10/30/2025
Has death disappeared from Halloween? The American celebration of Halloween has evolved over time, slowly shifting from celebrations honoring deceased ancestors to a night of cute costumes and trick-or-treating.
Halloween has its origins in Samhain, a Celtic Irish holiday that acknowledges seasonal change, specifically the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. This has reference to the seasonal changes in our lives - one from life to death.
As our celebration of Halloween has culturally shifted, writer Sarah Chavez notes that our view of death has also changed. “We used to take care of our dead in our homes - people used to die at home. We took care of our loved ones, dug their graves. We were there through the entire process. We have no idea what death looks like anymore.”
Today, many people die in hospitals or nursing homes. Anthropologist Anita Hannig states that “the responsibilities of death have been outsourced,” adding that hospitals and morticians allow ordinary people to avoid directly engaging with death. “When someone dies in a hospital, oftentimes the body will be whisked away almost immediately and family and friends won’t see it again until after it’s been embalmed.”
Hannig’s research also shows that memorial services are becoming less common. This is a concerning trend, as many believe that society has a moral responsibility to respect and honor its dead.
As we feel a change in the season this October, may we pause to remember our deceased loved ones and the impact they had on the world they left behind.
Source: The Washington Post, “How Death Disappeared from Halloween” by Vittoria Elliott and Kevin McDonald
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