Why Is Halloween So Scary?

Canadian actress Mary Pickford lights a jack o’lantern

We love giving a scare at our horror-themed escape rooms, so it should come as no surprise that we’re big fans of Halloween. But why is it an international scarefest?

The origins of Halloween are somewhat foggy. Though often thought of as a North American holiday, its origins come from across the Atlantic, in Ireland and Scotland.

Most people agree that Halloween is a melding together of the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marks summer’s end, and of All Saints’ Day, a day celebrating Christian saints, which itself might have origins in the ancient Roman feast of the Lemuria—a rite to banish vengeful ghosts from your home.

Though they come from separate cultures, Samhain and All Saints’ Day have two important things in common: they both take place October 31/November 1, and they both mark a time of year when there’s a particularly strong connection between the dead and the living. Coincidence? Probably not. Let’s face it: the dead hang about at the end of October, which is something we just need to deal with.

When you’ve got some potentially vengeful spirits hanging about, what do you do? You disguise yourself so they don’t recognize you, of course.

Another practice brought to North America by Celtic Irish immigrants is mummering, or guising. Mummering, as any good Newfoundlander knows, is dressing up in a disguise—any old burlap sack used as a mask will do—then knocking on your neighbours’ doors and asking for food and booze. Though Newfoundlanders mummer at Christmastime, kids in Kingston, Ontario, began mummering on Halloween at least as early as 1911.

Now, we’ve got ourselves some ancient rituals, combined with lengthening autumn nights, a thin veil between the human and spirit worlds, and disguised people knocking on your door asking for treats and threatening tricks. Creepy enough yet?

We’d say so. But that scariness is far from a bad thing. Being afraid makes us feel more present and alive, and rituals that force us to confront ghosts and demons (whether they’re just costumed children or not) is a good way to do just that.

Halloween, the day when the human and spirit worlds are closest, just happens to be the most appropriate day to scare the bejeezus out of ourselves.

Book yourself a good Halloween fright at one of Krakit’s three horror-themed escape games here.