Halloween is the traditional English name for a festival found across northern Europe to mark the beginning of winter. It has many local names: in the British Isles alone it was known to Gaelic speakers as Samhain (summer’s rest), to the Welsh as Calan Gaeaf (winter’s opening), to the Anglo-Saxons as Blod-monath (blood month, from the autumn livestock slaughter), and to the Norse settlers as Vetrnaetr (the winter nights). It seems always to have had a profound double aspect.
On the one hand, it was a time of reunion, celebration, plenty, and the end of hard work. The crops were all gathered and processed, the fishing and trading fleets laid up, the livestock driven back from the summer pastures, and the fighting season over. The beer and cider were made, there was abundant fresh meat from the annual slaughter, and everybody was home: farmers, warriors, fishers, traders, pilgrims, and herders. It was a prime moment for enjoyment of profit and produce, comparing experiences, learning lessons, vaunting victories, and remaking community before settling into the long winter rest. Above all, it was a time for feasting, games, and festivity. In later and more stratified communities, the poorer members would visit the homes of the richer to entertain them with songs, plays, and dances, earning food and drink (and later money) for their own celebrations.
