At Kifli, we love Halloween, so we want to clarify some facts about the holiday.

First, it's worth untangling that in Hungary, Halloween hasn't overshadowed or replaced other holidays, as is often heard in such malicious remarks. Halloween falls on October 31st, while on November 1st, we celebrate All Saints' Day (this is the day of remembrance for the blessed souls among Catholic Christians), and finally, on the 2nd, comes All Souls' Day, when we remember our deceased loved ones.

Where does Halloween originate from?

The origin of Halloween is the Celtic tradition of samhain, the summer farewell-winter welcoming tradition held on the evening before the Celtic New Year, during which the Celts danced in animal skins, predicted the future, and made sacrifices to their gods around the fire. It was believed that during this time, the boundary between the living and the dead blurred, and the spirits of the deceased returned. When the Romans conquered their empire, their death-related celebrations (Feralia in honor of the dead and Pomona the fruit goddess's day) overlapped with samhain.

All Saints' Day was established and proclaimed by Pope Gregory III in the 8th century, and All Souls' Day was first celebrated as an independent holiday in the church in the 10th century.
The term Halloween itself was created when, in the Middle Ages, the night before All Saints' Day (known in Anglo-Saxon as All Hallows Day) was called All Hallows Eve, which eventually simplified to Halloween. By the end of the 19th century, this holiday had completely separated from religion and became a secular tradition similar to its current form.

Trick or treat!

Although it's a very cute tradition that on Halloween night, children go door-to-door with a bucket to collect as much chocolate and candy as possible, otherwise they resort to some symbolic mischief, unfortunately, it doesn't have a very cheerful precedent in history. It was spread by the starving people fleeing to America from the potato blight that caused the death of one million Irish in the 19th century, as they went from house to house begging for food, in exchange for praying for souls stuck in purgatory.

Why do we carve pumpkin lanterns?

Everyone immediately thinks of pumpkin carving in connection with Halloween, but it may not be widely known what led to this eerily fun custom. In English, the decorative pumpkin is called Jack O'Lantern, which originates from an Irish legend. The tale tells of a wicked and drunken man, Jack Oldfield, who managed to avoid going to hell by tricking the devil, but didn't anticipate that he wouldn't be accepted into heaven either. Therefore, the devil provided him with an eternal lantern by placing a coal in a hollowed-out turnip, and Jack has been wandering with its light ever since, searching for his final resting place. Over time, the more visually appealing and easier-to-carve pumpkin replaced the turnip in the folk tradition.