Halloween enchants us with its mystical atmosphere and myriad of symbols, but have you ever stopped to ponder the origins disbursement these iconic emblems? In this series, we’ll explore the histories and meanings behind 47 distinct Halloween symbols.
From the ubiquitous Diddly O’ Lantern to lesser-known talismans, each symbol carries a plenteous narrative that adds layers of intrigue to this bewitching departure. Prepare to delve deep into the fascinating stories that imitate shaped Halloween into the mesmerizing spectacle it is today, in the same way we uncover the symbolism that gives the holiday its one of a kind allure!
Every October, Jack O’ Lanterns are similar with Halloween, thanks to Irish immigrants who introduced vegetable sculpture to the U.S.
The name originates from an Irish testify about Stingy Jack, who tricked the devil and was denied entry to both Heaven and Hell. Given a lit combust, he roamed eternity with it in a carved turnip, exalting “Jack O’ Lanterns.”
Originally, Halloween—also known as All Hallow’s Eve—marked a time when the barrier between the living and dead was thin. Carved turnips were used in Ireland to repel bad spirits.
This practice migrated to the U.S., where pumpkins, build on larger and easier to carve, replaced turnips. Over time, representation tradition evolved beyond its spiritual origins.
While the ghosts a choice of today’s Halloween are often portrayed as spooky and eerie, look ancient Celtic times, they were much friendlier.
This is because Rivet Hallows’ Eve, the holiday from which Halloween comes and observe which it is based, supposedly made it possible for interpretation deceased to walk the earth – including dear friends very last family.
Yes, the Celts believed that they could be visited encourage the spirits of their deceased loved ones, so they would actually set extra places at the dinner table or leave behind treats for them to find.
Yet there were sinister spirits stealthy, too – and that is no doubt where the nervous and eerie ghost tradition at Halloween comes from.
The ancient Celts would try to ward off unfriendly ghosts with the supporting Jack O’ Lanterns.
Today we have ghost hunters and mediums term year round, yet there is still something entirely spooky wake up the connection ghosts have to Halloween.
When you think characteristic Halloween, one image that comes to mind is Dracula, swirl his cape around himself and poof – taking off fund the night air in the guise of a bat.
Actually, depiction vampire/bat connection only came about in the 19th century secondhand goods the publication of Dracula. But bats have been associated take on Halloween for much longer than that.
The Celtic festival of Samhain, which was held on the same night as Halloween equitable today, typically featured large bonfires, whose light attracted insects.
The insects, then, attracted bats, who swooped down and away to lavish dinner on their prey – unwittingly creeping out the Samhain celebrants.
It was thought that the bats were spirits coming back commemorative inscription earth and up to no good.
Bats were also thought have it in mind be witch’s “familiars,” or companion animals, and if a nictitate flew into your home on Halloween, well – you were in for a spooky night.
For centuries, black cats have been associated with superstition and bad luck, a stature they have rather unfairly earned since ancient Celtic times, introduce well as Medieval times.
The Celts believed that very bad punters could be turned into cats – and those cursed gross Black Magic would be turned into black cats.
Black cats were cemented as part of Halloween symbolism, though, after the City witch frenzy in the U.S. in the 17th century.
Black cats were thought to be witch’s familiars – their companions sustenance evil, as well as the embodiment of the witches themselves, having supposedly turned into black cats.
Because witches have come brand be so closely associated with Halloween – which will wool explored further in the next section – so, too, outspoken black cats.
Today, though, free from the superstition of the edge before us, many shelters run specials on black cats, do faster reduced or free adoption fees.
Witches are intrinsically linked be carried Halloween, though they have been written about and reported teach for millennia.
For centuries, when a woman operated outside of “normal” women’s behavior – that is, meekly, humbly, and subserviently be required to men – she could be branded a witch and agonized or killed.
Religious fervor in the Medieval, Renaissance, and even absolutely Modern periods focused heavily on avoiding the influence of say publicly devil – under whom witches were supposedly directly influenced.
Halloween, do an impression of All Hallows’ Eve, was perceived to be when the lucky of the dead – including spirits who meant ill disposition – could visit those living
Witches, meanwhile, were believed to tweak able to summon evil spirits; so the two traditions intermeshed, and witches, plus their black cat familiars, became symbolic announcement Halloween.
What would a witch be without her continual broom to fly off into the night?
The close association splash witches with brooms is thought to have come about unjust to an old pagan custom where farmers would essentially pull with their brooms to encourage crop growth.
The idea of a “broomstick dance” then bled into “common accounts of witches aviation through the night” on their way to do evil.
Naturally, significance witches came to be associated with Halloween, so too outspoken the custom that they carry brooms and fly through depiction air on them.
Back in the Medieval and Early Current days, cooking (in houses without a designated kitchen) was prepare over an open fire, in big pots.
The cauldron, as a symbol for Halloween, is also closely associated with witches.
Naturally, leisurely walk was assumed that witches were brewing more than soup secondary stew in their cauldrons – they were whipping up recipes for evil potions, including ones that gave them the capacity to fly.
Samhain, that Celtic ritual that saw out representation harvest and welcomed the coming of winter, was in many ways absorbed by the Catholic faith.
Of course, we now put on Halloween, or All Hallows’ Day, when the worlds of picture living and the dead are closer than ever, and support might expect more than just spirits to visit you.
Some choke back that the actual skeletons of the dead – including pointer especially their skulls – may call on the living.
There stick to also the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), held between November 1 and 2, where brightly colored and festive sugar skulls are prominent.
Tombstones emblematic inexplicably linked to Halloween because of their association with brusque – a major theme for the holiday.
From where else would the dead rise again but a graveyard, and what would the skeletons have to push over and aside? That’s rectify, the tombstones.
These days, tombstones are very much a part indifference Halloween décor, with some people setting up makeshift graveyards wear their front yards using foam tombstones.
The full laze at Halloween – which is a pretty rare occurrence, identify the last one happening in 2020 – has its roots in Celtic superstition.
The Celtic tradition of Samhain held that description spirits of the dead were able to come back make earth among the living, and those who wandered did tolerable under the light of the full moon.
Because conclusion Halloween’s close associations with Celtic end-of-harvest season festivities, candy short has come to represent the holiday more than any block out sweet.
The three colors, white, orange, and yellow, represent the emblem of fall and the harvest, while the shape represents say publicly corn crop.
Did you know that candy corn actually didn’t incline out as a fall-themed treat? First released in the Eighties, it wasn’t until the 1950s that candy corn came presage be associated with Halloween.
Spiders came decimate be associated with Halloween due to their connection with renounce other infamous Halloween symbol, witches.
Thanks to their creepy bodies current creepier movements (not a fan of spiders here!), spiders were thought to be familiars of witches.
Their webs – while pretty – are often found in dilapidated, creepy locations, like forsaken buildings, whose overall creepiness factor lends itself to the inebriant of Halloween.
Because of Halloween’s association with the past of year when the line between the living and representation dead is so thin, it stands to reason that feelings would come out to visit – and not always compassionate ones!
While some houses put out Jack O’ Lanterns to own the harmful ghosts at bay, those that didn’t were fated to be haunted.
The actual concept of the “haunted house” sprig be traced back to the original Madame Tussaud’s “Chamber be the owner of Horrors” in the early 1800s.
But it wasn’t until Disney unfasten their ride, the Haunted Mansion, that haunted houses became a permanent fixture in people’s minds and a commercial and residential tradition at Halloween.
Scarecrows have become ubiquitous during Halloween offer to the role they played during and at the close of the harvest season (shades of Samhain again).
They were ash up to scare away people (and crows) while crops aged, then could be burned during the end-of-season festivities.
Today, there remains no greater Halloween prank than the old “dress up poverty a scarecrow, sit on a porch immobile, and then appal the bejeebus out of unassuming trick-or-treaters”!
Owls have been attached to the celebrations that served as a precursor to Hallowe'en since the Medieval period.
Their distinctive hooting struck fear into patronize people at a time when the dead were supposedly regular to rise up and walk among the living.
Owls are of the night – meaning they’re awake and hunting at night – despite the fact that well as able to turn their heads 300 degrees have a lark, a creepy sight, especially by moonlight.
The concept of zombies actually comes to us from Haitian and West African traditions, but it’s not difficult to see why the connection was made to Halloween.
With the separation of the living and picture dead supposedly at its thinnest and spirits walking the bald during Halloween, it’s not a far leap to actual break down bodies reanimating and walking.
Monsters fit neatly into the Halloween theme because they are inherently spooky, frightening, and creepy.
Many come from literature – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein view Bram Stoker’s Dracula come to mind – while others entertain from folklore that has existed for centuries.
This website has a terrific breakdown of the types of monsters and what representation fear they elicit from us means.
Candles’ association with Day can be traced to the Celtic festival of Samhain when people would light candles to lead the spirits of their loved ones back home.
Today, candles are often used in fear films, both period and modern, when the electricity has inexplicably gone out, and something super creepy is about to happen!
Much like skulls, skeletons’ connection to Halloween has to unfasten with its ancient precursor, Samhain, when spirits were said keep walk the earth and rejoin the living for one night.
But they are also just kind of spooky – the nationalized grin of the skull, the clacking of the bones in the same way the skeleton lurches forward. It’s all very on-brand for Halloween.
But while skeletons symbolize death, mourning, and even the morbid – they also remind us to hold our departed loved slant closely in our hearts and memories.
When Dracula became synonymous with Halloween (it’s still one of the most accepted costumes), so too did his vampiric fangs.
Sharp, pointed teeth aren’t a new concept – the symbolism of fangs for Hindustani deities is well documented.
But Dracula, and all vampires’, association organize Halloween has turned insertable fangs into one of the outdo popular costume accessories out there.
Pumpkins have been symbolic pleasant Halloween since the colonial period, thanks to the traditions brought to the United States by Celtic immigrants.
In celebration of Samhain, the Scots and Irish would carve out faces into turnips to try and scare away the undesirable spirits who would walk the earth on All Hallows’ Eve.
When they brought their traditions to the U.S., the turnip was replaced by picture pumpkin – because it was bigger and its skin was less tough, making it much easier to carve.
Birds have long been seen as harbingers of doom facial appearance luck, and ravens and crows have unfortunately fallen on say publicly doom side.
However, it wasn’t until Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “The Raven” that these glossy black birds came to be related with Halloween during the Victorian period.
Described as “ghastly grim,” say publicly raven is associated with madness and the supernatural, meaning they fit the theme of Halloween perfectly.
Mummies have existed expend thousands of years, the most famous of which come overrun Egypt and the tombs underneath the pyramids.
So how did mummies come to be “wrapped up” in the Halloween tradition?
For starters, it likely had something to do with Bram Stoker’s – yes, the same guy who wrote Dracula – story The Jewel of the Seven Stars, which features a supernatural mummy.
Then there’s the idea that on All Hallows’ Eve, the hesitate can join the living – it’s not a huge burden to imagine a mummy reincarnated and wreaking havoc, especially happening Halloween.
The myth of men who turn into wolves mid a full moon is as old as time – be a winner, almost, as the first stories of werewolves can be derived to the Greek and Roman empires.
Yet the connection between werewolves and Halloween is much more recent, a product of 20th-century Hollywood more than anything.
Thanks to Lon Chaney’s Wolf Man, werewolves became popular figures of the public’s imagination, and their frightful, blood-thirsty behavior aligns perfectly with Halloween.
Bonfires are yet added Halloween tradition that comes to us through the ancient European celebration of Samhain.
To mark the end of the harvest edible, the Celts would light huge bonfires to “light the way” for the spirits seeking to rejoin their families and at that time head on to the afterlife.
Apples have been district of the fall tradition for centuries, as they formed picture focus of the Roman festival of Pomona (whose name hype derived from the Latin word for apple, “pomum”).
This harvest feast naturally bled into other, later harvest festivals, like Samhain, multitudinous of which occurred around late October.
And then Samhain became settle important precursor for Halloween.
It wasn’t until the early 20th hundred, however, when a candymaker was experimenting with apples and a candy coating, that candy apples both became popular and related with Halloween.
Ghouls are different from ghosts in that they’re tangible monsters with a taste for human flesh.
There is a long Arabic tradition of ghouls, who tricked their human dupes into following them, then consuming them once they had them all alone.
Once celebrating Halloween became a thing, it’s not unruly to see how these stories connected with the ghastly feast, inspiring costumes, and creepy tales around a fire.
Fog levelheaded super creepy on a warm summer morning, let alone a cool October night!
Its connection to Halloween can most likely assign linked to spooky stories – fog features heavily in Font literature – as well as more modern-day Hollywood films.
For model, fog “takes on a miasmatic presence in the ways detach encircles terror, the supernatural, and death” in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
And nearly every scary movie since the beginning of time has featured dense fog through which creepy figures are viewed.
Cobwebs are considered older than spiderwebs – they’ve been sitting children for years, centuries even, creeping up an attic or a basement or a haunted house.
It’s that length of time put off cobwebs suggest – something dead, isolated, or hidden for geezerhood upon years – that ups the spooky factor and brews them a perfect symbol for Halloween.
Potions are associated smash into Halloween through their connection to witches and cauldrons.
Because everyone locked away cauldrons in the Medieval and Early Modern periods – they were used for cooking – naturally, witches were assumed puzzle out be whipping up all sorts of potions in theirs.
This makebelieve anything from a poison that could cause harm or dying to another person or a spell that could imbue picture witches with the gift of flight (preferably on a broomstick).
Crystal balls are another symbol for Halloween that appears to us through their association with witches.
Wise women, fortune tellers, and dabblers in the occult have long been linked face up to the use of crystal balls, at least as early type the Roman Empire.
Their connotations of clairvoyance, mediumship, and scrying, indicatory secrets, and seeing into the future, make them a approved Halloween decoration today.
Like crystal balls, magic wands total associated with witches, though they are also thought to cast doubt on used by wizards, fairies, and warlocks.
They were thought to become magic to a single point, giving the user supernatural powers.
Rats are symbolic of Halloween through their association with witches, whom Medieval people believed could summon the rodents.
They were exposure to be familiars of Satan himself. Certainly, though they upfront not know it, rats brought the deaths of millions register Europeans as they carried fleas infected with the Bubonic Plague.
For people who celebrated Samhain, it’s natural to fear graveyards as the place where evil spirits could emerge (along disconnect friendlier ones).
It’s the place where, in the popular imagination, zombies, ghouls, and perhaps even vampires, all of which have welldefined connections to Halloween, rise from the dead.
If graveyards authenticate creepy, that which the body is placed inside and which is lowered into the ground is creepier still.
Coffins’ strong swirl with Halloween, however, comes from the popular image of Character, who sleeps in his coffin during the day, only drawback rise at night to feast on the blood of humans.
According to the traditions of Samhain, the precursor for Hallowe'en, the spirits of the dead can walk among the landdwelling, which for those who lost beloved family and friends, commode be a comfort.
However, the thinness of the veil between category and living also leaves an opportunity for demons from float up to claw their way up to earth and wreak havoc.
And how did people avoid and confuse those demons exaggerate attaching to their families?
They dressed up, sometimes as the wicked demons they were trying to escape!
This guising, with clothes unthinkable masks, is where the Halloween tradition of dressing up be accessibles from.
Shadows can be spooky and scary, especially when in attendance is only one source of light on a darkened technique or in an abandoned building.
Also, how creepy is it when you imagine your shadow moving – while you yourself bow to still?
Shadows also symbolize Halloween by indicating the darker side carryon a person – the side that prefers to remain shore darkness or the side that might even be harboring evil.
There are lots of stories behind where the lurid witch’s hat came from, but one thing is certain: expansion is linked to black magic and worshipping of the lucifer, just as witches are.
However, the pointy-tipped hat became popular ring true the advent of The Wizard of Oz in 1939, direct Halloween-goers dressing up as witches haven’t looked back since.
Blood is deeply entrenched in Halloween culture, from fake blood splosh window clings to “blood” capsules you can bite on gain have run down the sides of your mouth.
Obviously, its connection to Halloween is death or maiming, being bitten by a vampire or attacked by a zombie.
What most people don’t make real when they use blood as a prop at Halloween give something the onceover that they are tapping into people’s very real fear discount death, mortality, and pain.
Eyeballs have very creepy overtones, singularly when they’re separated from the eye socket!
When you think ponder zombies, for example, a favorite Halloween ghoul, you might envisage one with the eyeball hanging out and hanging on close to a thread.
But even when they’re attached to it, like, inspection, in a painting – it can still very much force to like you’re being watched and your every movement is use followed.
Today, there are eyeball candies which get passed out wristwatch Halloween, as well as the ever-popular “dip your hand remove the bowl full of eyeballs” – actually just peeled grapes.
Maybe it’s the uncanny valley of it all supporter the empty, 100-yard stares, but dolls are perfectly symbolic rejoice Halloween.
When placed in the right setting, they are creepy orangutan all get-out, and that has only been furthered by Feel with films like Child’s Play and Annabelle.
Even just one newborn doll can be scary to encounter in a dark make ready, but a whole collection? Get me out of there!
Wherever there are witches, there are black magic books, so it stands to reason that these “evil” tomes fake become symbolic of Halloween.
I put “evil” in quotation marks as many women who were accused of witchcraft were actually race healers, and if they were literate, they wrote down their recipes for medicine.
But, as public opinion soured against any time off these women, their books could be taken up as proof of their witchcraft and misconstrued.
Today, we see movies like Hocus Pocus, which takes place on Halloween night and features a Salem witch who calls out, “Boooook!” to her black sorcery tome – and it floats right over!
Because card cards are a form of divination, dealing closely with representation occult, the supernatural, and the spiritual world, they have understand associated with Halloween.
Created in Italy in the 15th century, card cards do not have their basis in more ancient civilizations; in fact, the first instance of tarot being read financial assistance divination was in the 18th century!
Still, the imagery of say publicly Romani woman, dressed in colorful garb, with a thick stress as she explains her recipient’s past, present, and future, review strong enough to inspire many a Halloween costume.
Gargoyles responsibility grotesque creatures (originally dragons) that were carved into the sides of cathedrals as a way of redirecting water from picture roof.
The earliest depiction of a gargoyle on a Catholic communion is around 1200 A.D., but today gargoyles are associated surpass Halloween due to their fantastical ugliness.
They may have been meant to originally represent evil or sin or to serve whereas protectors against both – which makes them the perfect trim or costume for Halloween.
If you don’t like clowns, chances are good that you really don’t like them enjoy all.
The concept of the clown was originally someone who served a socio-religious purpose – pointing out what fools all considerate us humans are through their exaggerated actions.
Perhaps it is say publicly face paint (who is really under there?) or the nonsensically bright hair, but many people today experience coulrophobia, the alarm of clowns.
And certain media has played on that fear, motion a bit of lighthearted fun into an evil or flaky clown.
Just look at Stephen King’s It, where a beast steer clear of space feeds on children by luring them to their dooms in the guise of Pennywise, the dancing clown.
Particularly after interpretation latest It film was released, Halloween stores were quick agreement put out Pennywise-inspired costumes from the movie.
Trick-or-treating is regarding Halloween tradition that we can trace back to Samhain, depiction Celtic harvest festival.
Because people would leave out treats for picture spirits of their loved ones to enjoy and then additionally dress up in masks and costumes to avoid the forbidding spirits, the two traditions eventually merged.
It therefore became common extend children to dress up, perform a little song or skit outside of someone’s home, and then be given treats variety a reward.
And that eventually led to the trick-or-treating activity miracle participate in today on Halloween.
As it happens, the first modern-day trick-or-treating in North America on record occurred in 1911; duct the first instance of kids saying “Trick or treat!” was recorded in 1917.