Lots of people ask, why is Halloween a scary time of year? Many people reply with the lazy answer “Because it’s supposed to be!” or because of the weather, or because of commercials – or perhaps because of their parents’ generational traditions, but really, the magic of Halloween is in the DNA of America, tracing back to the Celtic heartlands of Gaul.
This is where the ancient pagan festival/celebration/observation of Samhain started in the world, and from there it spread throughout Europe and all across the world as Hallows Eve or Halloween. It was considered to be the Celtic New Year.
Ancient Gaul/The North
Gaul is a pretty scary place to imagine, many people think “The North” in Game Of Thrones was inspired by Julius Caeser’s depiction of Gaul and Gaulish men (Modern day France/Britain/Belgium). It wasn’t a joint state like modern-day America or Rome of its day, it was a loose confederation of states that would ally and war with each other constantly, they are some of the original “Vikings” or ‘Celts'(900 years after the Gauls give or take) some people call them, ‘Brythons’, many many things, but Gauls works quite well I think.
The Gauls practiced the magic of the land and believed in the gods of the land. They may have had their own pantheon of Gods, but we do not have the direct knowledge of Old Gallic passed down to us, only tales. We do know the Gauls neighbors and descendants worshipped the gods Thor & Odin and sacrificed their own tribe’s members (who would go willingly) to have a favorable battle.
So, to recap, we have an ancient land, where it’s common practice sacrificing your friend because you think you can kill people better tomorrow, barbarian White Walker land, that fits pretty well with the idea of Halloween, now let’s add the idea that they were REALLY obsessed with Death.
Why is Halloween Scary? Restless Spirits.
They loved combat and believed upon death in combat they would be reincarnated into more combat, ad infinitum, but what scared them is restless spirits wandering the moors and marshes, Ghasts or as we call them today, Ghosts. These are restless spirits who couldn’t escape this world by way of peace or by way of battle, they have unfinished business on this earth, glitches in the matrix, so to speak.
Now, the only thing that scares these people who sacrifice their brother to have a better duel, is the concept of people being unable to die, stuck in a purgatory state, a Ghost. The ghosts are of course angry and vengeful at people who are alive, mostly restless souls who probably had a very hard life and or unfinished business in life, they believed their souls roamed on the open planes at night, and on Halloween, they could transcend into our world.
The Gauls thought it better to just honor these spirits, and try to trick them, to make the spirits think they were as miserable as they were, so they would dress up in miserable costumes to try to fool the evil spirits into thinking they themselves were an evil spirit.
Conclusion – What to take from this?
You can see how this becomes like Halloween very quickly, with things getting quite confusing if everyone’s dressed up how are you supposed to know where the REAL spirits are?
This is why Halloween is scary, most everyone’s ancestors, or someone you know ancestors, followed these haunting traditions of literally pretending to be some sort of haunted, demented spirit or soul in ancient France and Britain, so it’s in our culture to be frightened and entertained simultaneously by such things.