A rite of passage

In agricultural societies, as in many traditions around the world, life is not separated from death. It is a very interesting and in so many ways a very healthy view of death, which westerners find so difficult. Most Americans are scared of death and don't even want to talk about aging.

The return of the deads

The  Celts believed  that when people died, they went to a land of eternal youth and  happiness  called Tir nan Og. They did not have the concept of heaven and hell that the Christian church later brought into the land. The dead were  sometimes believed to be dwelling with the  Fairy Folk, who  lived in the humerous mounds  or sidhe  (pron. "shee") that dotted the Irish and Scottish       countryside. 

Samhain was the  new year  to the Celts. This was the time when the "veil  between the worlds" was at its thinnest, and the living could  communicate with their beloved dead in  Tir nan Og. In addition to the fairies,  many humans were abroad  on this night, causing mischief. since  this  night belonged neither  to one year or the other, Celtic folk  believed  that chaos  reigned and  the people would engage in "horseplay and  practical jokes". This served also as a final outlet for high spirits before the gloom of winter set in.

A modern catharsis

Man is also is sometimes govern by his bad instincts, stealing, killing or doing whatever harm. One of the best ways, one that has worked for thousands of years, is to express them harmlessly by acting them out in pretense or in play. This recognition of the worst in us seems to lessen its power. The ancient Greeks called this catharsis.

Our worst selves must be recognized in order to be controlled. Now, more than ever, we need to fill our streets with ghosts and goblins, lurid skeletons and other horrifying incarnations of evil.

Symbols

The quintessential symbols of Halloween fall into three major categories. Symbols of death include graveyards, ghosts, skeletons, haunted houses. Symbols of evil and misfortune are witches, goblins, black cats. Symbols of harvest are pumpkins, scarecrows, corn shocks and candy corn.

The first two categories tap deep, irresolvable, pan-human dilemmas. Ways of dealing with and symbolizing death and evil are represented in some of the earliest archaeological remains of human ritual activity. One traditional means of facing the reality of death is to view it as a transition and to continue a relationship with the dead.