"Trick or treat"
My granddaughter wanted to know why we actually celebrate Halloween. She had finished making her spooky cake, and together we looked for answers online. The more we researched, the more captivated I became by the subject myself.
When she returned that evening to her mom and dad’s apartment upstairs, I delved even deeper into the topic. Back when I was my granddaughter’s age, there was no Halloween. However, there was a similar tradition where we children would go from house to house and be rewarded with sweets, apples, and *Pfeffernüsse* (spiced cookies). Every year on St. Martin’s Day—November 10th—our songs would ring out through the streets, and our colorful lanterns would light up the night. I have always loved this East Frisian custom and could hardly wait for darkness to envelop the small town. Come back with me to the dark streets of East Friesland as they were then, and read my very personal childhood memory " Lantern Night "
Now, it was Halloween that had captivated my granddaughter. I had always assumed that Halloween had made its way to us from America, across the pond. Yet, its origins actually lie in Ireland, tracing back to the Celtic festival of Samhain. I found this background so fascinating that I even put together a page of my own about it.
Samhain, the Celtic winter celebration
According to the Celtic calendar, the year was divided into two halves. The dark season begins with Samhain (pronounced "Sow-en") and ends on May 1st. For this festival of the dead, the deceased were invited as guests of honor—an occasion marked by established rituals. Tradition holds that people would extinguish their hearth fires and gather at their tribe's ritual center.
There, they honored their gods with gifts and offerings. Their wishes and prayers were incorporated as the druid kindled the new fire. At the conclusion of the ceremony, everyone lit fuel from this flame to reignite their own hearth fires at home. The ashes from the bonfires were often scattered over the fields for protection. Irish emigrants likely brought this custom to America later on.