere and the leaves on the trees turn their most beautiful colors, many children and families around the world are getting ready to celebrate Halloween. It’s time to put on your best costumes, have fun scaring each other, ring the doorbells for treats and get together with your loved ones to celebrate. Halloween is a big event in English-speaking countries.
Halloween is the contraction of „All Hallows Eve“, an English expression translated by „the eve of all saints“ or „the eve of All Saints“, in reference to the Christian holiday. To understand its origins, we must go back a long way, 600 years before Christ.
Halloween Symbols
Many Halloween symbols will fall into one of three major categories:
- They can be symbols of The Season and the Harvest. Examples of this kind of Halloween symbol are corn husks, candy corns and jack-o-lanterns.
- Many Halloween symbols represent Death and Mortality. Some examples of these are skeletons, skulls, ghosts and graveyards.
- The third set of Halloween symbols represents Misfortune or Evil. Examples include witches, bats, black cats and clowns.
• Jack-o-Lantern Symbol
The pumpkin symbol began long ago in Ireland when the Celts would carve turnips on All Hallow’s Eve. They would place an ember inside the turnip to keep evil spirits at bay.
The face of the jack-o-lantern: Now you know why the pumpkin is hollowed out and filled with fire, but why do we carve a face on it?
The reason for the face centers around the old Irish story of Stingy Jack. According to the tale, Stingy Jack lived as a drunk Irishman who played tricks on people. During his life, Jack managed to make both God and the Devil angry, so when he died neither heaven nor hell would let him in. He was forced to roam the earth with only a turnip jack-o-lantern to light his way.
• Witch Symbols
Witch symbols are still some of the most traditional Halloween images around. The iconic silhouette of a witch riding through a full moon is one of the more popular witch images used on Halloween.
Why is the witch associated with Halloween? In Celtic culture witches were supernatural female healers. This is why Witch is derived from Wicca, which means “wise one”.
• Halloween Bat
Bat Halloween symbols can be found all over the background of holiday decorations. The Halloween bat dates all the way back to the roots of Halloween, during the festivals of Samhain.
The sacred bonfires burned at Samhian would attract many bugs and flying insects which caused bats to gather at each festival. Since bats are nocturnal and eat insects, they became closely linked to the holiday.
The Halloween bat is also associated with vampires. When you see a Halloween bat, it’s extra spooky because you never know wether it will transform into an undead vampire.
Another factor that gives bats the edge as a Halloween symbol is that there are three species of real life vampire bats that feed solely on blood. The vampire bat can quietly drink the blood of animals or even a person for up to half an hour at a time. Yuck!
• Ghost Symbol
Ghosts have always been a symbol of Halloween. Even during the festival of Samhain, the Celtic people believed ghosts were nearby because the veil between the living and dead was at its thinnest.
It’s believed that the spirits of the dead can walk among the living on Halloween night, making the ghost symbol fitting for this spooky holiday. It’s also thought that ghosts will visit their past loved ones and old homes on Halloween night.
• Halloween Cat
Of all the Halloween symbols, the black cat has definitely had to pay a price and earn their place in the festivities. Beginning at the time of Samhain, black cat symbolism led to many cats being burned alive.
Druids believed that evil humans could turn themselves into cats, which led the druids to lock the cats in cages and throw them into the sacred fires. Being a Halloween cat during the festival of Samhain was nothing to celebrate.
Later on in history, many believed that witches could turn into cats and black cats became the symbol for a witch’s familiar. Once again during the Witch Trials cats were killed along with the accused witches for being evil.
Interestingly enough, black cat symbolism is very different in many other countries where they are seen as good luck.
• Skeleton Halloween Symbols
Skeletons are striking Halloween symbols because they are a stark reminder of death. Skeletons remind us that Halloween has always been a holiday about the dead.
For some, it’s believed that on Halloween night the spirits of the dead can walk the earth.
Another reason skeletons are great Halloween symbols is because the visual of skeleton costumes, with white bones on a black background, looks good on TV and in movies.
Skeletons have become such popular Halloween symbols that you can now get fun skeleton dogs, birds, cats, and other animals as decorations.
• Skull Symbol
Skulls as Halloween symbols can be found together or separate from skeletons. The skull symbol can mean death or danger. Like the skeleton, it is a reminder of human mortality and the short time we have to live.
Skulls are fun Halloween symbols, but they also remind us that we will eventually end up in the earth alone.
The children in our school have learned the culture and traditions of the language we are learning in a creative way.
