Studying history may give us a glimpse of the true meaning of Halloween. That glimpse would reveal how detached our current celebration is from its origin.

While it’s true that wearing masks, carving jack-o’-lanterns, bobbing for apples and even trick-or-treating all have their place in history, participating in a tradition without knowing the historical and cultural gravity of it seems senseless. Today, American society is caught up in the horror and gore of Halloween. Hollywood and companies selling various merchandise profit from perpetuating misconceptions of an ancient celebration.

Halloween dates back 2000 years to Samhain (sow-en), the ancient Celtic New Year. Samhain translates to “the end of summer,” occurring near the end of October. The Celts believed spirits of the dead could travel among the living during Samhain because the world of the living was closest to the world of the dead at this time, according to the History Channel’s Web site, www.history.com. Druids, or Celtic priests, thought that these otherworldly spirits made it easier to predict the future. Prophecies were a source of comfort for the Celts, because their well-being depended on the erratic natural world.

Our modern day society doesn’t depend on prophecies, but we do dress in outlandish costumes. Historians believe that the Celts again originated this practice. Celts would dress up in ghoulish outfits, or wear animal masks, made from actual animal flesh, while parading spirits out of town. Some historians additionally believe that the Celts may have gone door to door collecting food to offer their gods, a possible link to modern day trick or treating, according to www.howstuffworks.com. Of course, children today dress in marketable costumes and go door-to-door collecting candy, oblivious to the origin of this practice.

It seems as though the majority of Americans celebrate holidays mindlessly, unaware of historical significance. I don’t expect anyone to imitate the original pagan version of Halloween. Instead, I argue that discovering the original intentions of celebration will make your festivities less mechanical and more enriching.

Although there are still traces of the original festival in American society, you may not realize it. The animalistic revelry, spontaneous mischief and primal display of bodily expression enjoyed on Samhain is but a lingering and isolated practice in today’s celebration of Halloween. Alvin Boyd Kuhn argues in his book “Halloween: A Festival of Lost Meanings,” that soul and body or god and animal are the two components of man. He argues further that the soul of man is god-like and is masquerading in the disguise of a beast and that Halloween is the annual celebration of our animal flesh.

But as Christianity spread, the church sought to do away with conflicting religions and contrasting ways of life.

In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV declared November first as All Saints Day. It’s generally believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic celebration of the dead with a church-sanctioned holiday. Arguably, the church wanted to tame the original celebration of the supernatural as well as convert potential devotees. The church, for obvious reasons, didn’t agree with animalistic revelry.

In light of what Halloween has become, the church has been considerably successful. Hollywood has now taken over where Christianity left off, turning Halloween into a horror- and gore-fest. Sadly, the true meanings of Halloween have been lost amid the sterilization conducted by Christianity and the mass marketing undertaken by profit-hungry companies.