University of the Philippines - Manila

Halloween History

Submitted to

Prof. Bernard Karganilla

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for Kasaysayan 1

Submitted by:

ABELLANEDA, IVERSON JUREY D.

2019-08539

November 29, 2019

 Halloween: Beyond the Tricks and Treats

As someone who always dressed up for Halloween as a child, I never really

thought of that day as anything more than some stub in the calendar which meant a

free excuse for me to dress up and wear goofy make-up. Trick or treating was a late-

year staple of my childhood and I milked every waking Halloween hour to gather

candies I would soon eat in one sitting. Thus, hearing how Halloween came into being

in the Philippine context, I was surprised to know that there are many cultural and

historical nuances that interacted together to eventually amalgamate into the day we

now know as Halloween. Firstly, I never knew that Halloween has its roots deep within

cultural beliefs of gods of life and death. I never imagined that my yearly ritual of

dressing up as some fun character actually stemmed from people's conviction of life

after death. I found out that people used to bribe the god of death food so that he

would be kind in choosing which forms their loved ones would assume in the next life.

It also came as a shock to me that Halloween was designated by some olden

cultures as a day to pray for good harvest. This also extend the line of thought about

cultural beliefs that eventually shaped Halloween. What I already expected was

Halloween being brought in the Philippines by the Americans. The 1919 documents

prove that the Americans played a huge part in passing on this late October tradition to

our country due to their occupation. I already had a hunch that they were the bearers of

Halloween because the norms that surround Halloween felt very American in nature to

me. I discovered that even though Halloween exists in obscure nooks and crannies of

our country before, the mainstream media and the society did not talk about it as

extensively before 1990s. This signals that although Halloween is an old celebration, it
is fairly new in the Philippine setting and we have just started celebrating Halloween

openly less than 30 years ago.

I realized from Professor Karganila's explanation about the origin go Halloween

here in the Philippines that the holidays we know now are not merely days of fun and

celebration. They bear cultural nuances tied within the history of our country. It bears

signs of how culture is transmitted from one country to another through trade and

colonization. It also gives us a hint of Westernized our country currently is. The

Philippine idea of Halloween is not inherently good or bad. However, it offers us a

glimpse of the past we did not know we have.