YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → How Halloween Went From Bonfires To Billions - A History of Halloween - History You Should Know

How Halloween Went From Bonfires To Billions - A History of Halloween - History You Should Know — Transcript

by Reb Atadero · 2,822 words · 442 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00[snorts]
0:13>> The costumes, the pumpkins with scary
0:15faces, the candy, the horror movies, the
0:18cool breeze, the long weekend, and if
0:20you're Filipino like me, the Magandang
0:22Gabi Bayan Halloween special.
0:27Halloween is one of the most popular and
0:29enduring holidays in the whole world.
0:31It's cultural roots predate Christmas
0:33and Easter, and more than 2,000 years
0:36later, it's still here and more
0:38celebrated than ever. In pop culture, TV
0:41shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Modern
0:43Family, The Office, and a lot more have
0:46dedicated whole episodes to it. But
0:49where does Halloween come from? Why is
0:51it dedicated to all things spooky? What
0:53do All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day
0:56have to do with it? What changes did it
0:58go through to become what it is today?
1:00And most importantly, what's your best
1:02Halloween costume of all time? Share it
1:04in the comments. Mine, when I dressed up
1:06as Kakashi and my wife dressed up as
1:08Naruto. Today on History You Should
1:10Know, this is the story of Halloween.
1:15>> [music]
1:24>> Hello and welcome. My name is Reb
1:26Atadero, host and creator of History You
1:29Should Know. Happy Halloween. I hope
1:31you're having a great time. If you're
1:33new here, the subscribe button is right
1:35there, and the least spooky thing you
1:37can do is to click it. I am not tricking
1:39you. And if you're already subscribed,
1:41well, you're definitely a treat. Argh,
1:44cha! As a non-historian, but a history
1:47enthusiast, I can honestly say whenever
1:49I share stories from the past, I see
1:51dead people. So, sit back, relax, and
1:54enjoy the video
1:57in all let's glory.
2:04>> [music]
2:07>> We begin by quoting the lyrics of the
2:09ultimate party-ending song after 1998,
2:13Closing Time. Every new beginning comes
2:16from some other beginnings' end. Those
2:19wise words apply to so many things in
2:21life, and Halloween is no exception.
2:24Halloween traces its roots all the way
2:26back to a centuries-old Celtic festival
2:29called Samhain. Yes, it's spelled like
2:32that and pronounced Samhain, kind of
2:34like how these names are pronounced,
2:35Saoirse, Niamh, and Siobhan. The Celtic
2:38calendar divided the year into two
2:40halves, the light and the dark. The
2:43light half began with the start of
2:45summer, or what is called Beltane, and
2:47the dark half began with Samhain, which
2:49was on the last day of October and first
2:52day of November. In the old Irish
2:54language, Samhain means summer's end.
2:57While Beltane represented sunny days and
2:59planting, Samhain was a time for
3:02harvesting crops and gathering livestock
3:04to prepare for the long winter ahead.
3:07But, it wasn't just the harsh weather
3:10the Celts were worried about. The
3:12celebration was centered around
3:13cleansing, renewal, and protection.
3:16Large fires were lit in order to cleanse
3:19communities and as a means of physical
3:22and spiritual renewal. And most
3:24importantly, for that particular time of
3:26the year, protection. It was believed
3:28that on Samhain, the veil between the
3:31world of the living and the realm of the
3:33spirits was at its thinnest. While they
3:36believed it was a time when their dead
3:38ancestors crossed over to the land of
3:41the living, they also believed other,
3:43less friendly spirits could use it to
3:46cross over. So, druids performed rites
3:49to calm malicious spirits. And to
3:51protect their homes from wandering
3:52spirits, villagers took embers from the
3:55communal fire to light their own fires
3:58at home. To keep those gigantic fires
4:00lit and to add to its spiritual
4:03significance, villagers added crops and
4:05the bones of slaughtered animals to the
4:08flames as a kind of offering. This
4:11bonfire is where we get the word
4:13bonfire. If a malicious spirit were to
4:15cross over, there's no telling what they
4:18would do. They could cause a bad harvest
4:21or bring all kinds of misfortune on the
4:23living. They also believed that
4:25mischievous fairies would kidnap
4:27travelers and lead them astray. So, to
4:29prevent that, people wore animal heads
4:32and skins to disguise themselves.
4:35Villagers also left out food to calm the
4:38wandering ghosts. For centuries, the
4:40Celts observed Samhain in this fashion.
4:43But, when an empire landed on the shores
4:45of what is now Britain, the festival
4:48started to evolve. By 43 CE, the Roman
4:51Empire had conquered most of the Celtic
4:53territory. Over the next 400 years, the
4:56Romans introduced all kinds of
4:58innovations and cultural influences on
5:00the island of Britannia. Road networks,
5:03the Roman baths, education, and
5:05Hadrian's Wall, to name a few.
5:07Eventually, Roman traditions began to
5:09bleed into Celtic customs. The Romans
5:12brought with them the concept of
5:13Feralia, a time dedicated to honoring
5:16the dead. Despite being observed in
5:17February, its core theme mirrored
5:20Samhain. But, the most dramatic shift to
5:22Halloween, care of the Romans, came in
5:24the form of religion.
5:30>> [music]
5:35>> As merchants and travelers passed
5:37through Britain over the centuries, they
5:39brought a new, but very illegal religion
5:42with them called Christianity.
5:44Worshipers were forced to hide
5:46practicing their faith. But, when the
5:48Roman Emperor Constantine legalized
5:51Christianity in 313 CE, the game
5:54completely changed. And eventually, it
5:56became the state religion of the empire.
5:59The Christian faith took a firm hold in
6:01Britain despite the fall of the Roman
6:03Empire a century later. Oceans rose,
6:07empires fell, but the church became more
6:11and more powerful.
6:13By the 800s, many Celts had converted to
6:16Christianity. But the medieval Christian
6:18church didn't stop at converting people.
6:21On May 13th, 609 CE, Pope Boniface the
6:24Fourth converted the Pantheon in Rome
6:27from a place to honor the gods into a
6:29Christian church. He moved the remains
6:32of specific martyrs or saints to be
6:34buried inside the church as a powerful
6:37symbol of Christianity's triumph over
6:40the pagan gods. He then dedicated the
6:42structure to the Virgin Mary and all the
6:44saints. And to commemorate the momentous
6:46occasion, he created a new sacred
6:49holiday to be observed every year on May
6:5213th, All Saints' Day. Aside from
6:54converting buildings, another way the
6:56church deeply ingrained itself in
6:58different cultures was to convert
7:00important festivals. In the case of
7:02Samhain, they saw how important it was
7:05to the Celts and how they weren't going
7:07to give it up so easily. So rather than
7:09banning the festival, they thought they
7:12could just rebrand the celebration. A
7:15little over a century later, Pope
7:17Gregory the Third moved All Saints' Day
7:19to November 1st. There's no concrete
7:22evidence to suggest that the move was to
7:23deliberately turn Samhain into a
7:26completely Christian holiday, but in the
7:28end, that's exactly what happened. In
7:31Middle English, the word hallow meant
7:33holy. For example, hallowed be thy name.
7:36So All Saints' Day, the day to celebrate
7:38holy people, was called All Hallows'
7:41Day. The All Saints' Day mass was also
7:43called All Hallow's mass. Therefore, the
7:46night before, October 31st, was All
7:49Hallows' Eve. Over time, this was
7:51shortened to Halloween. Several decades
7:54later, another holiday designed to
7:56commemorate the faithful departed,
7:58called All Souls' Day, was scheduled on
8:01November 2nd. But despite the Christian
8:03influence, Halloween retained its
8:05ancient connection to spirits and the
8:07dead. The custom didn't disappear, and
8:10instead, it transformed. Instead of
8:12leaving out food for wandering spirits,
8:14the town's poor children went around
8:17knocking on doors to offer prayers for a
8:19family's dead relatives, and in return,
8:22the families gave them a baked good
8:24called soul cakes. This practice was
8:27called souling, and eventually, a new
8:29practice called guising took shape.
8:31Instead of prayers, disguised children
8:34went around offering to tell a joke, or
8:37to sing a song, or to recite a poem in
8:39exchange for money or food. But on its
8:42way to become what it is today,
8:43Halloween had to endure the fracturing
8:46of an entire religion.
8:56All right. So far, Halloween survived
8:58its transformation from an ancient fire
9:00festival. No, not that one. To the
9:02opening act of a three-day Christian
9:04holiday. But when a certain priest named
9:07Martin Luther objected to the concept
9:09that heaven was locked behind a paywall
9:11of prayers in exchange for payment,
9:14Halloween was once again transformed.
9:16The Protestant Reformation rejected the
9:19idea of purgatory and indulgences. In
9:22their mind, anything that had to do with
9:24praying for the souls of the dead was
9:26unnecessary. So, when a particular king
9:29at the head of a Catholic country was
9:32denied permission by the Pope to divorce
9:34his wife who couldn't give him a son so
9:36he could marry his hot new mistress, he
9:39solved his problem by splitting from
9:40Rome, declaring himself as the supreme
9:43head of the Church of England, and
9:44converted his whole country to
9:47Protestantism. Yay! Henry VIII's here
9:51again. Suddenly, praying to Catholic
9:54saints was illegal. So was the practice
9:56of souling, and just like that, the
9:58three-day holy celebration was banned in
10:01England. Halloween was officially
10:03abolished. People really missed their
10:06autumn celebration of drinking and
10:08bonfires. But in the greatest of
10:11ironies, the person who would
10:13accidentally give back their celebration
10:15was a Catholic. In 1605, a group of
10:18Catholics were frustrated with their
10:20oppression at the hands of the
10:22Protestants. So, they came up with a
10:24plan to blow up the center of the
10:27English government, the Parliament, with
10:29King James I inside. But, on the night
10:31of November 5th, the plan failed when
10:33the man assigned to blow it up was
10:36caught. Guy Fawkes was eventually
10:37executed. And to commemorate the plan's
10:40failure, a Thanksgiving celebration
10:43marked with lighting bonfires and the
10:45burning of Guy Fawkes effigies was set
10:48on November 5th. It would eventually be
10:50known as Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire
10:53Night. So, people thought, "Hey, there
10:55may be no bonfires on October 31st, but
10:58there sure are on November 5th. So,
11:00let's just celebrate then." The shift
11:03moved the celebration away from praying
11:05for souls to a night of partying and
11:09drinking and mocking this guy. Instead
11:11of offering to pray for the dead, people
11:13asked for money by saying, "Penny for
11:16the guy." Now, if the elements are
11:18starting to sound familiar, it means
11:20we're getting close to our timeline.
11:21But, to get there, Halloween had to
11:23cross an ocean.
11:29>> [music]
11:33>> There was a group of Protestants who
11:35felt persecuted because the Church of
11:37England was not being Protestant enough,
11:40not pure enough. So, these Puritans
11:43chose to leave for the New World to
11:45start a new way of life. In the
11:47beginning, those strict Puritans banned
11:49all celebrations referring to Halloween.
11:52But, two centuries and a revolution
11:53later, the United States was born. Land
11:56of opportunity, land of the free with no
11:59kings and millions of slaves and no
12:01state religion. This new concept of
12:04life, liberty, and the pursuit of
12:06happiness, we fought for these ideas, we
12:08shouldn't settle for less, enticed
12:10people to flock to the young nation.
12:12Fast forward to the 1840s when a potato
12:15famine hit Ireland that caused millions
12:18of deaths. As a result, millions of
12:20Irish citizens traveled to the United
12:22States in search of a better life. Much
12:24like the Romans who brought their
12:26culture to the Celts more than a
12:28thousand years earlier, the Catholic
12:30Irish immigrants carried with them
12:32customs that will rejuvenate Halloween
12:35once more in an entirely new home.
12:38Souling and guising were back. Playing
12:40pranks and telling ghost stories became
12:43more common. And a particular legend
12:45became so popular that it would
12:47eventually give Halloween its most
12:50iconic symbol, the legend of Stingy
12:53Jack. The story goes that Stingy Jack
12:55was not a very good man. He was
12:57constantly drinking and tricking people.
13:00But one day, the devil appeared before
13:02him. Jack knew his time was up and the
13:04devil was here to collect his soul. But
13:07before leaving, he asked the devil if he
13:10could have one last drink with him at a
13:12nearby tavern. The devil thought, "What
13:14the hell? Hey." So he agreed. But when
13:16it was time to settle the bill, Jack
13:19revealed that he didn't want to pay for
13:22his drink. That's why he was stingy. So
13:24he asked Satan to turn into a coin so
13:27that he could use that to pay for the
13:29drink. The devil, quite possibly
13:31exasperated with this dude, once again
13:34agreed. But instead of paying, Jack
13:37shoved the coin in his pocket which
13:40contained a crucifix which trapped Satan
13:43in his pocket. So Jack bargained with
13:46the devil, "I'll take you out of my
13:47pocket if you promise to give me a
13:49year." And Satan was like, "All right,
13:51see you next year then." The following
13:53year, the devil came back. But Jack
13:55asked if the devil could do him one last
13:58favor by climbing up a tree to get him a
14:01piece of fruit. And in an exact
14:03copy-paste scheme, Satan was once again
14:06trapped. This time, up in a tree because
14:09Jack carved a cross into the tree bark.
14:12Jack bargained once more, "I'll let you
14:14leave if you give me 10 more years, and
14:18when I die, don't claim my soul. Satan
14:21once again agreed, and Jack had
14:23successfully made a deal with the devil.
14:2610 years later, Jack died. So, when he
14:28made his way to the pearly gates, he was
14:30denied entrance on account of being
14:33terrible. But, Satan, already having
14:35been outsmarted twice by Jack, didn't
14:38want him in hell, either. So, the devil
14:40kept his promise, and he did not claim
14:43Jack's soul. Satan condemned him to
14:45wander in darkness forever with only a
14:48piece of burning coal to light his way.
14:51To carry his coal, Jack carved out a
14:53turnip and placed it inside. And stingy
14:56Jack has been roaming the Earth ever
14:58since with only his lantern at his side.
15:02So, on Halloween, to prevent a visit
15:04from Jack-o'-Lantern, people carved
15:06scary faces on turnips or large beets to
15:09scare him away. Holy crap, that's
15:12terrifying. When this tradition made its
15:14way across the ocean, the vegetable
15:16changed to the much larger and much
15:18oranger pumpkin. By the late 1800s,
15:22Halloween became less about superstition
15:24and more about community and house
15:27parties. To make it more wholesome for
15:29everyone, communities focused on games,
15:31eating food in season, and wearing less
15:34creepy costumes. Souling and guising
15:37eventually transformed into
15:39trick-or-treating. In the 1920s and
15:411930s, the tricks got a little too much
15:45with rising cases of vandalism and
15:47destruction of property thanks to
15:49frustrations during the Great
15:50Depression. But, thankfully, it all got
15:53much calmer by the 1950s. Halloween
15:57cemented itself as a time for fun and
15:59celebration with family and friends.
16:01But, even if it became less
16:03superstitious along the way, how did it
16:05become a holiday for all things creepy
16:09today?
16:10>> [music]
16:17>> The rise of television changed the world
16:19in so many ways, and Halloween was no
16:22exception. During the celebration, the
16:24baby boomers, instead of sharing ghost
16:26stories around the bonfire, gathered
16:29around the TV to watch them instead.
16:32Classic scary movies from Universal
16:34Pictures dominated the celebration.
16:37Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, but
16:39the major shift in pop culture came in
16:421978, when a young Jamie Lee Curtis had
16:46an entire generation of film goers
16:48screaming along as she ran away from a
16:50masked man with a knife. Michael Myers
16:53was out for blood, and he was going to
16:55get it on Halloween night. Halloween,
16:59directed by John Carpenter, firmly
17:01placed horror movies as an essential
17:03part of the holiday. Over the years,
17:05slasher flicks would gain immense
17:07popularity. Films like Friday the 13th,
17:10A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Child's
17:12Play. Today, pop culture continues to
17:14dominate Halloween and has gone beyond
17:17the realm of horror. When a new TV show
17:20or a hit movie comes out, people on the
17:22internet make predictions about
17:24Halloween costumes. Remember Squid Game?
17:26And the year when every single little
17:28girl dressed up as Ruby from K-Pop Demon
17:31Hunters? From the ancient Celtic
17:33tradition of Samhain to a holiday worth
17:36billions of dollars today, the journey
17:38of Halloween is complete. From its roots
17:40as a sacred celebration to a pagan
17:43holiday to a pumpkin spiced costume
17:46Halloween endured colonization,
17:48religious influence, and mass migration
17:51thanks to people who continued to
17:52celebrate, adapt, and evolve with the
17:55times. So, with that said, only one
17:58question remains. What's your costume
18:00this year? If you enjoyed this video,
18:02leave a like and maybe subscribe. If
18:04history is your jam, I'll be right here.
18:06You know where to find me. My name is
18:08Reb Atadero, and this has been History
18:10You Should Know. See you in the next
18:12video. Follow for more, and boom. Now we
18:15know.
18:19The foulest stench is in the air. The
18:21funk of 40,000
18:24years. And grizzly ghouls from every
18:27tomb are closing in to seal your doom.
18:31And though you fight to stay alive, your
18:34body starts to shiver. For no mere
18:38mortal can resist the evil of the
18:42thriller.
18:45>> [laughter]

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of How Halloween Went From Bonfires To Billions - A History of Halloween - History You Should Know by Reb Atadero, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 2,822 words across 442 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.