Halloween and All Saints Day in Sweden

Will there be a Halloween party this year? Carving pumpkins, knocking on doors and asking trick or treat? In Sweden, we haven’t celebrated Halloween like this for very long. This tradition came here from the USA, and only became popular during the last 20 years or so. What kind of a weird feast is this?

Dress up as a ghost and beg for sweets? To take this from the beginning, we need to go 2000 years back in time to Ireland, and nearby areas. The Celtic people living there then celebrated a holiday at this time of the year, when they believed that the dead, came back, as ghosts. To protect themselves from ghosts, people put out food, and other gifts on the front step. We think they also dressed up, so that the ghosts would believe that they too were ghosts.

Later, when Christianity spread into the area, the Church let the people keep their tradition, but they changed its name. Now, it was to be called the night of saints, or Hallows’ Eve. And that later became Halloween. And this thing with celebrating saints and martyrs every autumn was soon a part of the tradition in all Christian countries. In the 9th century the Pope declared November first to be All Saints Day.

In the Swedish calendar, you’ll actually find two variants of this. “All Saints Day” was for a long time celebrated on the first of November, but today it has been moved to the Saturday which falls between October 31st and November 6th. And, this is bit odd: The first of November was instead named The-day-of-all-saints. So, in Sweden we have two feast days, with almost the same name, that both mean the same thing. And neither of them is celebrated with pumpkins or sweets. All Saints Day and the-day-of-all-saints are both celebrated in a low-key way in Sweden.

People might go to a church, or light a candle on the grave of a relative. But in the 1990s, Swedish children had had enough: “Why should kids in other countries get to eat sweets and dress up, and not us?” And the toy and sweet shops were not slow to seize an opportunity. Today, the modern American interpretation of Halloween has become a big thing in Sweden, especially among the young. And Halloween is All Saints Eve - the night before All Saints Day. It occurs on October 31, regardless of what day of the week it is.

Halloween then, was originally a pre Christian - pagan - feast. Then it became a Christian holiday. And today it’s a trick-or-treat, eating sweets and dressing up-party day.